I can’t believe the second week of December is upon us and I never blogged about Thanksgiving OR my wonderful birthday. Once we hit December Santa and his reindeer singing White Christmas certainly take precedence over most everything else, so forgive me if my blogs are less than chronological.
I love Thanksgiving. I think it’s my favorite holiday, because, well, it’s all about the food!
Ursula, one of my oldest friends, lives in Columbus with her husband and kids, and along with being friends we share a birthday! But because of the distance between us we never have the opportunity to spend it together, until this year. So the weekend before Thanksgiving we headed for Columbus and arrived during the Ohio State University Buckeye fan frenzy that is known as a home game. I was glad I brought lots of red. Steve had the good fortune of attending the game with Ursula’s husband Mark, who is a professor at the school. And Urs and I got some girl time, but not before doing a stadium visit and seeing the band and the cheerleaders’ grand entrance, complete with Brutus the Buckeye’s accompaniment. What the &^%$ is a buckeye? He looked like a big ol’ chestnut. Ohio State defeated Indiana as predicted, but it was a nail-biter vs. the forecasted rout.
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Later that evening we made our way to The Refectory, an elegant restaurant in what was once an church, and had a delightful pre-birthday celebration complete with wonderful things like arugula and frisee salad with pork belly, and grilled bison. And that was just my dinner. There were amazing desserts. And Champagne. Lots of Champagne.
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Urs and Mark’s daughter Roisin was home for Thanksgiving from her job with the Fed (yes, that Fed; very bright and accomplished child). So she made her mother and me a chocolate birthday cake with white frosting; my favorite. And Mark made us a great Pasta Carbonara birthday dinner, which we got to enjoy with them and their two sons Seamus and Declan. We had a great weekend. Did I mention there was Champagne? Lots of Champagne?
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We were delayed getting home with the winds from hell blowing southwest to northeast and right through Columbus, but we didn’t have a Planes, Trains and Automobiles experience and were home the same day, in plenty of time for Thanksgiving prep.
I love Thanksgiving. I think it’s my favorite holiday, because, well, it’s all about the food! I have an electronic record of my grocery shopping list and a three-week timeline with a Thanksgiving Day hourly to-do list. My friends say I make it look easy, and I think it is, because of that level of organization and a whole bunch of help from my friends. When my friends and family arrive at the door I have time to socialize and enjoy them, and oh, by the way, we have an amazing meal. Andrea brings her butternut squash lasagna; we have a turkey, a ham, Brussels sprouts with shallots and mustard seeds, sausage and sage stuffing, carrot and turnip, giblet gravy, and cranberry relish. The gravy and relish would almost have been left in the kitchen if not for my cousin Anita’s joke about my late brother’s love of the canned stuff, which caused me to pop up and retrieve them.
The occasional side dish changes from year to year, as do the appetizers. This year we had roasted pears with herbed goat cheese and bacon, tapenade, and the most delicious warm cashews. All so easy!
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The links to these delicious recipes are here:
Roasted Pears with Goat Cheese and Bacon
Our desserts can vary from year to year as well; raisin tarts, Anita’s pecan pie, pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce, Denise’s apple pie, and decaf coffee ice cream! Jinx made, especially for me, homemade decaffeinated coffee ice cream. I provided the coffee syrup and she did her magic. I haven’t had it in years because of the caffeine, so this was such a wonderful treat. More family arrived later with fabulous cookies to add to the mix.
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We headed to Vermont for the weekend, and brought the leftovers to enjoy with my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, and our friends Kate and Ron. It could have been a blowout from a calorie perspective, but I indulged without overdoing, enjoying every last bite of my mother-in-law’s cheesecake birthday surprise for me.
So how did this affect my overall progress? Well, I didn’t explode. I maintained my weight through about two solid weeks of seasonal wonderfulness.
So I’m back on track, with the exception of the occasional Christmas cookie. And Champagne. Lots of Champagne.
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