28 November Monday

Well you can guess what happened after that last blog post. My sleeve caught fire stirring the potatoes, I knocked over the stock pot, slipped in it and fell into the window which ignited the curtains, and as I was screaming to be rescued, the neighbor broke in and saved me but sadly lost his own life as the entire building was consumed in flames. I am using my savagely charred hands to eke out one more writing before expiration.

Not really. I just got busy with the food preparation and didn´t have time to write. I think these things are better afterwords anyway as the play by play can get boring fast. So, then, here´s how everything turned out.

Pictured above is the turkey if my memory serves me. Tom turned out great as did most everything else. There were two stand outs and one disaster.

Because the horseradish was flavorless, I didn´t make the shrimp cocktail. I also didn´t make the Gourgeres because the turkey and sides were ready to go early. I decided to serve the sweet potatoes as an appetizer. This is wonderful. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into wedges. Fry up some bacon cut into pieces, plenty of it. Roast the sweet potato wedges after they´ve been tossed in the bacon fat. Make a dressing- olive oil, vinegar, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, pour over the sweet potatoes then sprinkle with bacon pieces and parsley. Eat it.

Simply fantastic. The next great surprise made me so happy, it was so thrilling, the guests cried out in marvel.I feel I have invented a most excellent dessert, I´m afraid to write about it even, because someone may take it and sell it to Ben and Jerry´s or some such thing, and my fortune will be lost. I am actually sitting here, debating whether or not to tell you about it. OK, here goes.

The pumpkin raisin tart was very good. Putting it on the hot baking pan did get the bottom crust nice and brown. Putting it in the tart pan instead of a pie plate made it easier to spread the cream cheese layer all around. I make my own pumpkin pie spice blend which is more all-spice and ginger than cinnamon and nutmeg. It was yummy. The next step took it to another level. The tart is not sweet, it´s tangy, and very pumpkiny. I put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of the tart, then generously drizzled it with cranberry sauce. This is everything. Everything. It was so so good. I should mention that I made the cranberry sauce which is low in sugar and has orange zest and juice in it, which is amazing with the sweet ice cream and woodsy tart. Please don´t tell anyone about it, but if you do, please credit me, it would mean a lot to me right now.

Having made Thanksgiving dinner in my apartment before, I should remember that not all of the sides fit in either oven at the same time, so there will always be a dish that comes to the table late. The last few years it has been the stuffing. Unfortunately, for this reason it has been unfairly relegated to secondary status. There were two things that disappointed me about the stuffing. First, the bread. It wasn´t sturdy enough and got a little soggy. The second, because it was an apple, prune, and sausage stuffing were the prunes. I hadn´t had them long, they were in a sealed package, and I´d eaten them many times before, and Paul Newman himself vouches for the quality of these prunes. They looked ok, they didn´t have an off scent, but my goodness, did they ever taste foul. In the spirit of generosity, good will, and full disclosure, I reluctantly brought the dish to the table. ¨If you are enjoying your meal, I recommend you not eat this.¨ I announced as I set the dish down. ¨It is terrible.¨ One guest immediately said he must try it if it´s terrible. He pensively chewed a forkful and said, ¨It´s not bad. It´s unusual. Are those olives in there??¨ ¨No,¨ I replied. ¨Those are not olives.¨

Another Thanksgiving behind us. It´s time for turkey noodle soup, one of my favorites and get ready for Christmas. The chaos, the mess, the triumphs and the disasters, they are all part of the sacred magic.