Soup Course, Thanksgiving Dinner, November 25th, 2010

Today's Joy: Thanksgiving Dinner with the Family.
Reader, I've been looking forward to this Thanksgiving holiday for weeks. A whole lot of planning & delegating resulted in the most relaxed Turkey Day ever. Every dish that came out of the kitchen was perfectly done & more delish than the last. Had a wonderful time visiting with everyone--I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. So many blessings to be thankful for!


Table Setting



Plate Of Joy
(clockwise from top: greenbean casserole, yukon gold mashed potatoes w/gravy, mussels, stuffing, oyster stuffing, scallop & shrimp scampi (center), cornbread & turkey)


Place Setting

Enjoying Old Photos

Buffet & Serving Pieces

Today's Joy: Dinner & 'Dancing'.
In my family, Monday nights are sacred. Come 7 o'clock, my gregarious relatives drop whatever they're doing and turn the TV to Channel 7 (ABC). That's when Dancing With The Stars comes on. For that hour, the rest of the world melts away as we oooh and ahhh and critique form. We pronounce costumes breathtaking or in poor taste and weigh in on frames, lines and who was out of sync. We cheer on our favorite couples and predict who will get the boot on the next Results Show.

Half the fun is listening to each other's take on this season's odd assortment of celebrities. Pamela Anderson as a brunette: Yay! Chad Ochocinco giving Cheryl a hard time: Boo! If we aren't all together, someone calls or texts back and forth between dances. Did you see that? What is she wearing?? Oh, yeah--he needs to go!

Tonight's installment saw us all gathered at Aunt's house, where I made pork tenderloin & cranberry pistachio stuffing. We ate heartily in between waltzes and Argentine Tangoes, all a bit baffled by Judge Len Goodman's commentary, as well as his unfortunate choice of shirt & tie: lime green & orange! For that single hour, we were the ones on the dance floor, wrapped in sequins and ostrich feathers, doing the cha-cha with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and crossing our fingers we won't be in the bottom two. I'm telling you, Reader, it's the most fun you can have without strapping on your dance shoes!

Today's Joy: Everybody Gathered Around for Dinner.
As I was headed out the door to work this morning, Reader, and feeling a bit sorry for myself to be working on a lovely Sunday, Aunt said those magic words,"Everybody's coming over for pot roast tonight!"

Of course, it could have been BBQ chicken, potato soup, polenta, duck with orange sauce or one of a hundred other succulent, spur-of-the-moment dishes. My reaction is always the same: Hurray! After all, Aunt Chef--whose culinary training includes a stint in Austria--makes food that is 14 kinds of delicious. Even the stuff she doesn't think is up to snuff is pretty darn good.

But the conversation at these get-togethers is what I most look forward to. My family is full of characters. I don't mean the garden variety kind of nuttiness you find in every family. My family is a character writer's dream. Each a unique and autonomous soul whose strengths play well off of one another. It's just plain fascinating to watch them interact. They also seem to get into mischief en masse and you never know what they'll be up to next. I can't wait to tune in and hear about their latest & greatest adventures. Like the time my uncle dressed up in a gladiator's outfit with a blond wig and drove a team of four ponies around the indoor arena at a horse show. Or the time Aunt Chef was herding escaped cows with Uncle's truck.

There are many, many more wonderful stories, of course. Some of which might be a tad incriminating. So, apologies, dear Reader, but posting them to my blog would be bad form. However, if you happen to join us for dinner some evening, you can hear them in all their juicy glory for yourself. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Today's Joy: New Friends.
Was invited to a lovely dinner by a new co-worker. Great food, good conversation. Had a wonderful time! Reader, these days there are few things I love more than an evening spent cooking and gabbing.

Today's Joy: Dinner with Mom & Brother. I am really enjoying being home and able to pop over and visit with family on a moment's notice. I walked into the family home tonight, welcomed by big smiles & the aromas of a home-cooked turkey dinner. All was right with the world!