Chilly, wet air hangs over Savannah. By 5:30, it's dark. The streets are nearly deserted. Our kitchen is filled with uncooked food waiting for assembly. All signs point to Thanksgiving - one of my favorites times of year.

Mike and I hang out at home. We will be making a meal big enough for ten, although it will be just us and the cats. On the menu: shrimp dip with crackers as an appetizer then fresh turkey (never frozen!), gravy, stuffing, mashed and sweet potatoes, baked bean casserole, cranberries, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Lots of coffee for later.

I can't wait. I'm thankful I can eat like a queen once a year. I'm thankful for the usual goodness and am especially thankful for all of you who hang out and debate here, listen to America's Debate Radio and join in on chats.

So what are you doing/where are you going/what are you eating for Thanksgiving?

Best wishes to MIke and Jaime-eat well and ahve a safe one.

I'm packing up the kids and the wife and I are heading to Kansas where we visitmy brother in law and his family. His wife can cook up a storm and just loves to host events, so for her, it's holiday nirvana. We're just greatful at not having to host it ourselves.

Happy thanksgiving, Jaime!

Tomorrow we will be having four dinner guests over. On the menu:

-Fried turkey (never tried this before...any tips? wish me luck)
-Honey baked, glazed ham
-cheese soup (Wertz's recipe from way back)
-sour dough bread bowls for the soup
-Salad
-mashed potatoes
-stuffing
-gravy (I'm not quite certain how this will turn out without the turkey drippings which I typically use when I roast the turkey...again, suggestions are very welcome on this)
-homemade cranberry sauce (this stuff is ambrosial)
-green bean casserole
-Pumpkin and chocolate chip pecan pie (homemade, always)

I think that's all.

There is so much to be thankful for...for starters, we aren't in the process of moving again yet, which is huge. We got a three month reprieve and won't be moving until March. Hurray! I'm also thankful that we are staying in Virginia (just three hours south of where we are now)....last word we were going to Alaska but that has changed. I think I'd like Alaska, but Virginia is less of a lifestyle change.

What else? I'm thankful for my health, and having a healthy family (knock on wood). I'm thankful for having an abundance of things to eat, and never wanting for anything. I'm thankful to have found this forum, and all of the wonderful folks who post here, which has certainly been very educational as well as fun. And finally, I'm extremely grateful for all of the luck I've had in life, which is more than my fair share. I am very blessed.

Have a great thanksgiving, everyone!

My Thanksgiving will also be an event for 2 (my nephew and I) plus the 4-legged kids.

Since he (the nephew, not the 4-legged kids)'s a vegetarian, he's having some sort of fake "pot roast" , I'm having an orange-glazed Cornish game hen, then there's mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, stuffed portabello mushrooms, and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Then we'll plunk our very full selves on the couch and watch Thanksgiving football.

I'm thankful I don't have to schlep anywhere for Thanskgiving, for the company of my nephew, the fact that I'm still employed and my health is fairly decent, and for my family, friends and my critters.

I second that!!

As for Thanksgiving on the west coast. We are hosting and will be having two families over. There will be my husband and I, with our two boys and our friends (one couple has a daughter and the other couple has three daughters). It will be a nice mix and lots of action with 6 kids running around.

All the best to everyone!

We're having my wife's family over and I'm cooking the turkey (and several of the side dishes).

And, of course, watching the football games all afternoon!

Mrs P - don't burn the house down!
About the gravy take the little gift they always give you in the carcass of the bird, the various innards and make a stock with them..I don't use the neck personally as I find it can sometimes be very fatty and make the stock oily. Add onions, carrots and celery, any herbs you like, don't even bother to chop them up or anything, just broken up, as you will strain the stock. Once cooked and reduced ..strain and use as you would the drippings.



We are having a quite dinner with just my cute, sweet immediate family. My parents, bothers, sisters et al. all went to FL. for the holiday and I am honestly so tired of having to trek my whole family to a state I swore I would never return to ever again...past three family gatherings have been in FL. So we decided to stay here.

I let my kids pick the menu this year and they will be doing the cooking, well I will be doing it too. They went through all the kids recipe books and this is what they come up with:
Bright Pink Fruit Dip - it is just raspberry and cream cheese dip with Fruit
Ham
Chicken with Sweet Stuffing
Popovers
Carrot Pennies
Mashed Potatoes
Baked Yams- something I added I am a huge yam fan
Homemade Lemon and Lime Soda Pop
Carrot Cake

I hope you all enjoy yourselves and have lots of good food and great cheer.

Thanksgiving!

Oh man, is this ever the right year for it or what? We survived yet another long period of unemployment for me and fell in love all over again. What more can be said? I'll write about it, but not here.

The family life is not a big deal this year, and for people like us, those looking at the sunset, that's fine. We do family in small quantities anymore, and often the family consists of those whom we meet from time to time, from place to place. It's very lovely and nice.

Did it different this time around. Most of the cooking is finished and simply needs warming up, kind of doing leftovers on the Turkey Day instead of all fresh, and we're thinking that's better, less pressure self-imposed, pre-aged for that adult flavor. A nod to our mothers.

The meat is domesticated duck, fully thawed and marinated in a special (that is, improvised) orange sauce that has no recipe and will never be recreated. It's going into the smoker that I'm about to light and watch over as it heats, a barrel-styled thing ala Memphis in May. It was once black, now aged to gray.

It's warm, very warm for this time of year and distance to the sky. The woods are quiet and calm, a fine day to cook outside while Lydia enjoys the comfort of the big wooden tent.

What am I thankful for? Everything, including the hard times. Love grows in that garden.

Special thanks to Jaime, Mike and all the good people (which means every single one of you) who participate on AD. You are all also part of this strange and delightful family, like it or not

Let's not get too tearful here. It's still early. I'm looking forward to heavy brews and bumps of cheap bourbon this afternoon, a sleepy-eyed football game or two, an irritating phone call from my last remaining brother that will take days or weeks to get over (maybe he'll forget this year), and possibly some sort of crisis regarding the grandkid, who has entered her puberty years.

Ah life. It's good that we have a day to reflect, be grateful and maybe spar with our old opponents whom we love with all our hearts. Then there's the football and beer . . . there really must be a God.

26 pounds died for my sins and its going to be good eating.

happy t day everybody

I flew in early this morning from the the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, CA...........so it is indeed good to be home again for the holidays.
I am not the biggest fan of Turkey, nor do I get all jazzed about Thanksgiving, but four days off after being gone for a month is certainly something to be thankful for. Since I won't be home for next year's Thanksgiving, this one is more special than most.
The wife is making a roast, there's cold beer in the fridge, and I am treasuring the time off with my two little princesses.......for a brief moment in time.........life is grand!

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody on and especially Mike and Jaime who make all of this possible.