In article >,
"Nexis" > wrote:

> I am really happy with how my dinner came out this year, and there were no
> catastrophes! How was yours?

Sounds like you had fun!

Thanksgiving dinner at my house was a less-expansive affair. Sis and
Sis-nificant Other had plans. I usually invite a bunch of people who
otherwise could be in the same onesie-twosie boat as I would, but
they all had plans as well, so it was just me, my mom and my brother.

There are some families in which Thanksgiving dinner is very -- um
-- rigid. It must be served at the same time of day and feature
exactly the same menu. Tradition is great, and there are some foods
which I really enjoy at Thanksgiving. But our family tradition is to
work around a basic menu of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and
vegetables.

So this year, I made a turkey breast (free-range, organic), just
applying some Penzey's rub and roasting it. I also made a Tofurky. I
know that tofu turkeys are the butt of a thousand jokes. I'd never
tried it. I expected something like mock duck (seitan) and I was not
far off the mark. IMHO, it was okay, but the Tofurky really _is_
enhanced by gravy or cranberry relish. Before I did it again, I'd
consider something completely different/non-traditional for
Thanksgiving.

The cranberries appeared as a relish, chopped up with an orange and
some five-spice powder (very nice; gave it almost a cherry flavor).
In deference to the less-carb-tolerant, and because I wanted to try
it, the sugar in that recipe was replaced by Splenda. It worked well
for the purposes of Thanksgiving dinner, but I had some leftovers
yesterday and -- well, I don't think this relish keeps as well as
others I've tried.

The dressing was a Lundberg's brown-rice blend with added wild rice
and herbs. The other sides were a mess of turnip greens with sauteed
onions, served with hot sauce; and a praline-crunch sweet-potato
dish my mom got at Aldi's (fair, but I'd just as soon eat the sweet
potato by itself).

Dessert was cheesecake (from Aldi's; I think it's my mom's favorite
place to shop for groceries and she doesn't have the time and energy
to cook a lot). (Yeah, I know. So much for carb tolerance) and
coffee.

Shopping time aside, Thanksgiving went together in two hours from
switching on the oven to serving. It's just what we were up to this
year. But it was a good meal and good company. No catastrophes here.

sd