Happy Thanksgiving.

A day early, but hey, tomorrow I'll be too busy to blog.

Just a small intimate turkey day with best friends and eldest DD and the Hubs and me. Perfect. Easy? No. Still gotta do all the cooking, but compared to the big crowds I used to have, 5 people is a piece of cake. I don't have to cut up veggies ad infinitum, or make any recipe in quadruplicate. Sometimes I miss the family crowd, but given that I did 99% of the work, I don't miss the exhaustion any more. I can sit down and eat happily with everybody, they all arrive on time, they help out. What could be better.

The menu?

Cheese and crackers and veggies for starters.

Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, brussel sprouts (a new recipe this year. I got so tired of haricoats verts.), sweet potatoes with pineapple, roasted red-skinned potatoes, pickles, olives, all the other stuff.

Dessert? Whatever Judy is bringing, plus we bought (gasp!) an apple pie from Trader Joe's, and I will probably make some meringue kisses. Coffee, tea, the usual.

BTW, Trader Joe's apple pie is wonderful.

And that's it. Lots of stuff, but pretty simple. All checked out to not mes with Judy's allergies. Relatively low sodium and low cholesterol for those of us at that stage of life. Probably not too too caloric. OK, caloric, but it could be a lot worse. We never did the green bean casserole, mostly because it's dairy and doesn't fit in with a kosher meal. I think I'll cook up the sprouts, halve them, and then mix them up with sauteed and browned onions. Or something like that. The sweets? Cut up, mixed with some pineapple tidbits, and baked. Regular potatoes? Roasted with rosemary and garlic, just cause we all love them.

Any how, you get the picture, and I'm off to the icky part of the day's work: Putting away all the sewing stuff that lives on the dining room table.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving, be grateful for what you have, and don't eat too, too much. And stay away from the malls on Black Friday.