A Happy Thanksgiving

This year, Joe and I are celebrating Thanksgiving at home, just the two of us. I'd been thinking about what to do for dinner, not wanting to spend the day cooking a huge feast, but wanting to plan something nice. One day last week after seeing their ad, I asked Joe if a take-out turkey dinner from Delius appealed. It's one of our favorite local restaurants and I knew the meal would be terrific. Joe said, "Nah, let's just have pizza!" (This is always his suggestion, since it is his favorite food.) But pizza didn't sound very special to me, so a day later I mused out loud, "I think I'll try a new dish from that great slow cooker cookbook Roger gave us," and left it at that.

I'm a slow cooking enthusiast. Throw some stuff in the pot in the morning before work and come home at the end of the day to a house full of savory aromas and a ready meal. Also, slow cooking has resolved most of my kitchen disasters, the ones that began after I'd become a focused artist and all my creativity transferred from the kitchen to the studio. Even success with the basics alluded me after that. But slow cooking was different, so I started doing everything that way. A happy solution, I thought.

But Joe thought differently. "Everything tastes the same and it all ends up looking like mush," he said after his patience finally ran out. So, I went back to my old efforts until Roger gave me The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Finlayson. It's terrific! Everything in it is really good!

Even so, after I voiced my idea about a slow cooker Thanksgiving meal, Joe suddenly saw the light about a to-go from Delius.

Yippee!!

Warming up in the oven as I write this, our meal from Delius will be the following:

Roasted red bell pepper and tomato soup

Turkey breast, stuffed with onions, pine nuts, herbs and pancetta

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes with gravy

Pine nut and sage stuffing

Spicy green bean salad

Homemade shallot bread

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Here is our lovely Delius feast, just before digging in. We are eating outside, since it is a beautiful day in the 80's here in Southern California.

Subtle Sophie waits for a few nibbles.

We are thankful today for this wonderful feast, for each other, for our family and friends, for art, for knowledge and the ability to learn, and for much more. I hope the coming year will bring a better world, peace and understanding.

May we all try to help rather than engage in political games. I will try my best.