christmas meal – onechristmas 2016 – 6
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Mr. Zinga has been up since 5:00 cooking up a storm. He has all the vegetables prepped, he has cut up all the fruits for after the meal and he has added his little touches to the turkey. He bought a pre-stuffed bird and it was difficult getting him to understand that he was not to defrost it and that it needed to go into the over frozen. (Apparently, the last stuffed turkey he bought, he decided that it needed to be defrosted and they ended up having to throw it all away or risk salmonella poisoning.)
 
And even after I got the turkey ready, because I stepped away for 5 minutes and wasn’t there to monitor, he decided to cook it without a cover, to get it browned and to add white wine to give the drippings more flavor. IT’S FROZEN!!! browning and drippings are hours away. Oh, did I mention that my dad is 91.

Don’t let me forget that in addition to turkey, stuffing, cranberry, gravy, Brussels-sprouts, green-beans, broccoli and salad there will be chicken broth with tiny meatballs and my mother’s lasagna. And let’s not forget both home-made bread and cullurielli both plain and with anchovies. I keep forgetting to mention the home-made wine, the beer and of course pop for all the non-wine/non-beer drinkers.

The other task that sets off Mr. Zinga’s OCD is the setting up of the tables and chairs for the 20 people who will be here for dinner. He’s already started in on my bringing all the tables in from the garage. (Last Christmas, I had to get Derrick to show up here at 9:00 to help me with the tables, because my dad wouldn’t stop fussing. 9:00 am!!! even though dinner was set for 5:30.) So when he started in this morning, I told him Christian would help me and that put an end to his fussing, because anything his grandson is involved in is automatically OK. Wait till he hears we’re going for a walk after lunch and that we’ll do the tables when we get back. (Rose continually accuses me of being evil. Maybe there’s something to it. But it’s definitely fun prodding Mr. Zinga’s OCD.)

He is now all about lunch. I wish I had a tape-recorder to capture his fussing at my mother as they get lunch ready.