Chemo break for Thanksgiving.

Nov 23 2010           

And another GOOD DAY, o my, this is living!!! I remember having a real life. It was a little like today only faster paced. So it is true that chemo week 1 is HELL ON WHEELS; chemo week 2 is HELL; and chemo week 3 is almost normal. I still have fatigue but am not hurting or gagging or worse. I even went to the grocery store today and made it all the way around the outer ring. We did some last minute shopping before Thanksgiving cooking begins sometime tomorrow.

Let’s talk TURKEY DAY for all our European friends. Thanksgiving is an American excuse for pure gluttony. Friends and family gather around noon and eat until night. When I was a child every thing was start from scratch cooking and fresh never frozen meat, all pumped out of Grandma farm house kitchen. For the 20 or so immediate family we always had a turkey with herbed bread stuffing, a ham,  mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes [yams] covered with marshmallows, parsnips, hand made fluffy noodles, corn, green beans, peas, a  few jello molds with fruit, and that’s about it for the first round. After an eating break [women did dishes, men watched football, kids played] there was another gathering at the table for dessert. O, another feast!! A table full of cakes, pies, cookies O MY. Then if you stayed long enough into the evening you could go back for “leftovers.” My favorite leftover was mashed potatoes covered with gravy or Grandma’s noodles. Now I recognize all that grease was the real flavoring for my favorite foods!!

So with this is my childhood frame of reference, guess what Thanksgiving Dinner is like at MY house now that I am the Grandma!! I’m not the cook this year and am blessed with a “guest chef” coming in from IL. The menu will be a 20 pound fresh range raised turkey, stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes, asparagus, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, and salad. And dessert will be hand made pies, pecan and pumpkin. Son-in-law prefers key lime pie so he gets it of course; but it is purchased. Sorry, son. And I added WINES.

Let’s talk about pumpkin pie. I know that this is not common in Europe. And to you guys it sounds like “green bean pie” would sound to us. So let’s look at the recipe. Pureed cooked pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger all blended together and baked in a deep pie pastry shell. This makes a sweet and spicy custard pie that is often served with whipped cream or ice cream on top. Quite nice, really.  Of course I happen to like carrot cake … so consider the source!!

Harry and MaryAnn are on their way down here. It is an 11-12 hour drive. They’ll get in about 10:30 tonight and it will take an hour or so to unload all the food and gear. Tomorrow we can start preparations and maybe some baking. And we need to see if that turkey will fit in my European size oven!!! O, if it doesn’t fit there, I have a huge electric roaster that holds 2 turkeys. I use this roaster when I cook at homeless shelters and church banquets. It is huge! I only have 1 oven in my kitchen and that is not common in America. Usually there are 2 small ovens and often an additional range size oven. Since I only need an extra oven a couple of times a year I chose to have a butler pantry/wine bar area instead of an extra bank of ovens. You see my priority is the wine. You got that right.