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November 27, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Saturday morning after Thanksgiving and Jim and I are sitting around the house in our pajamas, drinking tea and relaxing in recovery from a week of food and revelry. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday, oddly in remove from its rumored history (it is just like us to celebrate what could be construed as the ONLY positive interaction between the colonists and the native people). In my opinon, this is the big happy winter holiday. It has always been a day reserved for friends and food and giddy laughter while making an utter horror show in the kitchen. This past year I have been slowly making the transition from 20 year vegetarian to hearty meat eater (thanks, in part, to katryna, who introduced me most deliciously to chicken) and to celebrate this new culinary adventure, I cooked my first turkey (gobble, gobble). Putting my hand up into the turkey carcass was a new one for me, but if it died for my gustatory pleasure, damn it, I was going to familiarize myself with its innards. Turkey, I discovered, is not a instant gratification item. Cooking a turkey is the perfect excercise in patience...day long patience (a meat thermometer ensured that I would not pull it out of the oven prematurely, as I was quite inclined). Edie, the wondercat, prowled the kitchen, pacing in frantic anticipation before the oven for five hours, all the while believing he had hit the poultry jackpot (I admit to giving him a bowl full of dark meat for his vigilance). Below you'll see the results.

Thanksgiving is also the perfect excuse to make corn pudding, which, itself, is just an excuse to serve desert on your dinner plate (truly a sugar delivery system). For your sweet pleasure:

- At least two cups uncooked corn kernels cut off the cob
- 1 Tbs flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 cup whole milk
- butter

Pre-heat oven to 350. Mix together the dry ingredients with the corn kernels. Flatten this mixture into the bottom of a small casserole dish. In a small bowl, beat together the milk and the egg and pour over the corn/four mixture. Do NOT mix. Dot the top with pats of butter. Place in the oven and bake for about an hour or until an pick comes out clean.

I hope this finds you and your loved ones very, very well in this holiday season.

xo
Beth

Posted by bethamsel at 9:40 AM

November 3, 2004

Congratulations to YOU, the Red Sox fan!

The end of the World Series, for me, has always been the true end of summer. No more sandals or sundresses. No more late evening light. It is a hard transition to make, but this year is a bittersweet one. I have to give a warmhearted congratulation to the Boston Red Sox and all of you who have been long suffering fans. As many of you know, I am a dyed in the wool Yankee fan (I know, I know, but they aren’t REALLY the evil empire), but I have to hand it to the 2004 team from Beantown. They displayed a scrappiness and a camaraderie that was a blast to watch. See you next year!

Posted by bethamsel at 2:08 PM