Thanksgiving Special 2024

Oh my gosh, you stink, Granny! Yesterday I saw a blob of poop on the side of her head. Why do you wallow in the poop? Why do you wallow in the poop? You better hurry up, your chicken— that chicken's eating your food. Happy Thanksgiving! Well, I hope you had a good one. For you, it's a week over. What we filmed today goes out a week later. You do not want to miss today's episode of The Rooted Life. Because this way you'll see our Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving on a homestead is extra special, sort of a fall harvest celebration as well as Thanksgiving. Much of the things are farm-friendly, meaning you can grow them on farm, say maybe the cranberries. Green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie. Did I say turkey? Turkey. Put me in a new-made dish too, though. Oh yeah. Oh, that's your hand and there's his hand. Oh. I bet he liked that activity. Yes.

Hey, look at this!

Everflow Water, still wicked, watering the cows. We got Harriet. Harriet's got a buddy. We got Minty. That's Hay Bomb. Billy, what about Blaze biting Minty?

I would say good for him. Really?

Minty's gonna be our family milk cow.

I'll ask you what— and what was Minty doing to Blaze? I had nothing.

That's good parenting skills right there. All right, we got a little out of sync this morning. I filmed a little rotational grazing bit with Lily with her hers for her channel, and so we moved the cows over to their new paddock and we're kind of having a hard time getting them out. Papa, do you see the tree?

It has a sucker on it.

Oh, does it? Well, we gotta trim that this winter. See the stem that's really big and the stem that's not— that's— we gotta trim that thinner.

Gotta take the thin one out.

If they had put all that growth into that other one, that would have been— I know, that's why we got to get rid of them. Normally we get them up off of an old paddock that they've had for 24 hours. They're bored, don't have the internet, they don't have Thanksgiving Day to break. We gonna change that today. We're gonna watch the cow float go by. Thanksgiving Day parade! Are we those people? Where's Mom? She lost her hairbrush. A lot of apples. You gonna make a lot of apple pie?

Whatever Jonah wants.

What's the water trick?

It keeps them from browning. I need to put something in there, but I can't find it. Did you say a lemon?

Is Jonah's request the apple pie? Are you gonna make the ice cream too?

Probably.

You look at me like I'm crazy. You don't like ice cream with your apple pie? I like apple pie and that's it. Oh really? Okay. This is a whole big old apple pie just for you.

Well, he has to share with everybody.

I have to share with you guys.

You can learn how to make this, you know.

I mean, you can make it anytime.

It's probably best for you to learn how to make things because what happens if your wife doesn't want to?

I'm gonna have to make apple pie. That's a requirement. Yeah. Is that a conversation before you get married?

Yeah.

Let's make apple pie. You'll make the biscuits, she'll make the apple pie. Yep. You can make a mean biscuit.

You can make a mean biscuit. It's not pretty, but it's gonna be.

Why do you do that? Pinch it.

Um, to try to make it pretty on the outsides. This actually is the best pie crust I've ever used.

Where's it from?

The most like a glutenous pie crust.

This is one of her go-to books, but you must have subbed it for—

I was just looking at the apple pie filling. This pie crust is from Loopy Whisk. It's flaky.

Would you spread on that?

It's yolk, but I need more. I don't have another egg.

What does that do to it?

It's just golden brown.

We're gonna try a little something different this year with the turkey. Somebody told us we're cooking it unevenly if you just cook it like this. Yeah, the internet. Do you remember who? Some viral reel. This is how to make the perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Cut out the spine. These scissors are nice. So big I had to touch this, break the spatchcock in half, in half, fit it on the tray. You know, having turkey for us on Thanksgiving is just like, like any other Sunday once a month and we have turkey. What you, uh, frying over there, babe?

Um, I'm gonna fry the french fried onions.

Olive oil and salt. Lily, you want to get me the salt? This oven is still not working. Brand new, they still have yet to fix it. We did manage to put it in this little— I don't know how I did it, but Retrace.

It's—

it's working. We'll just move them around and maybe everything— you home make your French fried onions to go on top of the green bean casserole?

Yeah, because I'm special like that. I think you can get gluten-free now, but—

did you already make the cream of mushroom for this?

Yeah, it's in the fridge.

So not too much more to do. Butter on top.

Yeah.

Yeah, what you got? Oh, you're cutting our decorations. You made it so nice. Don't cut anymore though, just cut that one. Okay, cut that one up and make a nice decoration. Lily went and got us— wow, I guess that's an old Christmas tree out there, huh, Bird?

Yeah, that's the old Christmas tree that we put it in.

That right there?

That was your parents— it was your dad's Christmas tree in 1997.

Really? We planted it right next to the power pole. Magic hour. Been basting it, been flipping it. Get you some, uh, juice in the pan right here. Gravy coming up. Look at that. Looks good, right, Beck? How does it feel? First Thanksgiving in your house. It's great. It's so fabulous. What was it like cooking?

It was so easy.

Compared?

It was so easy. So easy. So much better.

Easy is a strong word, but easier than—

Oh, no, no, no. It was a delight. It was not— there was never Like, I wish I had more room, or I need this to hurry up in the oven. Like, there was none of that. It was just like delight.

Honey sweetened sweet tea gravy. We're gonna have leftover turkeys. We have a whole turkey leftover. She likes the cranberry sauce. Does anybody else like cranberry sauce, or is that a mama thing?

The kids, it's sweet and it's warm. It's more like a jelly. Okay, it's not the canned. It's, it's literally— you made everything from scratch, just cranberries, maple syrup.

You put cranberries in there, you boiled them in maple syrup. I had no idea cranberry was canned until like a couple years ago. Yeah, aren't you proud of that?

I like to put it on my biscuits.

You made this cornbread stuffing from scratch.

Yes, all from scratch.

You made the biscuits from scratch, sweet potato casserole from scratch, even the condensed soup and fried onions on top, cuz you can't get gluten-free organic fried onions.

Eat it!

Go, go, eat it!

Go! It's— I'm still committed to our health.

Yeah, and the cornbread.

People are gonna laugh, but I feel like, yes, there is a lot. There's a little more, yes, but at least it's healthy.

I don't think anybody can fit dessert in yet, so we gotta go on a walk. 30 minutes. We just took family Christmas card photos. Do you like the one where, uh, Henry's squirming in my arms, or the one where Henry's running away? Which one do you like better? Okay, we finally got it. Get this one. Look at this, a pumpkin cheesecake from a neighbor. Apple pie. One of these is chocolate. This turned out perfect. How is it, Henry?

Good.

It's very good. I never had chocolate pecan pie. Is that a thing? It ought to be a thing if it's not.

La la la la la, let me be free.