Thanksgiving Feast 2012

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and even though we didn't host any family or friends like we usually do, we didn't hold back on the cooking!  We'd had a turkey taking up space in the freezer since I don't know how long (always hoping to smoke one during grillin' season).  And once you commit to the turkey, it snowballed into mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, veggies, brown-n-serve rolls, the works!  And while we normally would have stopped with a pumpkin pie, our house sitter and significant other were "stopping by for dessert", so I ended up making a chocolate cheesecake - normally only produced when we're giving most of it away like a potluck or other holiday party.

I had been running short on sleep lately, so as I slept in some on Thursday, Melinda woke at the crack of 7:30 and started making stuffing!  Here she is shown loading up the turkey cavity and giving the stuffed bird a nice butter massage...

Last week during grocery shopping, Melinda had loaded us up on Brussels sprouts, so we were looking for a new way to cook them up other than steamed.  In Joy of Cooking we found "Brussels Sprouts Cockaigne" (I don't know how to pronounce it either), where you brown up a few cloves of garlic in a few tablespoons of butter until it browns, remove the garlic, then cook the sprouts split side down till cooked.  They were quite tasty, though I'm sure loaded up with a lot more calories than steamed!

 

The turkey came out great, as did the stuffing.  But one of the highlights is always the Chocolate Cheesecake (again, from Joy of Cooking).  Here you can see Pixel overseeing the re-packaging of the cheesecake Thanksgiving morning, with Lucy studying the situation from below.  While yes, Pixel is allowed on the counter (at 16 years old, he has earned that privilege), he shows no interest in people food and regarded the cheesecake as he would my shoes!  The only cat who paid any attention to us eating was Scruffy, recently passed, who would come begging, triggering other cats to do the same.  This holiday, no one came around for handouts, almost sad to say...

 

We've had a good year and have much to be thankful for.  We're both healthy and gainfully employed, and have been able to relax and travel as we desire - in particular spending time touring the state with our new Russian family.  Similarly our families back in the Midwest are doing well and hope to catch up with them in a few weeks in our "holiday" trip.  Our great sadness this year has been the loss of our dear Scruffy a couple months ago, Atticus going missing in June, and of Marley's passing about a year ago.  Our cats are our family members and it is always sad to lose a dear one.  And of course, we were blessed with Lucy early in the year, though it has been a trying year dealing with some of her issues.  But for the moment, all is calm on the home front.  And while it was a quiet holiday at home, sometimes those are just the sort of break one needs!