Friends, Family, Gluttony, and a Little Excitement

If it's possible to eat too much good food, I think I've done it. Last night's Thanksgiving dinner was fun: as usual, we provided the basics, and our assorted guests brought dishes to share. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, dressing, mac & cheese, scalloped onions, green bean casserole, Tofurkey, squash soup, three kinds of cranberry sauce (two canned and one made by B), pumpkin pie, and apple crisp.

Today, Mom, Dad, my sister E, B, and I went on our usual Black Friday expedition. We don't believe in getting up early to hunt for bargains (if I really want to shop for bargains, I do it online). We meet in the late morning at an upscale shopping area (Union Square in San Francisco, Fashion Valley when we lived in San Diego, Eastview Mall in Rochester), and shop for a couple of things while enjoying the people and the stores. Today, E bought a pair of black pants, Mom got a lovely leather coat, B got a gold belt to go with her new dress (that was the hardest to find, since she's so skinny), and B also got some clothes. For lunch, we made our usual stop at the food court, where I always get the Korean BBQ spare ribs. (The second large meal of the holiday.)

The afternoon was a little more exciting than usual. As we were descending on the curved escalator to the first floor, we heard thumping noises behind us. All of us immediately assumed someone was falling down the escalator, and we all did the same thing: stepped to the side and grabbed the handrail with both hands (so we wouldn't be pushed over). Lo and behold, it was a purse snatcher, shoving people out of the way in his mad descent down the escalator, followed closely by a woman yelling "stop him!" At the bottom of the escalator, a male shopper tackled him, and when we left, the thief was being held down by two or three men, presumably awaiting mall security!

For dinner, DH and M joined us at Ton Kiang, our favorite Chinese restaurant in SF. We had another feast: scallion pancakes & potstickers to start with, Peking duck, Mongolian beef, Szechuan shrimp, Singapore noodles, spareribs in sweet orange sauce, asparagus sauteéd with garlic, and sesame balls for dessert. I was so full that I gave half of my sesame ball (one of my favorites) to B!

Cleaning and Planning for Turkey Day

Turkey Day preparations are under way! The house is mostly clean (a few things to do tomorrow morning), and my parents arrive tomorrow at lunchtime. Our garage fridge is occupied by a giant frozen turkey (I'm a day ahead of the usual schedule for defrosting). We're not expecting a lot of people this year (eleven so far), but we always get the biggest turkey we can find, since DH loves turkey sandwiches.

I've been using the turkey recipe in the Joy of Cooking (1975 edition) since I started cooking turkeys, and it's always worked for me. According to our invitation, this is the twentieth Thanksgiving dinner I've cooked. Turkey, sage dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy from a can (makes last-minute prep easier), traditional cranberry sauce from a can (both whole-berry and jellied), and pumpkin pie have been constants at every dinner. I sometimes throw in another vegetable dish, and our guests bring all kinds of interesting things.

I hope y'all have fabulous meal planned for next week, too!

Turkey Day 2009

Dishes are washed (thanks, DH!), and guests have left. Now I'm waiting in line for the shower so I can get the smell of turkey out of my hair.

Tonight, in addition to my family (mom, dad, & sister), we had two postdocs from France, a professor and his wife from Canada, and a grad student originally from Germany, currently attending school in Sweden. Interesting conversation, too much dessert, too much food in general. A good Thanksgiving for all :-)

Nutcracker & Turkey Day 2009

A collection of unrelated November thoughts:

B is moving up in the ballet world: today she has to stay for the entire six-hour Nutcracker rehearsal, because she dances in both acts. They are running Act I from 12:00-3:00 (3 times), and Act II from 3:00-6:00 (2 times). This year she's a green soldier (featured as one of the two "Milk & Cookies Soldiers" in two shows), and a Russian licorice corps member. They have four casts for eight shows, and B is in Cast A and Cast C this year.

My parents arrived safely yesterday, only a few minutes late. There was some heavy rain which delayed us: B and I barely made it to the airport in time, despite leaving a hour before the flight was supposed to arrive.

The turkey is defrosting in the garage fridge, about half the supplies for dinner have been purchased, and today I bought two extra folding chairs, since we're having some extra guests on Thursday.

Turkey, Again

Current mental soundtrack: "Mack the Knife"

Tonight was the first of several turkey-based meals to come. (Last night was microwaved leftovers, which doesn't really count). I got this recipe from an online friend, and modified it to suit our tastes. It's become very popular in our household:

Turkey Pot Pie
2 cups diced cooked turkey
2 cans mixed vegetables [I like Vegall Original, because it has potatoes. You can also use frozen]
2 cans turkey gravy
1 can buttermilk biscuits [I usually buy two, because everyone wants extra biscuits]

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine turkey, vegetables, and gravy in a 2-quart casserole. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Remove biscuits from can and split each in half. Place biscuit halves on top of turkey mixture, and bake as directed on biscuit can. Serve with extra biscuits

The Night Of Thanksgiving

Current mental soundtrack: "Rosa Mystica," from A.M.D.G., by Benjamin Britten

'Tis the night of Thanksgiving,
And here in our nest,
DH is settling down
To a well-deserved rest!

The children are nestled
All snug with the dog,
Dreaming visions of video games,
While I sit and blog.

The dishes are done, [thanks, DH & Mom!]
Stock's bubbling in the pot,
I don't know how much I ate,
But I'm sure it was a lot!

With apologies to Clement Moore :-)

Happy Turkey Day!

I was even more disorganized this year than usual, and Thanksgiving somehow crept up on me before I got around to sending out the usual invitations to stray grad students and friends. So, it's just my family this year: parents, sister, DH, and the kids. Of course, I don't actually know how to downsize my menu, so I suspect we will be eating Thanksgiving leftovers for the next year :-)

Our menu is pretty traditional:

• roast turkey


• sage stuffing (made from white bread}


• mashed potatoes


• gravy


• cranberry sauce (both jellied and whole berry)


• green bean casserole


• pumpkin pie with whipped cream

Some years we've tried sweet potatoes (the ones with the gooey marshmallows on top), but I think we won't be needing them this year!

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving, and try not to eat too much!