i give thanks for all of this food. and that food there too.
The quote of the day:
Me: My nails keep splitting. I should eat Jello.
Scott: I've heard hair and nail vitamins work really well.
Me: Really? Where do I get them?
Scott: You're the one who lives in LA!
Pretty much the day was marked by my search for somewhere to read that was relatively quiet and had a light. Basically, "relatively quiet" is defined as "3 or fewer people in the immediate vicinity who are not screaming at the tops of their lungs every moment." I ended up in Bob and Betty's room over the kitchen (which had 14 or so screaming people directly below it in the kitchen, but also had a comfy pillow).
I finished My Cousin Rachel, by Daphne Du Maurier. Du Maurier's out of print, by the way, except for Rebecca, so you'd do better to go to a used book shop to get a copy. My Cousin Rachel is one of Du Maurier's Gothic Romantic Mysteries, with plenty of strange doings and yearnings and capital-R Romantic behavior. I sped through the final 100 pages, wanting to find out what happens. It's a great novel.
Then I lay down. This lasted for about 3 to 4 seconds, because Mitch came in with his cousin Becca, looking for a place where Becca could lay down, as she had suddenly come under an attack of the flu or strep throat or maybe both. I gave up my spot and went to find out what was going on in the rest of the house.
Which was, I discovered, Thanksgiving dinner.
Dinner was the usual fare. Oh, you know, turkey. With gravy. And mashed potatoes. And two types of bread stuffing. Plus the scalloped oysters. The pureed squash (which was actually a blend of several types of squash, not just one). Brussel sprouts. Cranberry jelly. Beet sauce with horseradish. I took exactly as much as I thought I could eat, and no more, despite my inner glutton saying, "More, dammit!" It was all incredibly good.
Surprisingly, a house full of excellent amateur and professional cooks took Darin's suggestion to brine the turkeys beforehand, which helped ensure that already great turkeys retained their moisture. Never eat unbrined poultry. Honest.
Stuff had to be off-loaded onto side tables because we couldn't fit it all on the tables.
For dessert: apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pumpkin pie, and three flavors of ice cream.
Burp.
After dinner there were a few games of hearts and euchre played, and then a huge group of us played Trivial Pursuit, Genus IV. I was on a team with Darin's father Steve and Uncle Bob. We won both games.
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Copyright 1998 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com