Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday. Kind of odd, since we barely celebrated it when I was a kid, and we NEVER had turkey. Mom and Dad had both been scarred by years of turkey and its leftovers and were determined not to subject their kids to that. So I guess my love of Thanksgiving is reactionary...and fueled by my love of food, unfortunately.

I'm an OK cook, have had my share of successes and disasters. Working in the kitchen centers me. I like to defer to recipes, but I'm learning to trust my eye and identify flavors. Every year, I try a new side dish, and we almost always spend the day at home. Windows open, weather permitting, Macy's parade on the tube, relaxing and enjoying each other's company. I look forward to dragging family members out to our place someday, but for now, this works for us.

Hubs usually smokes a turkey boob on the grill, which tastes amazing, but we were concerned about the cooker not sustaining one more smoke job, plus we were looking for something different, so I'm brining a boob this year. There are new side dish recipes, I'm thinking of making rolls even though they won't necessarily get eaten (in the face of said side dishes), and Paula Deen's Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie for dessert, because Hubs adores it. This year I'm going old skool, roasting the pumpkin from Skytop, making apple butter from the rest of the Skytop apples, and making the crust from scratch ala Ashley English. I can't wait to discover the flavor differences.

Spoke with rental agent in NC and while we did get rejected for credit, they're still willing to have a cosigner, so I'll be moving on that paperwork this weekend. We're still in limbo, but I'm more confident after talking with her. I'll have plenty keeping me busy this weekend...I want to make white and wheat bread from scratch, try a new cookie recipe, do some side work on the freelance assignment (that she didn't assign, but will be good practice for me), pack the crap out of our house, and make lists. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty.

Too much to list that I'm thankful for...the trick will be reminding Hubs of this attitude. It's been a shit year for him, losing Dad and Grandma both, and it's harder to find the happy in the face of that, never mind that I'm uprooting us. He's ready to move too, but it's real scary the way we're going about it; and reminding someone who doesn't have faith to begin with, that he needs to acquire some for a specific venture, gets tricky.

Image from here.