weekend update, november 26, 2012

A feast is made for laughter....

so said some anonymous someone, too busy enjoying himself to notice that he'd concisely phrased the one common element of all good feasts across time and around the world and forgotten to put his name to the phrasing.
Well, Mr/Ms whoever you are, our feasts, both the main event and its sequel, proved your anonymous maxim.

As a witness,I give you my great-nephew Elliott. Here he is, shifting his (eeeee! adorable!) baby-teethed jaw from side to side as he attempts to cross his (eeeeee! adorable!) eyes:


I was using both hands for eating, so I handed Elliott my camera and asked him to take pictures of all his favorite parts of the Thanksgiving feast at his great-grandmother's house.

Highlights? Besides the magic of really seeing the holiday as a 5 year old does? Besides said 5 year old leading me to notice that his Granhat's house is a wonderzoo of little pretend animals? (Unbelieveable, how I'd never noticed that.) The food highlights? They included:
This chocolate brownie pie that Elliot's mum (aka the prettiest lady in the world, whom Elliott  told me last Thanksgiving he would marry, except....you know, that would be silly...cause..cause...she's already married to daddy....)
and asparagus and tomato salad , which Liz had twice made for friends in Lubbock. She'd told me that among the college guy set it disappeared faster than cheap TVs on Black Friday, and I was eager to try it: 


 She promises awesome, and delivers awesome.
 this is hereafter known as awesparagus salad.



As is our tradition, a contingent of us went exploring on friday, and as is also our tradition, we did not get trampled, stabbed or screamed at. Instead we discovered a great homebrewing shop in Dallas, I got to introduce the others to Penzey's spice wonderland, we found Christmas ornaments full of inexplicably random cuteness at Crate and Barrel, and at lunctime, we happened upon a quiet little Indian place-

my Black Friday companions.
sometimes it's the company that makes the difference
between inconvenience and adventure.

 Thank you India Palace for introducing me to Madras Soup! I actually went back to buffet for THIRDS! And look at how easy the recipe is- I'll be stirring up a pot of it sometime this week.

And, yes, we did a replay of the feast on Friday night. And the adult children left for their respective homes leftover laden, as I'd hoped they would.
I asked Rob (he's the bearded one in the pic above) what it meant that we had not one, but two Thanksgiving meals. Does that mean, I asked him, that we're twice as gluttonous as the rest of America, or twice as grateful?
 His answer? (which for some reason i want to hang on a string in my soul as if it were a Christmas ornament made of glass and silver)
"I think it means that we have alot of ways of making really good food, and not enough excuses to eat it together"
Besides the company around the table, the star of the show was this roast turkey. I read this excellent Alton Brown turkey tutorial and brined the bird accordingly. Really. Combining the two recipes- Alton's brining/no basting and roasting the thing breast side down as directed in the first recipe made for meat that was so juicy and tasty that I found myself wondering "why oh why I only cook a turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas?".
I mean really- it's affordable and available all year. And now I know easy ways of making it nice to eat.
 Would my world really tip off its axis and start rotating backwards if, on an ordinary day, I roasted a turkey instead of a chicken?
Hmmm. Haven't the Mayans predicted the end of the world as we know it on December 21st?
I think I may issue a challenge to the universe by cooking a turkey on December 19th.

And- the smokey bacon chili? If you're still hunting for your own personal holy grail of chili recipes, give it a try.

especially if you get your kicks by watching people you love happily eating food they love.

overindulgence, however, is not the fault of the cook.

Guys, I hope, in the words of my friend Chrissy, that your holiday gave you food that filled your soul and your tummy til you were satisfied and then some.
And if it didn't, then I hope that this week brings you peace and recovery.
I hope that as you sort through the metaphorical leftovers, you find an unremembered moment of adventure, wonder, happiness, gratitude.
I hope what you remember is love.
Everything else is just gravy anyway.