My ex MIL was the 2nd worst cook on earth, beat out for number 1 by her daughter, my ex wife. However, I love to cook. So every thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and Easter, I ended up cooking for a truck load of in-laws that I did not care for. The thought southerners were stupid and despised every thing southern. I got tired of dried out breasts and got some cider and injected the breast. and made the turkey in the smoker. It came out heavenly. However, I also poked the skin full of holes and managed to put kernels of popcorn under the skin. Looked like it had warts. Then for the stuffing, traditional for them is mashed potato and sausage with celery and some spices. My ex parents would not eat sweet potatoes, so I left some sweet potato skins on the counter in plain view but actually put enough baby strained carrots into the stuffing that it looked orange. I made corn bread muffins, another thing they would not eat. Instead of pumpkin pie, I got a sweet potato pie, and for breakfast I fried up some Virginia dry cured ham slices and made grits and red eye gravy. After about 20 to 25 holidays of them coming to constantly want special food made, they never came back.
One year, after I married my second wife, we made the turkey on a spit over a camp fire. slathered with Chinese plum sauce as it neared done. Sweet potatoes in the coals to cook and a Dutch oven with raised yeast rolls. A huge kettle of cooked apples for dessert, That was probably one of the best Thanksgivings we ever had. It was about 65 degrees out and so we ate at the picnic table.