Thanksgiving Day is Alway Extra Special

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to cook. I think Thanksgiving is extra special for those of us who love food. Being that I am still on best rest from my back surgery, we had Thanksgiving at our house. I was able to stay on my back most of day but still visit with everyone. Alex (my brother in law) came over early to help with the turkey. I can neither bend nor pick up anything heavy and the turkey was an 18-pounder.

In attendance were: my sister in law, Jenna, her husband Alex and two sons, Alec and Brenan; my father in law, Dan, his wife Barbara, her son Tommy his spouse Anthony and Tania’s Cousin Carla. The best part of the holidays is getting together with family.

Tania did an outstanding job decorating the table, as you can see in the pictures.


She could be an interior decorator if she wanted. She bought a bunch of peacock tail feathers and incorporated them into the center place and put one on each napkin. She also spent the time to make napkin rings with freshwater pearls. This all really made the meal extra special and likely helped improve the flavor of the food – you eat with our eyes first.


My new house has an awesome kitchen, however, the oven is rather small and for such a nice kitchen you would expect two ovens not one. Or least one big one. I must say, this was one of the few disappointments I have with the house. Well, the oven redeemed itself this Thanksgiving. The oven has a built in temperature probe. We put the turkey in the oven, inserted the probe and just set the oven to turn off when the turkey hit the right temperature. You all know that I am a pretty good cook, and this year’s turkey was by far the best I ever cooked. However, all I really did was give direction. Alex did all the work.

In fact, the whole day gave me the opportunity to play executive chef. I pulled out some new recipes, Tania bought the food, then while I gave directions from the couch, Tania, Jenna, and Barbara were the sue chiefs. I felt like chief Ramsey barking out directions left and right (well, at least a nicer more well behaved version of chief Ramsey). Everyone said they had a great time. Conversation comes naturally while you are working and nobody was bored. I think all the extra hands and love could also be tasted in the food. I tried a new recipe of gravy that used base of white wine, chicken stock, giblets, parsley and thyme that simmered for about three hours. The last step is adding the drippings from the bottom of the turkey pan. Tasters said it was well worth the effort. (bonus points were that it was that is hada less fat than typical gravy)

Tania is on a kick of adding pomegranate seeds to her fruit salads. TASTEE! Dan loved it. Especially since he has never ever eaten a pomegranate seed in his entire life. He couldn’t believe how good they were.

The only bad thing about the day was that Amber couldn’t be there. She had to work so she couldn’t come down from Santa Cruz. Our first Thanksgiving without her. :( I don’t know what we’ll do when both Crystal and Amber are away at college.

I hope all of you had a Thanksgiving just as good.