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WEST JORDAN - Whisking a pot of gravy, Amee Rock encountered an unexpected problem. She didn't have enough drippings from the turkey and needed her husband to get her chicken stock to thin the gravy.
It was a minor glitch in a major challenge for the 32-year-old mother of two.
Nothing on this day compared to her Thanksgiving disaster 10 years ago when she failed to defrost a turkey in time and ended up throwing it away.
Rock was chosen by The Tribune for a "Turkey 101" course. Chef Drew Ellsworth, owner of Ecole Dijon cooking school in Holladay, gave Rock a detailed cooking lesson on preparing a traditional turkey and all the fixings.
He left her with instructions on grocery lists, timelines, recipes and shortcuts.
Usually a guest and dishwasher at a relative's home, she successfully embarked Thursday on cooking the entire meal for her husband, mother- and father-in-law and two young sons.
"Before Chef Drew, I thought of Thanksgiving as so overwhelming," she said, while mashing potatoes and rutabagas. "This is the year. I'm just going to learn how to do it. I don't want to be scared of it anymore."
Rock's Thanksgiving journey began a week ago when she shopped at three stores for ingredients and staples. Over the weekend, she prepped the gravy, which included a bacon roux, onions, peppers, celery and mushrooms, and put together the cranberry dressing spiced with pineapples.
"I did kind of mess up the cranberry sauce," she said. "I put a whole can of pineapples in it and it was supposed to be half a can."
Appearing calm and confident on Thanksgiving Day, Rock was pleasantly surprised that her hard work was paying off and she had time to visit with her family in between taking dishes out of the oven.
This was a true first for the West Jordan woman. And she experienced other landmarks trying to achieve her goal, such as going to the liquor store for the first time in her life to get red and white wine needed for the gravy and for basting the turkey.
"My neighbors were probably thinking, 'What is she doing?' " she said.
The worst part? Getting the turkey ready, she said.
"It was bloody. When I was cleaning the turkey out I thought, 'I don't want to do this anytime soon.' "
At Chef Ellsworth's behest, she used the roasted turkey neck and giblets to give the gravy flavor.
Her family appreciated her effort and husband Ed chipped in and cleaned dishes, in between playing with sons Nathan, 3, and Tyler, 1.
"Every day I opened the fridge and there would be something else in there," Ed Rock said.
Claudia Kreipl brought over yams and a salad and watched her daughter-in-law with pride.
"I know she'll do really good because she does everything so well," she said.
Once she ate the gravy - chicken stock and all - she had nothing but praise.
"It's so tasty," she said.
Rock may have learned how to make butternut squash and other gourmet foods from Ellsworth, but she insisted on accompanying the meal with a family tradition - 7UP salad. It consists of lemon Jell-O, 7UP, pineapple and whipped cream. Her sons couldn't get enough of it.
Will she spend that much time every year to make Thanksgiving as perfect as possible?
"I feel like I've come of age," she said. "I finally did Thanksgiving. Maybe in future years I won't want to do all the work."
"I finally did Thanksgiving. Maybe in future years I won't want to do all the work."
AMEE ROCK
'Turkey 101' student