Thanksgiving revisited

My wife and I decided to go out for Thanksgiving. We went out last year and had a good meal without the usual fuss. This year, we both had much work to do and the thought of cooking and cleaning for a big meal seemed too much of a distraction. We decided to go out to the same place we went to last year. By the time I called to make a reservation, the only spot they had was at 11:30 am. So we were going to have an early meal.

Before we started, we also made a point not to eat too much. We already had eaten too much during our trip to Chicago. We had a wonderful meal and ate about half of what was on our plate, taking the rest home for later.

Back home, when we reheated our leftovers for subsequent meals, our apartment filled with the lovely aromas of a Thanksgiving meal. We were both overcome with nostalgia and we wished we had actually cooked a meal so we could partake in the consumption of left-overs during the following week.

So yesterday I endeavored to cook up a Thanksgiving meal a few days late. My wife had turkey on Thursday, but she is trying to avoid eating meat. She did not want turkey again, so I only bought a turkey breast for myself, roasting squash with maple ginger butter for her instead. The rest of the menu looked like this.

- Apple ginger cinnamon sauce for the turkey/squash
- Three potatoes mashed potatoes (Yukon, red, and sweet potatoes)
- Herb stuffing
- Almond garlic green beans
- Home-baked light rye bread
- Home-made cranberry sauce (my wife makes the best cranberry sauce in the world).

We also had an excellent wine: McManis Merlot (2002). I highly recommend it.

Everything turned out well. We were also good about not eating too much, so now there are left-overs for this whole week. Yay!

Of course, I still need to clean up. There are still some pots and pans in the kitchen sink waiting to be washed. I guess that's the price to pay.