Happy Thanksgiving!

As those of you who know me will remember, we usually host an "orphan" Thanksgiving, and cook a huge Indian feast, filled with curries, and riatas, and the works. But this year, there didn't seem to be any other orphans needing a place to be (which is a very good thing!), and I was tired of doing half of the huge amount of work required for a feast. And just last week, I helped cook a Thanksgiving meal for 100 people. It was fun, but exhausting. I also have the fresh memories of last Thanksgiving, which is when I started to get sick, and I just couldn't muster up much enthusiasm for this upcoming holiday, and the work involved for me.

So when the Papa Dude sat us around the table late last week, and asked us what we wanted to do/eat for Thansgiving, I had a hard time coming up with ideas. I finally got into the idea when I realized I could make an unreasonable request. I asked for a traditional turkey dinner that I didn't have to prepare. Here is the result of that request. My living room is clean, and I did none of it. There is a stack of 4 movies on the telly, and I didn't have to go to the movie store. The children wrote up the menu, and the grocery list, and did the shopping (I did taxi them to three stores, break up 2 fights over who got to push the cart, and helped them comparision shop.) The children and the Papa Dude have been cooking and cleaning and there are a lot of great smells coming from the kitchen. Meanwhile, I have had long baths, have read a bit of mind candy, talked to good friends on the phone, cleaned up my sewing area, and practiced relaxing (yes, I do have to practice letting go and letting others do all the work!). This is a great idea, and definately prompts me to make more unreasonable requests! I also would like to say how thankful I am for my little family.

Today's menu:
snacks:
broiled garlic shrimp
sweet spiced nuts
herbed spicy nuts
cucumber and radishes
olives and pickles

Main menu:
Dry-cured rosemary turkey
gravy
wild rice stuffing with dried fruit and spiced nuts*
Challah*
cranberry-orange relish
twice baked sweet potatoes
garlic kale
roasted asparagus
punkin pies#

* I made these, cuz I wanted to, and/or the recipe is only found in my head.
# I made the crust, the kids did the rest. We ended up with 6 pies! Look out neighbors, here I come!

Well, I need to go knead the challah, Happy Day to you today!
LB