Thanksgiving v.2.017

This may be the first year we've celebrated our Thanksgiving after the date in the USofA.  That had everything to do with the Advent season.  We have our Thanksgiving feast the week before we go to René and Rima's for their First Advent feast.  Advent is late this year, so, so was Thanksgiving.

Other things don't change - bring out the grandma china, set the table, do a lot of cooking.  The menu stays pretty much the same, too, except for the soup, and I have a bit of sly fun making the guests guess what it is.  They were totally stumped this year - celery? salsify? parsley root? is there ginger in there? is that a carrot?  No, no, no.

 OK, enough.  It's weird, tasting something and not knowing what it is. The mystery soup was - drum roll -  cream of fennel with Pernod and a smoked salmon garnish.  It was delicious, and there's just enough left over for two small bowls tomorrow.

The turkey was our smallest ever - only 12 pounds!!  And by far the most unattractive.  Lord love a duck, that was an ugly bird.  Butterflying the bird doesn't help but somehow when we flattened it, it was a bit off center and when we tried to prop it up for a photo, it just splayed again.  No matter, it tasted great!

As usual, as soon as the food arrived on the table, things got quiet!  Except of course for sighs.  It's not that I am such a great cook; this is just good food and it's great to share it with friends.  And frankly, if I don't get cornbread dressing with sage at least once a year, I get more cranky than usual.

It's crispy outside - but sunny - and a walk after the meal was welcome.

And after the dessert - the usual, expected and loved Key lime pie and pecan pie (followed by usual, expected and loved Schnapps) -  well, it was time  to clean up.

Werner got to washing and I sorted and dried between following the FSU-UF game.  What's this??  I even got live radio instead of the cheesy chart with the dotted lines??!  And we won!!  Yeah for our team!  

We have been keeping good notes the last couple of years, so this year we have ZERO left-over mashed potatoes, but still too many sweet potatoes.  Go figure.  Sadly, the notes don't always seem to help. Other leftovers are manageable but I'm going to have to find some sweet potato dishes in a hurry.

And in a couple of weeks we'll have some house guests so maybe I'll just keep out the grandma dishes for a bit.