Do you realize that THIS WEEK is Thanksgiving? This week! This coming Thursday! If you are not residing in the U.S. at this time, may I move in with you and skip over this extremely wonderful and yet High Stress holiday please and thank you.
My parents are visiting, which is WONDERFUL. They stay in a hotel, which is mutually beneficial. My mother will be making a pumpkin pie – from scratch, using a real pumpkin – with Carla, per Carla's request. My father will make the Caesar salad. I will make the mashed potatoes. Perhaps I can outsource the dressing to my husband. I don't know.
Wait a second. Now I am wondering whether we typically HAVE Caesar salad at Thanksgiving, or if this is a my-family-of-origin Christmas tradition only? I really WANT Caesar salad. But maybe it's overkill.
I suppose I will make a turkey. I mean, I ordered a turkey already, so I am kind of locked in to making it. This is the only time all year that I eat turkey, because I hate turkey. Is hate too strong a word? How about, I strongly dislike it. It seems kind of silly to put so much work into a thing I really only eat because It's The Thing You Do At Thanksgiving… (in my family, that is). But everyone else likes it. Maybe even Carla will eat it. And it's essential to making the gravy I like. Well. I suppose I will ask my mother to help me. She is very good about helping – the giblets don't squick her out and she is masterful with timing things so they are all ready at once. Why those genes did not express in my DNA, I don't know, but here we are.
I feel kind of giddy, like I've had too much caffeine. Combination of pre-Thanksgiving excitement/anxiety, I suppose. That'll get your blood buzzing!
Plus, as per usual, the end of the year just snowballs out of control. I don't yet have holiday cards! I haven't purchased a single Christmas present! I have only one single idea what to get Carla for Hanukkah! My mother-in-law arrives two weeks from today!
Please tell me something calming. I originally typed "clamming." You could tell me something clamming too, if you like. But something calming would be MOST WELCOME.
In the meantime, we all need to eat in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Perhaps we shall go for easy and warming. And then we'll wing it, afterwards, with leftovers and charcuterie boards.
Dinners for Thanksgiving Week 2022
- Chicken Paprikas: Hearty and spicy and easy and good.
- French Onion Soup: So yummy, so cheesy, so perfect for snowy, pre-Thanksgiving eating.
- Oven Baked Pork Chops with Steamed Broccoli: My husband requested this meal, so on the plan it goes!
- THANKSGIVING!!!!! The menu is as follows:
- Turkey: I use a recipe from America's Test Kitchen, which has rarely led me astray.
- Candied yams with marshmallows: America's Test Kitchen, baby. But I've re-created it here, alongside my lovely experiments at Charcoal Topping.
- Salad: Can I persuade my father to make a Caesar Salad? This is the question.
Where are you spending Thanksgiving, US friends? And what are you most looking forward to stuffing into your pie holeeating? What are you having for non-Thanksgiving dinner, non-US friends?
It seems as though I am doing NaBloPoMo this month, which is 30 blog posts in 30 days. (Will I make it??? Only time will tell.) Details at San's blog here.
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