The Mild Thanksgiving Dinner Disaster

Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the home,
food was preparing and the families were come.
The rolls were all snug in the oven raising
and snitching fingers were veggie tray grazing.

The mashed potatoes were mixed to perfection
and ready for later were all the confections.
I stepped out to the garage to check on the turkey with care,
and the absent scent was first to make me aware

that with this bird there was something the matter.
And then to my dismay—oh how my heart did clatter—
I spied that the temperature knob of the roaster oven
had not been set at 325 for the past hours-half-dozen

but at 225 had my bird been comfortably warming
all while the the rest of us were busily swarming
to spread a buffet worthy to support its leading role.
I sighed and glared at the pinkish raw troll,

turned up the heat, slammed the lid down 
and trudged back to the kitchen, my lips in a frown.
I called all the poor turkey meat lovers by name,
"Now Jason and Aaron and Ammon and Dave,

the turkey won't be ready in time for our feast,
but do not dismay, we'll still eat the beast . . .
just probably after dinner, dessert, and cleanup."
We were disappointed, but we didn't give up!

No, not even after the rolls started burning
and the smoke alarm commenced its spurning
that made babies cry and my eyebrow twitch—
I wanted to scream or laugh, I couldn't tell which—

but we salvaged the roll guts and aired out the room
and though it seems like a tale wrought mostly with doom,
a moment of glory I am able to tell,
Spoon and I scrapped up a gravy that turned out quite well.

With the help of gratitude, humor, and deli meat slices
this year's Thanksgiving feast was something priceless.

And after the pie bar, family time, and holiday crafts,
from the garage came our turkey at last.

So if ever your turkey leaves you in a gravy lurch,
remember your potatoes; give your pantry a search
and I bet you'll find all these ingredients in sight.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good bite!

Emergency Gravy

I didn't take any exact measurements, so get your experimentation cap on and get mixing, to taste.
Ingredients
A can of broth
3 spoonfuls of Better Than Bullion paste (or bullion cubes or pearls)
Enough milk whisked with enough flour to make a thickener
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
1 (15 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup
Poultry Magic seasoning blend, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

Dump it all together, use your immersion hand blender (I just got the Breville hand blender. I did a little dance.) to emulsify those onion flakes as they soften. The onions, believe it or not, really make the gravy taste like it had anything to do with meat drippings. The butter helps give it a fatty taste and cozy all the ingredients together.

I think I used about 2 cups milk and oh maybe a 1/4 cup flour or more for the thickener. Bring to a boil whisking constantly/blending as needed. Add water to thin if needed. Add whatever you want if your taste tests beg it.

see (bottom right), it totally looks like normalish gravy, right?

And there you have it. A rather tasty emergency gravy. The kids kept dumping it all over their potatoes and dipping their deli meat slices in it, so . . . success. The adults loved it too, don't worry.

Keep those imaginations cookin'!