Thanksgiving success

Is when the turkey is finished without having to resort to making soup.

I took Wednesday off last week to prepare for Thanksgiving. It was wonderful not to work, although I call a student who wanted to discuss her writing (anything to avoid going onto campus!). I shopped in the morning, then made apple pie and cranberry sauce in the late afternoon.

Thanksgiving day was quite relaxed. Nikita danced a bit to the songs of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade before he was whisked off to the backyard by Galina. The dinner itself came off quite well. Here was the menu:

Butternut squash soup with Hungarian spices
Bell & Evans turkey
Bacon and apple stuffing
Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
Giblet gravy
Cranberry sauce with pear & ginger
Fennel and clementine slaw
Korean-style carrots
Pickled mushrooms
Russian coleslaw

2003 Ockfener Bockstein Riesling Kabinett
Zinfandel

Apple pie & crumble

All of the basic recipes were from Cook's Illustrated; the last three salads were bought from the Russian store. The soup was inspired by my birthday dinner at Jasmine's, but it was not thick enough, and lacked some depth in flavor (I didn't have much time to play with it). The turkey came off really well. Nikita chowed down on a drumstick. Igor said that it was the best turkey he ever had. It's the same every year: he tries to persuade me not to cook Thanksgiving dinner because I get stressed out, and he doesn't like turkey anyway. But when the turkey actually arrives, he loves it. The sides were a hit, too. Galina loved the stuffing, although I have to say, I'm getting a little tired of the recipe and may try something new next year. The riesling was quite nice, and paired well with the soup (thank you, Marty's Liquors!); the zinfandel was not particularly good.

On Friday, I took him out to the playground. He mostly wanted to be pushed in the swing. This was a far cry from lst summer, when he didn't like the swing. There was no one else in the playground until we were about to leave, probably because of the super cold weather. Nikita, however, used to nap outside in the dead of winter, and he has all the right clothes (thanks to the Russian side of the family), so I figured it was no problem.