Your First Grown-up Thanksgiving

[AJs Human]

Mine was when I was 18, my first year "on my own." I decided to cook a turkey roast with potatoes, green beans, stuffing and pie. I lived in a tiny camp trailer behind my, then, fiance's parents' house. I didn't know anything about propane bottles and how long they would (or, in this case, wouldn't) last. The turkey roast was only about half done when the little oven started cooling off. I kept turning the heat up, but to no avail.
My fiance, David, came in about 45 minutes later to ask when dinner would be ready, only to find me sobbing at the table staring at the oven. After he reassured me he wasn't angry about dinner and calmed me down, he checked the oven, then went outside. He came back in giggling, which only set me off again. Again, he calmed me down and explained the empty five-gallon propane tank. He disconnected it and found a place to refill it.
Dinner that first year was two hours late, but with good memories just the same.

How did the first Thanksgiving you were in charge of go?

[tanza]

The first Thanksgiving that I was "in charge" was about 15yrs ago… as before then we always had Thanksgiving dinner at my sisters or when I lived back East at my ex-inlaws.. Well, I started by inviting just a few Basenji friends along with my Mother, sister, and my brother-in-law. Things got a "bit" out of control, because the number kept growing and growing, till there were 20 people coming... YIKES.. and me who never made a complete Thanksgiving dinner myself... Good thing that Ken Leighton also made a turkey, so we had two... It turned out great and we all had a great time... and how many green bean dishes can one group of people eat...ggg ... seems we had 5 that people brought...

[nobarkus]

First one was in 1989. My ex-wife and I had 30 people and cooked two big turkeys. One cooking in our oven and 1 in my neighbors oven. The wife was managing cooking everything else in our kitchen. I would go back and forth checking and basting the one in my neighbors (he let us use his oven as he and his wife were out of town). It all turned out great. My brother in-law helped me do the dishes which took me hours. We should of done paper plates.

[crystalncody]

I had 2 firsts. The first Thanksgiving I was in charge, I was about 16 years old and still living with my family. My mom was working out of state and unable to come home for the holiday, and my dad was working a lot. My brother and I took it upon ourselves to make Thanksgiving dinner. It actually turned out pretty good considering it was made by 2 teenagers, with the exception of the turkey and the spice cake. We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the cake at first, it wouldn’t firm. My brother forgot to put the eggs in it . The turkey was cooked perfectly; it was tender and juicy, and apparently, so was the bag with the neck and stuff in it. I forgot to take it out, even after my mom called to remind me.

My first Thanksgiving on my own turned out pretty well. I wasn’t able to travel home to see my family, so I invited some friends in the same situation over for dinner. I was making biscuits, and at the time, I didn’t have regular milk, so I used vanilla soy milk. After they cooked, they looked like baseballs: they were almost perfectly round. They tasted ok, at least when they were still hot out of the oven. As they cooled, though, they got really hard. Eventually, they got so hard they wouldn’t even crumble. This actually became a Thanksgiving tradition for me, not the biscuits, but those of us unable to go home for the holiday getting together at my house cooking dinner. It was a lot of fun.

This year will be my first Thanksgiving with my family in about 7 years. It’s also Cody’s first Thanksgiving as part of a family. He learned last night that the holidays mean lots of food and tasting new things as I started pre-making fruit pies and casseroles. He also learned that he doesn't like apples but if I'm in the kitchen, he's in the kitchen waiting for me to drop something so he can investigate it.

[Shaye's Mom]

My first Thanksgiving was the year I was married - invited all the brothers, sisters, my family, the in-laws - everything was lined up and ready to be prepared the night before - had done the pies and all - everyone was bringing some little thing to help out (yes, how many green bean casseroles can you have indeed). When I woke up Thanksgiving morning to start the huge turkey on its way, something was wrong with my back - I could not straighten up for love nor money, so there I was, bent halfway over, trying to get everything accomplished, with everyone who had stayed with us having to do all the heavy lifting and stuff needing done on the counters - Thanksgiving went very well, and fortunately sitting in a chair is the position I was locked in anyway, so eating went well, and everyone had a really marvelous time giggling and making remarks about my condition. In retrospect, it is funny - at the time I was very embarrassed. But, woke up the next morning and could move a little bit, and by the next day, I was fine! My husband said it was psychosomatic - and maybe it was, but it wasn't very much fun. This will be our first Thanksgiving with the B's. Pretty sure they will be hovering around my feet while all the cooking, serving and eating is taking place. BUT - I'm upright!

[BART]

I've been living on my own for over 20 years but I still go to my parents for Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that they are both still alive and live only about 3 miles down road. Mom still makes her stuffing based on a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook circa 1954. The pages are very yellow and some of them fall out if you aren't careful opening the book but I've never had stuffing quite as good. Will be going there shortly.

[Quercus]

My first Thanksgiving all on my own, was just for me. I had just moved from Seattle to Toledo, for my first REAL job. Just me and my cat, in our first apartment. I had Thur/Fri as my days off, so I had all day to think about Thanksgiving alone I roasted a small chicken, and made 'stove-top' stuffing, and broccoli. Even though it was kind of lonely, it was kind of liberating too…to know that I could survive

I don't think I have done T-day on my own, since. I have either gone to a friend's, or gone to a restaurant, or gone home to Seattle, or Cleveland (since marrying Tim), or had family come to our house and help cook....

[Tayda_Lenny]

@BART:

I've been living on my own for over 20 years but I still go to my parents for Thanksgiving. I'm thankful that they are both still alive and live only about 3 miles down road. Mom still makes her stuffing based on a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook circa 1954. The pages are very yellow and some of them fall out if you aren't careful opening the book but I've never had stuffing quite as good. Will be going there shortly.

My mom has a Betty Crocker cookbook from ages ago! She just mentioned to me that she's got tons of cookbook but that's the only one that she ever uses! We JUST prepared the turkey and stuffing recipes from that book! Love it!

Edited to add: I just went down to check the date on the cookbook - 1971!