Ever had a kitchen disaster? I’ve had a few over the years but the most memorable was probably my first culinary catastrophe in University. My roommates and I decided to throw an “orphans” Thanksgiving dinner in our tiny basement apartment on Prince Arthur Street in Montreal. We invited all our buddies who weren’t going home for the holiday. We made a makeshift long dinner table by pushing our wobbly kitchen table together with a couple of desks and covered it all in bed sheets. (Students don’t have fancy tablecloths…) We made centerpieces out of leaves and chestnuts and mis-matched candles and had our guests bring their own chairs. Each roommate had a task, Shelia was dessert, Lisa made the veggies and Roxane and I were in charge of a turkey for twenty people. Neither of us had ever actually made a turkey before but we figured we’d seen our Mums make plenty of them over the years and we were smart, capable women (or so we thought…) How hard could it be?


The guests arrived with bottles of cheap depanneur wine under one arm and an extra chair under the other. The fragrant aroma of roasting turkey filled the air and we all felt like adults for the first time. Our very first Thanksgiving on our own. When the golden bird came out of the oven, Roxane and I were impressed at our accomplishment. It looked picture perfect. We decided to carve it in the kitchen, due to lack of elbowroom at our “harvest table” in the living room. When we cut into the turkey, we discovered that we left the bag of giblets, the neck and innards in the bird. In that brief moment, we looked at each other, then at the twenty starving students waiting patiently in the other room. Without a word, our decision was made. We disposed of the evidence in a garbage bag outside and proceeded to serve the turkey to all our orphaned friends like nothing happened. We both ate the tainted turkey too; a captain always goes down with the ship. No one got sick, well not to the best of our knowledge anyway... And no one was the wiser. It’s been a little culinary catastrophe secret that Roxane and I have shared for many years. So know you know too!


Now, every Thanksgiving we make sure to call and remind each other to remove the turkey bag . Nothing like almost killing a room full of friends with bacteria to keep a friendship alive! Kindred spirits. Tell me your Culinary Catastrophes, I’d love to hear them!


Until next time.


Jack

Keywords : culinary catastrophe, kitchen disasters, Thanksgiving, turkey

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