The Thanksgiving post

Thanksgiving is a time to be...well, thankful. I have so much to be thankful for, as do most of us. One of my main objectives is to create long lasting traditions of my own to share with my family. I am pretty much alone here in the US. My mom, grandmother and brother live in Argentina. All I have is pretty much in Argentina, extended family, long time friends and most adolescent memories. Chip has a large family and extended relatives. Somehow we want to mesh all our traditions, conventional traditions and created some original ones along the way for Carr.

The people that really know me, know that I love to cook but I really am not much of a cook. I started cooking late in life and what I cook I think I do it well. I enjoy cooking for friends and family. I love trying out new recipes. I spend most of my time working, or cleaning or cooking nowadays. Which is fine because it is enjoyable to me. This year I was asked to cook some sides for the thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to do something different, zany, you might call it whimsical. If by the end of the post you would like the recipes, feel free to email me and I will send them your way.
Ok back to sides, well I love sweet potatoes, I wanted to reinvent the traditional recipe. I found the best recipe for it: Mashed Red Curry Sweet Potatoes.

If you like spicy, hot food then you'll enjoy this.

I also did my rendition to stuffing or dressing. Before I start, I want to leave clear that I really do not and have not enjoyed stuffing ever. This is why I wanted to tackle a dish which I really did not understand or care for in the least. I am proud to say, it came out glorious. I could not help serving myself seconds, thirds, etc. The secret about my stuffing, I added sausage to it. I also made the stuffing with three different types of breading.


My last challenge, pumpkin pie. I had tried it before and thought it was just the worst idea ever. I found the taste not appealing at all. I found an easy recipe (food channel.com) and made some adjustments to suit me. Hopefully my husband, that shares my dislike for the original version, will try mine one day. All in all, I did a good job. I mixed in ingredients like ginger and more vanilla and whipping cream than pumpkin. Yes, you might be saying why make a pumpkin pie that doesn't quite taste like pumpkin... well because I can.


We celebrated Thanksgiving at my in-laws home. I have some photos of that to share at the end with you. The funny thing of all, is that we were all exhausted from cooking. We enjoyed ourselves so much more that next Sunday, when we got together for brunch. Stress left behind and an overall laid back feeling, it was heaven. We had waffles with turkey hash, eggs, bacon, coffee, etc. My great nephew and Carr were having fun. Moral of this post, it is fine to have traditions but when you let a holiday rule your life, you will not get much enjoyment out of it. A laid back holiday is better than stressed out extravaganza!

Chip, Mom and Ricky

My son watching TV ignoring his cousins.

Now Carr wants to make up and get Henry's full attention.

Now they both got sucked in by the TV.

As I said before, it is our wish to create traditions of our own. The Thanksgiving madness coupled with black Friday insanity, is really not us at all. We really enjoyed Brunch. Maybe this can be our new tradition. Hosting the day after Thanksgiving brunch. It's just something to think about.