What's for (Thanksgiving) dinner?

Part of this post is to take a moment and reminisce about all my favorite Thanksgiving foods (aka starchy foods). Part of this post is to remind people that in between Halloween and Christmas there is a holiday that may not have all the glitzy songs or decorations, but has what I consider to be most important: kick ass food.

This week is Thanksgiving and I for one am most excited to pile a load of cheesy, sweet, deliciously comforting carbs on a plate and devour it. It's the one tradition of Thanksgiving that I've been able to keep. As a kid, we didn't have a ton of Thanksgiving traditions. In fact, the only tradition seemed to be that we got together, which looking at it now seems like a good tradition to keep.

The Wrye Family Thanksgiving included getting up and going to both sets of grandparents. Some times we went to my mom's family first. Sometimes, my dad's. It just depended on when my mom's set decided to do something. My dad's side, aka my Grandma Wrye, always had dinner ready about 4 p.m., complete with setting off the smoke detector. Thanksgiving wasn't really Thanksgiving unless one of my tall, male relatives was reaching up to take the 9-volt out of the detector at some point. Never for anything big. Usually just some forgotten rolls. In the end, it was the BEST.

My mom's side, on the other hand, makes dinner for other people 363 other days a year as they own a restaurant. So my grandpa would insist that my grandma not cook a big meal. Sometimes she listened and we ate pizza. Sometimes she didn't and we had all the fixins. Toward the later years, my grandpa made sure my grandma didn't cook and made reservations for us to eat together. That was also awesome and the best. Again, the theme being that we actually got to see each other.

But as I got older and my time off was saved for the "big" holidays and people became more scattered, sometimes the only "Thanksgiving meal" I would get would be from the potluck at work (which is actually the smartest way to do it. Our office would pay for a precooked turkey and everyone brought in everything else. For the price of one dish (or bag of rolls if you were really lazy), you could get a full Thanksgiving meal.)

Now I'm fighting to keep Thanksgiving. It's hardly worth it to go all out for a full dinner for just the two of us
when I know the leftovers will never get eaten. So, I've picked my favorite carb and his and we'll dine on them. It will be delicious, if turkey-free. Maybe I'll get a pumpkin pie too. I love me some pumpkin pie. Or better yet, some Pumpkin Delight from The Pub (pumpkin cheesecake + pumpkin pie=heaven.)

What's your favorite Thanksgiving food?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had steak instead of turkey. Drank red wine. Took a bath with pumpkin pie bubbles. Watched football and chick flicks by switching inputs. Cuddled with my husband and kitties. Ate mac and cheese, stuffing and broccoli. Will eat candy and pie and watch American Horror Story. Not too bad a day.

It started with this conversation with Chef.

Me: I want to eat cookies and drink egg nog.

Chef: do it.

Me: I feel guilty.

Chef: Don't let it being only 10:30 in the morning stop you. It's Thanksgiving!

And that's another reason why I love him.

Hope your day was just as a awesome.

Can you Gain 85 pounds back in one week?

No? You can't gain it all back in one week? Maybe it just feels like it. I've chowed down with the best of them. Not just because of Thanksgiving, but I've had the whole week off which has not only given me more time to eat and cook, but also go out too.

Few people know that I cook, to be honest. I'm not what one would typically describe as a domestic type of girl. I'm not much on interior design (other than watching "Clean House"). I don't really sew except to put back on the occasional button or mend a rip (although in my head I give the contestants of "Project Runway" a run for their money). But cooking is something that I can do.

It mostly started for two reasons: 1) Chef refused to cook for me every day as he needed some days off. In the beginning I was scared to cook for someone so skilled, but I have since gotten over it. and 2) When I was concentrating hardcore on losing weight, I was manic about controlling what was going into my mouth. Makes it a lot easier when you cook what goes into your mouth.

This year I ended up cooking more for Thanksgiving than I had anticipated. I started off baking a coffee cake on Wednesday and from there, it just snowballed. By the end of Wednesday, I'd cooked macaroni and cheese, corn casserole, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. By Thursday, I left the cooking to Chef. He made a delicious fillet, wine reduction, roasted potatoes, salad and rolls. They were all frickin' delicious. And of course, we've been eating off the leftover stuff for days. I'm determined to have it all gone (eaten or thrown away) by Monday. Monday's when I start back on the watching and documenting what I eat. Again. Before I really do gain all the weight back.

Happy Fillet Day?

It has a different kind of ring to it, but this year for Thanksgiving Chef and I have decided to forgo turkey and opt instead for steak. The two of us have some variation of turkey 3 to 5 times a week so having a big juicy turkey on Thursday, doesn't seem as appetizing as cutting into a perfectly cooked steak.

We're still planning on having some of the traditional Thanksgiving sides, like potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and the like, but just subbing out the main dish. Last year I spend all day cooking homemade versions of our favorites to varying degrees of success. This year I'm only spending time on the potatoes. They're my favorite anyway.

Before we get to the big fillet day, I've got some work to do. I've got to finish moving my office, hitting boot camp and a little grocery shopping the next few days. However, our office is closed this week, so my concentration will be split between all of the above and relaxing. It's a good place to be.