This Thanksgiving was a challenge because I have a lingering cold
and almost NO sense of taste and smell. Eeeek! This is obviously
not a good time to try new things, but I did think that these
problems would be gone by the time I set about to cook.

I guess the first issue was this. I decided to try the make-ahead
gravy. So, I roasted some wings and then proceeded to make the
stock. Well, I smelled NO turkey smell as the wings were
roasting, and the bit that I could smell of the stock just smelled
odd. I had to ask my daughter to sniff things, and she (who hates
turkey and tried to avoid it) said she guessed it smelled like
turkey. I then realized that I couldn't exactly tinker this or
anything else to perfection! Bah!

That led me to buy backups at Whole Foods--and I had little
confidence that these things tasted good "as is" either. I had to
have my guest taste and season things!!!!! Sigh. This experience
was an interesting challenge at the very least!
--
Jean B.