it's so much more than cooking

thanksgiving eve salad with sesame chicken for dinner

it's so much more than cooking. i read an article with this title a few weeks ago. with my very domesticated (and wonderful) danish husband, i had to laugh a bit at the issues the author faced. especially when her husband volunteered to make dinner and then didn't shop for any ingredients, but had expected them to magically be in the refrigerator. my husband would know that grocery shopping was part of the deal. without being told. but i will admit that we do mostly divide the cooking along gender lines in our household. especially as the home renovation falls almost entirely on husband's shoulders, it's only fair that i do the bulk of the cooking. and cook i did over the past few days. we invited 10 of our best friends to a thanksgiving feast and it was my best performance ever (all that watching australian master chef is paying off).

my biggest turkey ever! 11 kilos! fresh and delicious. it went into a brine for two days in preparation for its tour in the smoker - our new kamado grill. and yes, that's sabin's first bathtub i used to brine it in.

potted shrimp as an appetizer for people to munch on when they arrived, since that big turkey was going to take forever!

i modified a maple-nutmeg custard pie recipe i found by adding pecans on top. it was delicious! though i was so full, i didn't eat any of it until breakfast the next day.

after two rounds of smoking, the turkey was looking gorgeous.

the skin got a little bit dark and i haven't perfected crispy skin in the smoker, but the meat was juicy and meltingly tender and, if i do say so myself, perfectly smoked.

it was a proud moment as husband took the serving dish to the table. it was so much fun introducing my danish friends to my favorite holiday and sharing this beautiful food with them. it really meant the world.

before i added gravy and a spoonful of stuffing. thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and although it's a lot of work, it's worth every minute. and that nap i took on sunday afternoon was bliss as well. it really is so much more than cooking, it's love and culture and sharing and friendship and happiness as well.

giving thanks

it's thanksgiving and it feels like 2016 hasn't given us a lot to be thankful for. the death of david bowie, prince, leonard cohen, as well as brexit and trump -  it's been a rather brutal year. at least for the world.  personally, it's been pretty good. so i think i'll focus on that.

first, i'm thankful for husband. and for the amazing young woman that the child is becoming. i'm thankful that my job has taken me new places - poland, latvia, estonia, belgium and paris. i'm thankful for the fun and creative people i've had the chance to work with all year.  i'm thankful that my back is better. i'm thankful for yoga - for it bringing me in touch with my body again. i'm thankful that i get to spend the week in copenhagen and retreat to the countryside to husband and the garden and the cats on the weekend. i'm grateful for friends - both virtual and irl. i'm thankful for podcasts, the pantsuit nation facebook group, for my cousin who is letting the child stay for her year of high school, for seeing my hometown through her eyes (good and bad (and honestly, it's mostly bad)).

i'm thankful for late nights with friends, drinking wine and solving the world's problems (and also a few wardrobe-related problems). and great food (that sushi in gdansk, a seriously good ramen in london and foie gras in paris). and amazing projects. and the opportunity to be in a london bell tower, both listening to and watching the bells being rung. and for what happens when you share your ideas and are willing to let go of them and let them become what they are meant to be, which is so much more than you imagined. and by you, i mean me.

and i'm grateful for being seen. for unfolding. for transformation and becoming. and finally finding out what i can do.

and i'm also thankful for kittens. and laughter. and candles. and mac highlighter, and benefits mascara and urban decay eyeshadow. and for a day when we think about it all and are thankful. despite all of the other stuff that's going on.

happy thanksgiving, one and all.

swept away by the winds of gorm

there's a storm raging outside. they've named it gorm. anytime there's the slightest chance of drama, they name the storm. and these winds definitely sound like they're hurricane force. i'm trying not to have my inner view seem as stormy, but it's hard. the week brought that nasty email and i'll admit i let it suck a whole lot of my precious energy away. then, on friday, my beloved frieda cat was coughing and so i took her to the vet to see what was wrong. it was much more serious than we thought - she had torn her diaphragm and the rest of her organs were pressing in on her lungs and restricting her breathing. to fix it would have required a complicated surgery where she had to be on a respirator. and it just seemed like too much - a cat on a respirator? and what would her quality of life be? so, with great sorrow, i chose to have her put to sleep. bitter tears were shed. she was a special one - molly's baby and my favorite (despite all of those kittens) - i miss her sorely.

friday morning found me at the back specialist, meeting with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist in preparation for my upcoming back surgery. when i left, i didn't know yet when it would be, but i woke up to a letter on saturday morning with a time next friday. a bright spot in the darkness of losing frieda. this continuing nerve pain has worn me thin and i find it harder to cope. so much energy goes to the pain, it's difficult to have any left for everything else.  and it hasn't helped that i had to stop with the high grade ibuprofen in preparation for the surgery. the oxycodone i was given to replace it makes me feel strange and doesn't take the pain to the same degree. ibuprofen is definitely the best pain reliever for me.

i've been trying to just ignore the pain and go about my life as if i were a normal person - walking around, going to dinner and a movie with my family, but admit it's not really working. we went to see spectre on friday evening and i had to fidget through the whole movie to try to find a comfortable way to sit that gave me relief from the pain. usually, sitting isn't the problem, standing is, especially standing still - as the pain is mostly in my left leg, thanks to the nerves that are affected. but friday evening, probably due to the change in meds, sitting comfortably was a problem. i even wondered if i should have gone to the movies at all. but luckily, no one was sitting beside me (on the one side) or in front of me, so i did get through it in the end. i think husband was a little annoyed by all my fidgeting, but he also knew i couldn't help it.

i will go back to work this week, taking it easy like last week. it was great to be there and i can't wait to be back to normal so that i can be fully present. there are so many fun tasks to do and great people to work with. with the sound of that wind out there, i think i could fly there right now if i put on a billowy coat.

there were other bright spots in the weekend - a beautiful thanksgiving feast prepared for us, here at our house, by good friends, who knew i wasn't up to standing in the kitchen for hours, but that i missed thanksgiving very much. it was beautiful food and great company and a silky pumpkin pie and precisely what i needed. we had originally planned it for actual thanksgiving, but work schedules got in the way (those silly danes have embraced black friday, but alas, not yet thanksgiving) and we had to move it to saturday. that worked out just fine. what's important isn't the day of the week, it's the company and the food and the candles and the wine and the laughter. and those go a long way towards soothing the wounds of the nasty email and the loss of my precious frieda.

it was good to pause and be thankful for the time i did have with frieda and being happy that i told her every single day that i loved her. good to be consciously grateful for how understanding my new job is about my back problem - they even put a couch in our nearest meeting room so that i could lie down when i need to and have ordered me a special office chair that's good for my back. good to take a moment to be grateful for husband and the days he's taken off to drive me to the doctor and for all of the cups of tea he's brought to me when i've been miserable and in pain and no fun to be around. and thankful for what a cool young woman sabin is turning into. and thankful for friends willing to prepare my favorite feast. in that light, that nasty email seems unimportant and just gets swept away by the winds of the storm named gorm.

a drop in the sea of gratitude

it's thanksgiving day. and while we don't load our table with turkey and all the fixings in denmark today, i want to send my own thanks out into the hive mind today. i've come to think such things matter. i asked for good vibes to be sent my way on monday morning and i swear i could feel them precisely when i needed them. it must be the same with the great mass of gratitude being sent into the universe today. that mass of goodwill and gratitude must make the molecules align and hum just a little more in tune, if only just for that one day. i must be part of that.

so i pause this morning, with my beloved molly cat nestled on her furry red pillow in my lap, purring contentedly, and i am thankful for...

~ the way that husband makes me laugh every single day.
~ the way he says, "have a great day," when he leaves every single morning.
~ how he ends our phone calls with "i love you," even when he's at work.
~ his undying drive and work ethic - he comes home from his day job and goes straight to work on one of the many projects around this house.

~ sabin. she's beautiful, thoughtful, kind, sensible and a good, loyal friend to her friends.

~ all these cats. even the wild bunch outside. they make me smile and comfort me every single day.
~ our little flock of chickens. and that the spotty one has started to lay eggs.
~ my morning chores - the cats flying around in the terrace, eager for their breakfast.  the horses crunching their grain is such a comforting sound. and feeding the bunnies their breakfast brings joy as well. i love letting the chickens out of the coop and scattering some grain for them. they're so funny with the secret (to me) language they speak to one another. those 15-20 minutes every morning, even when it's cold, ground me and start my day off right.

~ friends who help with something really important out of the goodness of their hearts and help me shine when i need to.

~ friends who listen to my rambling and rants and offer gentle guidance on the ways of the world.

~ recently finding an amazing group of smart, funny (english-speaking) women.

~ my sewing machine, fabric stash and the meditative quality sewing has at precisely the moment when i need to calm an inner restlessness.

~ that we have this enormous project that is this house. it's not the way we want it to be, but it will be one day and we work steadily towards that. it's good to have a mission and a shared goal. i think a lot of couples lose that along the way and i am so grateful that we haven't.

~ knowing that my family is gathered together, eating good food, playing cards, maybe singing a bit at the piano and undoubtedly laughing a lot. i wish i was there, but even tho' i'm not, knowing that they are together is good.

~ lastly, i'm grateful for the opportunity to learn patience and learn to let go in a process that means a great deal to me, but which i cannot control. but which i feel confident will have the outcome i desire.

there you have it, universe, my contribution to the thanksgiving sea of gratitude.

thank you for reading. and happy thanksgiving, one and all.

giving thanks

tho' the danes have sadly not realized that thanksgiving is the best holiday (they still think it's christmas, which they actually celebrate on christmas eve), i am determined to be thankful today anyway. so i hereby declare that i am thankful for:

~ husband. he's a keeper. (i think i might have mentioned that before.)

~ sabin. i thought i'd be freaked out to see her getting so tall and wearing mascara and hogging the flat iron, and locking the bathroom door, but i'm not. she's exactly the age she should be. and it's a pleasure to see her growing up and thinking for herself. i'm in awe.

~ the kittens. six weeks must be the cutest age.

~ that i've taken a photo every day since may 2008.

~ going to a play with a group of friends on saturday.

~ being involved in my community.

~ horses. they ground me and keep me sane.
~ good books.
~ moments in the kitchen, making good food.
~ staying up late with friends, drinking wine and laughing.

~ ideas, solutions, opportunities.

~ being provoked to think - by the radio, the newspaper, the interwebs, by people around me.

~ new friends. and old ones.

~ creativity that seems to be coming back to me.

~ living the right life.

i wish you all a very happy thanksgiving!

* * *

the c boards on pinterest: camera porn, cat person, ceramics, clever cookie, color, converse, crazy chicken lady, cupcakes are not muffins (but they might be cake), cutie patootie.

maybe i'm an anthropologist

i had a dream last night that i got lost in mall of america and couldn't find any exit. i knew going to that place would haunt me. of course, my dreams have taken place in a large mall for years, but they hadn't for awhile now. this time, i was aware that it was mall of america, whereas previously, it was the mall in my mind (a strange amalgamation of various malls in manila and singapore and possibly arizona). it's one of those dreams where i don't precisely remember what was happening other than that i couldn't find the exit and had wandered into one of those rather dimly-lit abandoned wings of it, but it's been flashing into my head all day. it feels a little bit like i never really woke up from it properly.

* * *

i am so writing a book about this little town where i live (and probably the one where i grew up, since the types are similar). i gathered another set of character sketches this evening. we've got the one who fancies himself king, the troglodyte (sometimes hard to tell from the wanna-be king), we've got the cranky retired schoolteacher(s) who fear change and want everything to be as it always was and odin forbid we try something new, we've got the town drunk (who also happens to be a moron), we've got the charming eccentric, the earnestly engaged, we've got the upstart newcomer who is trying way too hard, we've got the politically astute, two local reporters, the welfare recipient and the one who calms everything down with humor. oddly, there are few women, i'm going to have to go back and observe some more.

i wonder if i might actually be an anthropologist.

* * *

a little sad about not having a proper thanksgiving. the danes still haven't realized it's a holiday (despite realizing in the 15 years i've been here that valentine's day (which is totally made up by those flower people) and halloween are) so no turkey for us tomorrow. unless i spontaneously go acquire one. which would make my child happy. she's got some american genes, apparently, as she does love turkey. but i sure wish i was going to be together with my family! i'll at least have to make something pumpkiny tomorrow (later today?) and possibly a large chicken if i can't find a small turkey (denmark seems to think that duck is where it's at holiday birdwise).

* * *

a new blog friend, who i met via the dinner list group on facebook. i only learned today she blogs (see what i mean about facebook diluting things?). and she also loves danish crime shows.

* * *

you really must visit this odd and wonderful place - the odd luminary.

* * *

the b boards on pinterest:  beautiful things, blue room (because i will have one again), bobbaloos, braids, and bunny rabbit.

time to give thanks

i don't understand why thanksgiving isn't an international holiday. i think it's the best holiday of them all. a day that's completely about hanging out with your family, eating loads of special food, playing lots of games (if you're a member of my family) and thinking about being grateful. but alas, i'm in manila. working. and while it's fun to crack the whip, i do wish i could at least do it with the smell of roasted turkey wafting in the air around me.  we will manage to find a thanksgiving feast this evening (happily, there are many Filipinos with family the US, so lots of places serve turkey and all the fixins).

but regardless of where you are, thanksgiving is a great time to think about the things for which you are grateful.

i'm grateful for...

...working with the group of people i'm working with these days - they make me laugh and they impress and amaze me with their thinking and creativity.

...being able to bring sabin along with me and share this beautiful place with her.

...the staff and service at the Manila Peninsula hotel - they are kind, friendly and simply top-notch.

...the international herald tribune.

...a husband who can build stuff. and loves to.

...my macbook air, iPhone, iPad and iMac (sorry, apple goes on the grateful list every year - i'm generally grateful for good design.)

...free public wi-fi.

...film cameras.

...people who share their inspiring creativity online and in real life.

...those people who get me. really get me.

...gmail video chat.

so here's wishing all of you a happy thanksgiving! thank you for stopping by my little corner of the blosophere! and happy thanksgiving from a warm, sunny  manila.

oddly inspired on a monday

i awoke this morning, my brain buzzing with ideas. it's rainy and cold and grey as usual for november in denmark and a monday on top of it, but strangely, i feel sunny on the inside. and bright and hopeful. and inspired and full of energy. i woke up early, reaching for my little idea notebook that's beside the bed, to scrawl down some ideas that just had to get out. then, i read some of meg mateo ilasco's craft inc., a neat little (albeit rather amero-centric) book on turning your creativity into your living. but as amero-centric as it is, there is a lot of really useful advice and stories from people like lotta jansdotter and denyse schmidt sprinkled throughout. very inspiring stuff. along the same lines, this is also very inspiring to read (yay heather!!).

there are lots of reasons for renewed energy in spite of the weather. our thanksgiving on the weekend was an occasion of the best of energy-giving vibes. great conversation. masses of food. babies. the best-tasting turkey ever. pretty pies. loads of wine. and lots of laughter. and even a thanksgiving-related quiz, thanks to aunt M. totally worth all of the cooking and i was strangely calm and ready in the end. the table was even set (which is rather unusual for me). i must have gotten the tears and tension out of my system with the turkey fiasco on thursday, so it was all calmness and enjoyment on the actual day. and i even remembered to serve all of the dishes (also unusual). martha would have been proud.

i just had a great phone conversation which lightened my heart considerably and makes me feel like the door i'm closing right now is closed in a good way - not slammed and not left hanging open to interfere with what might be next. that's a big relief and clears out much anxiety that i didn't even know was lurking. now i'm well and truly ready to see what doors will open next. i'm sure only that they will be bright and colorful.

if you don't have the gold edition of disco underworld - live and in print, all of the highlights of the online editions - run and get one, don't delay!! i'm so inspired to read everyone's stories and really pleased to be among such high caliber, talented people! yay for stacy childs, editor of this fabulous magazine. she's the one who told me that writing is the new praying. and i'm pretty sure she's right.

a brilliant bird

the turkey was, in the end, completely worth the second mortgage we had to take out in order to acquire it. a veritable triumph of a turkey. tender, juicy, really the best one ever. but i'm a bit exhausted, so i'll have to tell stories about it tomorrow.

so for now i'll just say that i'm thankful for such interesting, funny, erudite, well-traveled, intellectual friends and family. it was indeed a privilege to share a bit of my cultural imperialism tradition with them. and i was really impressed with how much they ate. and drank. brilliant.

in the midst of it all

why is it whenever i have the most to do, i cram in a bunch of other projects? i'm working on finishing up the magazine i edit at work - going back and forth to the computer, giving feedback and seeing it comes together into a final, print-ready draft. in between, i've made three kinds of pie crust/pastry so i can make christina's apple crostata and two different pies for my thanksgiving feast tomorrow. then, when i got beets in my organic box this morning, i decided to add a roasted beet salad and a beet chutney to tomorrow's menu, so i got a start on those. the sweet potatoes are ready to pop into the oven tomorrow. the bread is cubed for the stuffing. and then i remembered that i hadn't yet made a present for my new little niece iben, who we will meet for the first time tomorrow. so i dashed out to the blue room and made a little baby duvet cover. luckily, i had some fun fabrics and ribbons in the stash, so it wasn't hard.

#91 - matrioshka baby dyne cover

then i decided that the halloween banner we had up in the dining room had to go and a more thanksgiving-y themed one had to go up. so i got out the felt scraps and cut out some leaf shapes, added some colorful wooden beads and strung them all together with bright yarn (see, there IS a reason for the yarn stash too). this is another one of those things that flashed, fully formed, into my head.

#92 - autumn felt garland

now i'd better get back to those pies. hope everyone's thanksgiving was great yesterday. i'll definitely take lots of pictures tomorrow at ours!

trapped in one's own expectations

i went to the butcher this afternoon to pick up the turkey i ordered last week. i said i wanted a fresh one, not frozen and i said it had to feed 21 people. strangely, it did not occur to me to ask for a ballpark figure of the cost. i guess i was too busy asking whether the turkey would be frisk in danish,  seeing the smile cross the young man's face as i realized my mistake and he said, it would be possible to have it fersk. the two words, while sounding quite similar are the difference between whether it's had a good night's sleep and is happy, chipper and energetic and whether it's not been frozen.

the turkey was in an enormous box and weighs more than 10 kilos (20-odd pounds). it was wrapped in some kind of butcher paper and plastic, so i didn't open it up 'til i got it home. i guess i didn't look at it while i was at the butcher shop because i was too busy trying not to faint dead away at the price of it. it was a mind-numbing price, one which i do not even dare to type because that would be like saying it out loud. shall we just say that i am thankful i only do this once a year and next year i may cook up a small herd of veal calves  and a little suckling pig instead and it will still cost less.

so i get home and mix up my brine in sabin's old baby bathtub (after scrubbing it and giving it a treatment with two kettles of boiling water). then, i unwrap the turkey to lower it into the brine and right there on what should be its pristine and quite possibly gold-plated breast was an enormous black wart/zit-like thing that could possibly be an attack by another bird or cancer or the beast attempting (apparently quite successfully) to grow another eye right there on its breast. in other words, a horrible, awful, unslightly blemish on my very expensive bird. so there will be no martha-like presentation of the golden brown beauty at the table, because i had to cut a bit hunk out of the skin to remove the barnacle. and as i was fuming about that, i discovered that there were no giblets. so i did what any highly strung wanna-be martha would do. i called husband and burst into hysterical tears.

he gave me a pep talk and i went back down to the butcher, determined to tell them off. and i went in and started to explain and once again, to my dismay, burst into hysterical tears. but it worked. i got $50 back and he gave me two bottles of wine. and he was really apologetic. he had ordered the bird from the big meat market in copenhagen where restaurants go and he hadn't seen the blemish himself because it came all wrapped up. i gave him the cut off little nasty bit in a small zip loc and he said he would talk to them when he goes in on saturday and he assured me that it wouldn't happen again in the future.

now my enormous, but flawed turkey is in its brine and everything else is on schedule. we will have a great thanksgiving on saturday, but we will be carving the bird in the kitchen before serving it. those swedes who are coming are always so martha perfect, i'll just have to dazzle them with the pies.

why oh why is everything a competition...i blame martha.

thankfulness: why yes, it is another list

it's that time. thanksgiving. my favorite of all of the holidays. a day of fabulous food that you don't have other days (or maybe only on christmas). a day to pause and think about, if only for a few minutes, the abundance life really does offer. a day to share with family and friends. a day of card games and board games (in my family, growing up, anyway). perfect turkeys, sticky sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, creamy mashed potatoes, spicy pumpkin pie with plenty of whipped cream. tho' we're not celebrating 'til saturday, i wanted to do my thankfulness list today, where it could enter the big thankfulness cloud out there in the world.

i'm thankful for...

: : these two people. and the times we have together, whether it's at the dinner table on a nightly basis or running along the beach in the wind as the north sea crashes on the sand beside us.  they really are my life.

: : i'm thankful for having a great kitchen in which to cook the thanksgiving feast and a whole lot of guests to share it with.

: : i'm thankful for friends - long-term ones who we can visit in our pajamas if we want to and new ones who we are just getting to know and who we solve the world's problems with over dinner and glasses of red wine late into a saturday night. and blog friends (more about that in a minute.)

: : my creative space.

: : books. and living in a home surrounded by books. i think it's good for the soul.

: : blog camp. and the way it has transformed cyber friends into real life friends. and that they want to come back again.

: : collaborations and potential collaborations and having my creativity pushed by the creativity of others.

: : a fresh start and a light heart.

: : the weaving lessons i'm going to start in january.

: : living a place where i don't have to worry about health insurance, unemployment, child care or homelessness.

: : i'm thankful to all of you for reading what i have to say and leaving your comments (i know everyone is saying this in the blogosphere today, but it means a lot and you know i don't like to be sentimental). and i'm really happy you told me about the loading issues, so i could make some adjustments - please do let me know if it loads better now!

happy thanksgiving everyone! even if you're not where it's thanksgiving, it doesn't hurt to pause and be thankful, just for a second.

dinner party fantasies

i've spent some time today, pondering my thanksgiving menu. we've invited a bunch of family and friends and their expectations are high as to experiencing an authentic american thanksgiving dinner, so i've been planning ahead. (the photo above is from last year, where it was a much smaller affair.) i love to cook and i love to have diverse guests and i love to see what happens when people meet and get to talking. so i'm looking forward to that, although i will undoubtedly be in a horrible panic on the day and forget to put at least one key dish on the table. things kind of spiral from my control at the last minute, but i'm old enough now that i've come to see it as part of my charm. or so i tell myself, as i take a giant swig of wine to calm my nerves.

but in all this planning, i got to thinking about dinner parties and guests. and that classic old question about who you would invite to dinner if you could invite anyone, living or dead.  what group would you put together around your table?

some names sprung immediately to mind. dorothy parker for one. her sharp wit and cynicism would be most welcome. slovenian philosopher and prolific writer slavoj zizek would also be most welcome - he straddles postmodernism and whatever it is that's coming next and i'd like to talk about contemporary politics in that light. for husband, we'd have to invite pierre bourdieu, because nearly all of husband's theories about everything are based on his notion of cultural capital. for husband's sake, we'd also have to invite nytimes columnist thomas friedman. i'd love to see what would happen between him and zizek. and because i would have written my dissertation on their works, i'd have to invite russian writer andrei bitov and yugoslav croatian dubravka ugresic. i think orhan pamuk, turkish nobel literature prize-winner would add something to the group as well. for a bit of glamour, i was thinking about nigella lawson, and she could maybe even help me out a bit in the kitchen. i'd like an artist or two, but can't really settle on one in my mind...matisse, perhaps? or asger jorn?

of course, this isn't to say that i'm not perfectly happy with the guests who are coming. i am, among them are some of the most interesting people i know...art historians, a musician, an actress, a policewoman, a head of entertainment at a t.v. station, and a couple of the most creative, funniest people i know. but i know that those who are coming would get a big kick out of dorothy, slavoj, pierre, thomas, andrei, dubravka and orhan and they would ADORE nigella. for sure. i mean, who wouldn't?

who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?

thanksgiving, how i love you

thanksgiving, how much i love thee...despite the last-minute panic attacks, fighting through swarms of people in the grocery store, throwing my principles out the window and buying sweet potatoes from israel because i didn't want to make another stop (generally we don't by stuff from israel, not until the israelis are nice to the palestinians--but when the dread of making a stop at another grocery store sets in, principles are the first to go), spending far too much time on setting the table before i actually started cooking (what was that about?)...you are the very best holiday. seriously, what is it about thanksgiving that makes it so wonderful?

is it the candles, or the pretty table settings or the abundance of food?

or is it the kids eating turkey legs?

or is it the pie?

which we served like this...

...because the crust was so ultra flaky (i tried a new recipe and i have to admit that i find pie crust to be generally temperamental and never the same twice) that it wouldn't come out of the pie tin looking pretty, so we covered it in freshly whipped real cream, plopped on four forks and the adults all ate off one plate. i think more food should be served this way, it's the best.

i think what makes thanksgiving the best is a combination of way too much great food, much laughter, people who are actively grateful, and the fact that you have that festive, holiday feeling without all of the gift-giving madness attached to it. and leftovers. thanksgiving leftovers totally rock.

and i can highly recommend doing the turkey brine thing. it was the best, juiciest turkey ever. i will never go back to the old way. here's the brine i used (modified from the fabulous nigella lawson's new christmas cookbook, because i can never really follow a recipe to the letter):

turkey brine

1 orange, sliced

big handful of parsley

handful of black peppercorns

2 cinnamon sticks

4 fresh bay leaves

2 roughly chopped onions

3 star anise

1 good hunk of ginger, roughly chopped

1 cup organic sugar

1 cup sea salt

1 good squeeze of honey

1 good glug of real maple syrup (do not bother with fake, ewww)

stir together with warmish water in a very large pot (or other container that your turkey will fit into) to get the sugar and salt dissolving, add your turkey and fill with water until the turkey is covered.  allow it to brine at least overnight (two nights would be even better) in a cool place (i simply set it outside with a lid on the pot because our weather allowed that). i had a 5.5 kilo turkey (11-12-ish pounds). 

i took it out the brine, stuffed it, body-buttered it with maple butter and cooked it 2 hours and 45 minutes. it turned out perfectly (we just neglected to photograph it) and was the juiciest, most succulent bird i've had, well, ever.  we're going to do duck for christmas, i wonder if brine will work for that...hmmm...

before i start the mad cooking frenzy

uncharacteristically, i haven't been talking up the back-tack that i'm participating in. what's a back-tack, you say? well, it's a themed swap of crafty things.  i've been assigned a back-tack partner, mo, who has a blog called lime gardinias, where she shares her craftiness. we've been corresponding and getting to know one another and have each put together a little crafty package for one another according to the festive theme of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  today, i put the finishing touches on my items for mo and i'm going to send them off today so that she (fingers crossed), has them in time for christmas.

i won't talk about what i actually made until i'm sure that mo has received it, as i don't want to spoil the surprise. if you want to check out what the over-achievers in the back-tack have done, you can look at the flickr group. they're over-achievers because they clearly got theirs finished and sent well before the deadline (nov. 29). i'm feeling pretty smug about having managed to be ready one day before the deadline, which is really quite unlike me.

and now, my day will be filled with tidying up the mass of sewing things that are on the dining table and then cooking up a thanksgiving feast for 6. my turkey is luxuriating in its brine since last evening and i've made my list, so i'm off to the grocery store.

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving yesterday and i wish you a good day shopping all of the sales (they didn't used to call it black friday, did they? i seriously don't remember that name) if you are so inclined in these dark economic times.

thankful on thanksgiving

it's thanksgiving! my most favorite holiday of all. i think i like it even better than christmas! but, sadly, it is not a holiday where i live, so i've been at work today and i currently find myself in my second home...the SAS gold lounge in oslo. i am on my way home to brine my turkey, since we'll have friends over tomorrow for a thanksgiving feast. at least people on my side of the atlantic are interested in thanksgiving and in experiencing the traditional food, even if we don't necessarily do it on the right day.

anyway, despite being a day off on the feast, i feel i have a lot to be thankful for....

1. a wonderful husband who i am still madly in love with after more than ten years.
2. sabin--she's bright, smart, thoughtful, pretty and perfect, i couldn't ask more.
3. the good health of my family.
4. that our house is (mostly) finished--last year at this time, it was total chaos (but i was in the philippines, having thanksgiving dinner at The Pen).
5. that i have a fun job with great colleagues.
6. several interesting job possibilities on the horizon.
7. a christmasy new mac "red" she said lipstick.
8. changeable plane tickets.
9. good friends coming to thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.
10. this daily outlet for my madness.
11. the friends i'm made here in the blogosphere over the past year.
12. that the world is full of inspiring people who are sharing their creativity online.
13. my iPhone.
14. my iMac.
15. my Macbook Pro (are we detecting a theme here?).
16. new glasses.
17. daily laughter.
18. the past year, during which i recovered from my old job and found my way back to myself.
19. my sewing machine.
20. my beloved Nikon D60.

seriously, everyone, thank you for reading and for being my friends. i'm really grateful that you're out there and that i've gotten to share your insights and a lot of laughter with you.  happy thanksgiving!