You Requested: Pictures of Food

I have this brother--well, actually, I have three brothers--who loves to cook. More than that, though, its what he does. He's a chef. I called him on Thanksgiving. To say hello and 'Happy Thanksgiving' of course, to him and his beautiful family. One thing led to another and as usual, we started in on discussing food. "Food, glorious food!" I asked some technical questions about roasting turkeys, and he said, "Make sure you take some pictures. I want to see."

"Ummm... maybe." was my reply. But, I asked Dave to take some pictures and they turned out so lovely, that I am not at all ashamed to show my big brother, the chef, the food I made. I am not ashamed of you seeing them either.

Even though the smallest turkey I could find was 15 pounds and we probably only ate 8 to 16 ounces of it, it was so worth it. I called Caiden and Elliott to the table as I was still setting it and they clamored and climbed aboard the bench and were just in awe of everything. The table cloth: "Ooooh, wow!" The turkey: "Whooooa! mmmmmm...." The mashed potatoes, "Wow!" etc. etc. etc. for each following dish. We had roasted cauliflower, roasted butternut squash with sage, deviled eggs, baked corn (a family tradition and favorite growing up), mashed potatoes, gravy, and turkey.

They only ate a tiny bit, but it was so funny. They tasted everything as it came to the table. "Oooooo, I like your squash, Mom." It was awesome. But as soon as we sat down to eat, their stomachs were suddenly and mysteriously full. Oh well. Lots and lots and lots of leftovers. Lots. Did I say lots, already?

We had company for dessert. Apple pie, cheese cake, and pumpkin pie. I made the apple pie and cheesecake the night before and Elliott came to check things out. "Oooooo, I like your pie, Mom! What kind of pie is that?"

"Its apple pie."

"Oooh! I wanted pumpkin pie!"

Luckily, his grandma had bought him a pie pumpkin as a decoration, because it was like 9 o'clock the night before Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving eve?) and I was not prepared for pumpkin pie. So, I took his pumpkin and roasted it and made the pie in the morning, right before putting the turkey in to roast. Phew! But it turns out, that evening, a good friend brought over a pumpkin pie that his grandmother had as "an extra." Oh, well. It was a labor of love.

We have a few gluten intolerant friends who came over for dessert so I had buttered a few tartlette molds and poured some of each of the pie fillings into them and cooked them up, too. And for some reason, we had cherry Jello, as well. We whipped up a quick batch of whipped cream, pulled out the vanilla ice cream and dug in...

And that concludes Thanksgiving food talk around here. I'm sure you all have had enough of seeing Thanksgiving food... So, until next year, "Goodbye, Thanksgiving. I am thankful for you!"