Happy Thanksgiving

We are having an experimentally traditional dinner today. We prepped the turkey last night before bed and set the alarm for 4:30 am and tucked the bird in the electric roaster at 275 degrees and we are roasting the 20 pound bird for 12 hours.

I have roasted the turkey neck with a quartered onion and 2 carrots until dark brown and it (along with all the scraped bits from the roasting tray) is now simmering away with some chicken stock. This will become gravy.

The pumpkin pie is in the oven alongside a reconstituted dried apple pie with crumble topping. My recipe book calls a crumble topped apple pie, French Apple Pie and, you all know, I am fond of all things French. I reconstituted the apples with farm stand apple cider.

My sweet potatoes are roasted and waiting for butter and brown sugar. I zested and sectioned a navel orange and chopped it in the processor with a bag of fresh cranberries, sugar and ginger and it is now getting acquainted in the fridge. I have the canned variety to serve also for the less daring members of the family. It is TART.

I still have stuffing to prepare (out of the bird), potatoes to peel, cook and mash, and Brussels sprouts to steam. Cream to whip. Dinner will be served at 5. I also have a floral centerpiece to fabricate from a market bouquet I purchased at work.

There is nothing else in the fridge. I am amazed that we managed to eat every other thing in there over the past three or four days. Yesterday we had leftover Pumpkin Fettucine, leftover BBQ pork and a lovely wild green salad with oil and balsamic vinegar. It was divine together. We were both surprised as it is a very weird combo.

I still need to take a shower and get dressed. My neighbor has been over already and brought us a lovely card and bottle of wine. She is thankful we pick up her mail and take in her garbage cans. I'm thankful she's my neighbor. She's thankful we are her neighbors.

I am thankful for a healthy family; a strong, paid for, roof over my head; good food to eat; good friends and neighbors; a good dog; a good job; and the prospect of a good game of Scrabble this evening after dinner. Today is a very GOOD day!