Happy Thanksgiving!

It is possible that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. Though it is a quintessential USA holiday, it should be a universal one -- a day when we can sit back and give thanks for all that is good in our lives and the world. It is easy to spend most of the time thinking on all the bad things that are going on, but it is important not to forget the good things, especially in a world where so many go without.

So I'm going to take a moment and acknowledge those good things and say some thanks: for being employed and having a roof over my head, for having a loving family, for being blessed with so many wonderful and truly exceptional friends, for being healthy, and for being loved. I know I am blessed.

My apartment is full of the smell of Thanksgiving. The turkey is in the oven cooking away. This year I'm making a cider glazed turkey that was brined overnight in a cider/water/salt/allspice bath. The skin is already browned and now I'm just going back in every so often to reglaze the flesh now cozily protected under foil. I expected the bird to take a good 5+ hours to roast as it's an 18-pounder, but the breast temp is already 155 degrees and it has only been roasting for a little over 2 hours. I expect this is because of the brining - I did read that a brined turkey will cook faster. But still. I've lowered the oven to 325, to slow things down a bit.

The stuffing is a fairly traditional sausage, apple and raison one using fresh sourdough bread. And though I was only planning on bringing the bird and the stuffing, I realized I couldn't have a Thanksgiving dinner without some sweet potatoes, so I also prepped a sweet potatoe dish with brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon. It may not be sweet potatoe pie, but I expect President Obama would enjoy it just fine where he joining us for dinner. Oh, yum, I can't wait to get to MH/EI's place so we can start the eating!

It will be a good group of us for dinner -- 8 total. Then the missing usuals will show up for dessert. It promises to be a fun afternoon and evening and I am especially thankful that this year it is at someone else's house. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

DimpleWalrus Shout Out!

I'm lucky to be surrounded by friends who are interesting, creative, fun and, yes, crazy. So while it's not that surprising when I get to do a shout out to one of them, it sure is special.

In the recent edition of 7X7: Insider's Guide to the Best of San Francisco, I guess it's the November/December printed edition, DimpleWalrus's 300 word love letter entry for her neighborhood, Hayes Valley, won the love letter of the month and was published. You can see the web version of the article here: http://www.7x7.com/content/e/hood-month-hayes-valley. But it would be better if you picked up a copy of the magazine - it just looks cooler to see the short and sweet essay in print, on glossy paper, surrounded by some nice neighborhood pics.

I sure am proud of that lady. Makes Bellhops all squishy and happy and cool and stuff.