Giving thanks....

So it is Thanksgiving time and you know I had to do some cooking. In fact, somehow, I ended up cooking the entire dinner, save about 2 things this year! Oh, and we ended up having 12 people.

After coordinating all the grocery lists etc. with my parents, I headed up to their house on Wednesday, complete with the other things I needed from my house to cook for dinner, and my dog. One Thanksgiving emergency was averted when I realized that I had left the hosue without all the brine that I had prepared for the turkey. Luckily, I was just about to pass an exit for a mall, the last one for another 100 miles, that had a Williams-Sonoma in it. It was right at 10am so I rolled up to the store right when they opened and bought some new brine. Whew!

My normally 3 hour trip ended up taking about 6 hours however because of what turned out to be a tractor trailer accident that blocked off the entire road. In true high tech fashion, while waiting in traffic for about 2 hours, I checked my email, IM'd Brunsli, and, when I couldn't take it any longer, searched for a traffic website that would tell me exactly what the problem was with the traffic! That was how I learned that there was a tractor trailer that had decided to fold itself in half across the highway about 4 miles up from where I was, spewing cardboard all over the place. After 2 hours, 20 miles, and a sorely needed bathroom break (it was touch and go there for a while!) I was able to continue cruising down the road at a regular clip.

Then it was crunch time. My mother, who had gotten more and more OCD about cleanliness as she has gotten older, has decided that she wanted her kitchen to be clean and most of the dishes clean and put away by the time guests arrived and had called me about 6 times over the course of the week prior to me coming to bug me about various aspects of the meal preparation. I finally had to tell her to "stop micromanaging my Thanksgiving cooking!" Here is what was on the menu and what I had to prepare:

• Brined Cranberry Glazed Turkey
• Stuffing with Duck & Cherry Sausage and Porcini Mushrooms
• Smoked Corn and Grape Sauté
• Collard Greens with Golden Raisins
• Triple Cherry Pie
• Maple Bourbon Pecan Pie with Wheat-flavored crust

My mom made Monkey Bread, a holiday tradition, and other guests brought macaroni and cheese, baby artichokes and green salad (a green jello salad with pineapple, pecans and cream cheese, Yum!)

After the guests left, with all the cooking....and eating, I had to take about a 2 hours nap! It was a good day!