Turkey Day tragedies

Whether it's an undercooked turkey, mixing the wrong ingredients or flames shooting up the wall, almost everyone has a mishap that has happened on Thanksgiving. And while they seem disastrous at the time, these Thanksgiving disasters can create future family laughs for the whole family to enjoy. Some local residents have shared their unfortunate, yet funny Thanksgiving stories.

Kathi Ostenberg

Kathi Ostenberg

Age: 58

City: Woodbridge

Disaster: When I was 18 years old, just married, I had never cooked beforehand. I was going to cook my first turkey. I began by washing it. I put it in the roaster and started timing it per the directions. There was no dressing to stuff the bird. I had no idea how to make stuffing. By late afternoon, everyone was starving and wanting to eat but the button had not popped out yet. So, we waited and waited. Finally, I took it out and said, "We're eating, done or not. Well, we ate the few slices on the outside but the more I cut into it, we saw pink meat. So the next night I cooked it longer. After we ate on it for three days, I finally got to the carcas and I looked inside and said, "Who put something in the turkey?" I pulled it out and it was the bag with the neck and gizards and heart still in the turkey. I had no idea there was anything in there. I never have lived that down to this day.

That same day, I was making a roast because my dad didn't like turkey. I was going to cook it in a bag. I put the roast and seasoning and water in the bag and I got ready to put the twistie on the bag. I read where it said, "Leave room for steam to rise." That puzzled me so I called my mom at work to ask her about it. My mom cooked for a living.

I told her what the instructions said and I thought that was so stupid — so the steam won't rise if I stay in the room? She laughed so hard she dropped the phone. Then, she proceeded to tell her co-workers, "You know what my blonde daughter just asked me?"

Jeannette Plumlee

Jeannette Plumlee

Age: 68

City: Lodi

Disaster: I was having family over for Thanksgiving one year and started cooking what was supposed to be a fresh turkey. As I began to smell it, I noticed it didn't have the right smell for a good turkey. I was suddenly aware that my turkey was frozen and refrozen so much that it was spoiled. The whole house smelled bad. What to do? All the stores were closed and I was frantic. I looked in my freezer, and lo and behold there was the first pheasant my son had ever shot, from just the week before. I quickly opened all the windows and aired the house out, ran tepid water over the pheasant until it was thawed and we had baked pheasant thanks to my teenage son. The day turned out wonderful and it was the best Thanksgiving I will ever remember.

Dora Fleck

Dora Fleck

Age: 78

City: Woodbridge

Disaster: It was the day before Thanksgiving some years ago. My new husband was good enough to clean house for me, so I wouldn't have to do that and prepare for the next day's dinner after I got off work. Everything was going along smoothly. As usual, I made little cinnamon bites out of the leftover pie crust. When I sampled them, I discovered they were made with salt instead of sugar. He had accidently switched the salt and sugar cannisters. My lovely pies were made with salt in place of sugar and had to be thrown out. Needless to say, he never did clean house for me again.

Another story: Company was invited. Thanksgiving morning, I awoke to find my heater wasn't working and the oven wouldn't work. My son came and fixed the heater. I hurried and took the turkey, etc. to my daughter's house to bake. Everything finally turned out OK.

Shirley Burns

Shirley Burns

Age: 70

City: Lodi

Disaster: A few years ago I purchased a turkey for Thanksgiving early and brought it home and put it in my upright freezer. A few days prior to Thanksgiving I went to the freezer to take the turkey out so that it could start thawing. When I opened the freezer door, the 20-pound frozen turkey slipped off the shelf and hit my foot, breaking one of my toes. I yelled so loud and danced around so much that it scared my cat half to death. Needless to say that was a Thanksgiving to remember. I've always laughed and said that turkey took revenge!

Adel Liebelt

Adel Liebelt

Age: 62

City: Acampo

Disaster: In the '70s, I was preparing my first Thanksgiving dinner on my own. I was finishing the final details and asked my ex-mother-in-law if she would make the gravy. I had an electric stove at the time. All of the sudden I heard a pop and then a scream. I turned around to see sparks and flames shooting up the wall. Something shorted out on the stove panel. We finally got things under control and sat down for our Thanksgiving dinner, thankful the situation wasn't any worse and still a little shook up. My ex-mother-in-law refused to cook on that stove again. A Thanksgiving I'll never forget.

Theresa Larson

Theresa Larson

Age: 54

City: Stockton

Disaster: One of my family's favorite Thanksgiving stories happened about 10 years ago. We'd finished our large Thanksgiving meal, which included turkey. While cleaning up and putting leftovers into the refrigerator, I decided to strip the meat from the turkey carcass to make storage easier. When I turned the turkey on its end, I noticed something in the body cavity. I had not stuffed the bird, so I thought I might have missed an extra giblet bag. Reaching into the body cavity, I pulled out my hand to find a turkey head staring at me — beak and all! I screamed and everyone came running. My eldest son calmly proclaimed, "Well in some countries, that would be a delicacy!" The operator at the end of the 800 number provided by the turkey manufacturer also reassured me that we'd suffer no ill effects from eating a turkey that still had its head (so to speak). Despite the fact that the manufacturer sent me a coupon for a free turkey, it was a long time before I could think about eating turkey again.

— Compiled by Pam Bauserman, News-Sentinel Panorama editor.

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