Thanksgiving Gratitude

It is technically past Thanskgiving by a few minutes, but I still wanted to stop by and say hello and how grateful I am for all of you reading.  I know the lunchboxes disappeared this week, but I promise it is only a hiatus for this week. Life has been – well – it has been hectic and not in a good way.  I have spent way too much time thinking about it in those terms, so today it was a nice change to actually focus on gratitude, including all the following:

*My husband, who has been wonderfully supportive through the many many late nights and weekends working as of late. I know I was on vacation three weeks ago, but up until then, and as of the day of my return, work has been unrelenting.

*Speaking of vacation, it was nice to spend time with my family.  So I am thankful for that.  Plus I got to spend lots of time staring at views like this:

*I am also so thankful for my friends who have been so understanding of my lack of work-life balance.

*And I am thankful to have warm food, lots of local vegetables and access to open grocery stores today, and everyday. Good food that makes me feel healthy.

*I am also tremendously thankful for kitchen appliances – from the dishwasher to the Vitamix to the rice cooker – they all make life easier.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving – just husband and I, which was just as well considering I worked in the morning.  That said, starting midday I had a nice long break and we cooked and spent time together and watched the first few episodes of Community.  Have you seen this show? It never gets old, ever. And I had already seen these episodes at least once, if not twice.  I almost fell off the treadmill laughing when I was watching the paintball episode the first time over the summer.  There was one week I saw Alison Brie on both Community and Mad Men, and I could not help but wonder just how weird it must be for her to transition from one show to another. Not to mention, being on Community has got to be more fun than Mad Men.

So yes, where was I, ah yes, we cooked today.  An actual three course meal we cooked together, as opposed to cooking separately when we have time and me living off leftovers and green smoothies, and being grateful my husband cooks dinner so very often during the week.  So yes, we did not eat Thanksgiving dinner until late, so pardon the picture quality.  For some reason the main plate picture came out the best:

• Herb-stuffed Grass-Fed Local Chicken Breast (we split one)
• Sweet Potato Mash with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Sea Salt
• Steamed Peas
• Broccoli Pick Up Sticks from The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook: Vegetarian Recipes Carnivores Will Devour which was written by Kim O’Donnel, whom I consider one of the reasons I started being serious about cooking when I first got out of college.  I am so grateful to her and the years of cooking advice and columns and blogs she has written, and now this wonderful cookbook. 

Appetizers were Chili Lime Kale Chips and a quick guacamole with sliced zucchini:

Actually, this is a more accurate picture of appetizers, as husband had some of his favorite chips (which happen to be gluten-free though, since they are not corn-free, I avoid them):

I was always planning to make kale chips for Thanksgiving, but the rest of the appetizers were up in the air. We picked guacamole when we realized we had two avocados that were perfectly ripe.

And dessert was Pumpkin Ice Cream, which you might remember from a couple weeks ago:

We actually made the ice cream as we cleaned up from making dinner. It was literally that easy to make a batch, and just lovely as soft serve. That said, I am using a picture from a couple of weeks ago as by the time we ate the ice cream, I could not get a good shot.

I had initially wanted to make any of the myriad of gluten-free stuffing recipes I saw out there, or perhaps Maggie’s Dark Pan Gravy, but by last Sunday when we did the shopping for Thanksgiving, we went the easy and (mostly) local route.  The chicken, herbs, garlic, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and kale were all from the farmer’s market.  The whole meal was gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free and neither my husband or I felt deprived in any way (though he would have felt quite deprived had we not had meat today).

So yes, gratitude and good eats all around today.  And finally, thank you so much for reading.