My Thanksgiving debrief, based on hosting dinners for about 12 adults on both Thursday and Saturday (two different groups!).
The path to turkey perfection proved to be spatchcocking the 13 lb. turkey, arranging it sort of flat sideways on a regular roasting pan. Then use the “AutoSteam” mode on the Kitchenaid oven at 350 degrees for about 1.75 hours. It turned out that the thighs cooked faster than the (thicker) breast and the turkey was ready (no microwaving required!) when the thermometer plunged deep into the breast read 165. Thanks to the kitchen sink hookup (“steam”), there was no dryness.
The first microaggression was committed against me by a young Chinese-American guest on Thursday. She said that her family likes to have Chinese hot pot on Thanksgiving. Then, apparently acting on the assumption that a stupid white man wouldn’t know what this was, she proceed to explain the concept of Chinese hot pot. Presumably she was emboldened by the Donald Trump victory.
The second microaggression was committed by me on Saturday. I asked a guest to carve the turkey due to the fact that she is a medical doctor and would therefore have had to go through a surgery rotation. She happens to be Korean-American. When reaching into the knife block I bypassed the traditional French chef knife shapes and said “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable with the Santoku knife.”
We were concerned about having one table big enough for everyone. The children are a little too young for a grown-up/kid split. It occurred to me to divide up the group along political lines, e.g., have a table for Hillary supporters and one for the haters. It was quickly pointed out that nobody in the Boston area would be willing to incur social ostracism by going on record as a Trump supporter and therefore the tables should be marked “Deep Despair Over Hillary’s Loss” and “Merely Heartbroken.”
In an apparently misguided attempt at humor I noted that we were going to be serving bagels and suggested that, if people wanted to bring something, they could bring turkey to put on the bagels. An MIT graduate took this literally and she showed up with a Tupperware-style container of leftover turkey.
The horror! The horror!
Information is funny.
You were victim of womansplaining I presume. Are you scarred for life?
I would say that suggesting the Santoku is a double microaggression since Koreans generally do not like the Japanese, whom they consider to be war criminals. You would have been better off offering her the French knife.
Yeah, was about to say, offering a Japanese *knife* to a Korean woman is not just microaggression, it’s a full-blown nano-manipulation!