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!