T-Day
First of all, Doug is not carrying around a little joey in his gut. That’s just silly. You look just fine, darling. Just fine. Now grab another piece of pumpkin pecan pie and come to bed. Don’t forget the whipped cream.
The day began with military precision. Counters cleared, dishes put away, utensils at the ready. Stel and I hastened everyone away from the kitchen and made them eat breakfast out. Turkey out of the brine, and… into the oven. The race begins! Dinner rolls shaped and proofed. Mis en place arranged. And then, an eerie calm descended. With so many of the dishes already prepared and ready for final heating, all was quiet on the western front.
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| The troops are assembled, ready for deployment. |
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| A quick Scrabble game during a lull. |
We had some deviled eggs to prep, some green beans to trim, but no major cooking until the turkey came out of the oven. It was odd, like we were in the trenches, waiting for the battle to begin.
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| Rolls? Not so hard! |
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| The surprise hit: NYT Mashed Potato Casserole |
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| Desserts on the way to decimation. |
Ah, I have to remind myself. It’s not just about the food. It’s about the process, and the intent. It’s like those sand mandalas created by Buddhist monks: painstaking and temporary, except the mandala is created out of sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. I also realize I haven’t eaten properly the whole day and put maybe a little too much Gran Marnier in my mulled cider. I take a bite. Oh wait, I think, I was wrong.
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| I’m thankful someone spiked my mulled cider. Oh wait, that was me. |
PS. See what Doug thought of the food at http://www.douglaswood.net.
Topics: Dorie Greenspan • Lord of the Rings • Martha Stewart • mulled cider • Stel • Thanksgiving
It. Looks. Amazing. Very impressive, and you seem to have a smile at the end of it all. Need to talk to you about the potato recipe and the rolls….Congratulations to you and Stel for a fabulous meal!
Huzzah! My warrior of culinary creations. Job Well done. Tale your rest. Your repast respite was hard earned & much deserved. What an epic meal- I'm satiated from just 'blog digesting' it much less 'table ingesting' it. What a wondrous thing you have have created. sleep up – you have a year before it begins again!
I particularly loved your analogy of the the meal to a mandala & that great birds-eye photo of the monk making it.
(plus the fact that @ my 1st glance at it on my I-phone w/ out my glasses on was— 'oh look, a buddhist monk playing a solitary game of scrabble'
-you know I'm not sure that vision was that far off .)
Tastiness to all. Lisa Tejero
Wow. Looks amazing! And those dinner rolls!! You guys did a Stel-r job together! xo h
Congratulations on achieving a fabulous meal with time to enjoy it!
Woke up at 8:30— glorious! Now to start planning my Lunar New Year's party…
[…] me? No. Whip that cream by hand, boy, whip it! It may have begun manifesting itself during the Thanksgiving Decathalon of 2011, but things really ramped up when my family’s usual Hawaii Christmas […]