Thanksgiving!

Well, I've started thinking about thanksgiving. I guess this appropriate given that it's, oh, 5 days away and I"m having 10 people over for dinner plus 4 more for dessert.

I have this weird personality quirk where I always end up inviting lots of random people to any event I am holding. Let's call it graciousness. Anyways, six of the people coming are some of my dearest friends in the world, so I did pretty well keeping it under control this time around.

Maybe my vision of thanksgiving as a time when lots of people you don't know show up and casually eat tons of food comes from Etta's thanksgivings so long ago. Just a house full of "kin", pre-made biscuits, and m&ms. It was kind of magical.

Anyways ... I want my thanksgiving to be magical too. Or at least not an outright disaster. I think the presence of Libby will guarantee that I don't majorly screw anything up, set things on fire or give people food poisoning. She also knows how to make stuffing and gravy, which is a major plus since I had no intention of figuring those things out.

But I'm actually really excited about making a Turkey myself! Last year when I did thanksgiving for my, what shall we call them, ex pseudo in laws, I opted for cornish game hens so I could run a 10 k in the morning. Well, not this time. Its go big or go home this year. A local, free range, organic turkey has been ordered. This bird grew up in marin county and probably had soy green tea lattes every morning for breakfast, so some of my berkeley-induced guilt has been lifted. Amazingly enough, 9 of the 10 people coming to dinner are NOT vegetarians. So I'm really tempted to put bacon into everything and just give Laura some chips to munch on. But in the end I'm too nice a person and I'll keep the sides all veggie.

Anyways, the bird. It is going to be off. the. hook. I spent about 1 hr talking about how to cook turkey while I was riding through the berkeley hills with a friend yesterday morning. This chick is already the matriarch of her huge bosnian/texan family, and she regularly has 20 - 40 people over for Thanksgiving. She's tried a lot of things, and has settled on brining. I'm going to use her brining recipe, which calls for a bottle of riesling, mustard seed, coriander, and about 10 other spices. She's hooking me up with a brining bag and the plan is to let willy (that's the turkey's name) chill on my fire escape for a day. Hopefully he won't get mugged.

Other than the bird, stuffing, and gravy, libs and I are going to make creamed onions, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, collards, glazed sweet potatoes, cornbread, and pecan pie. And maybe persimmon pudding if we get to it. Plus people are bringing things of course. Rationally, I know its going to be hella food, but I'm still worried that there won't be enough. I have no idea why I always think this. Really, I should probably be more worried about the wine situation. I'm hoping people will bring some and I don't know how much I should have on hand. I know Mom does appertifs and pairings and the whole deal.

Other than food, I suppose I need to worry about "the table". In Martha Stewart speak I suppose this means things like place settings, centerpieces or candles. I have a much more basic concern about the "the table". Namely, I don't have one. I have the little one in my kitchen, but I think we'll use that for prep and serving. And I have my desk. But I don't have a table for 10 people. Shit, I don't even have more than four chairs. I suppose I need to address this problem ...

Anyways, lots to do. And I also need to prep a lecture for tuesday and re-do some analyses which should have been done by last friday. I guess I'll be buying frozen pie shells :)