The Best Thing I Ate this Thanksgiving

As we all well know, Thanksgiving is a much needed time of contemplation, reflection, and introspection.  It is a time set aside for counting our blessings and taking stock of the overwhelming amount of things we have to give thanks for.

It is also the only holiday that is solely dedicated to food.

That being said, I would be remiss if I did not share the best thing that passed my lips this Thanksgiving; and, believe you me, it had a LOT of competition.

My husband and I were lucky enough to share both a Thanksgiving lunch and a Thanksgiving dinner with both sets of parents of a couple friend of ours.  As my girlfriend's mom put it, "I am thankful for friends who are like family and family who are like friends."

My feelings never mirrored those sentiments more than this Thanksgiving.

Each meal had several standouts.  At lunch it would have to be the meatless stuffing (both families were so awesome to offer less meaty options), a surprisingly delicious pineapple/ cheesy/ cinnamony oaty dish that I had never seen or heard of before and a particularly scrumptious dish of sweet potatoes.  Dinner was an ah-may-zing smorgasbord too.  There were these little, edible, baked squash things that looked like the decorative pumpkins you see everywhere this time of year.  The squash baked into beautiful little yellow bowls of tender goodness.  There were pan roasted brussels sprouts (which were the bomb!) and the turkey was the most moist and well seasoned my husband has ever had.

My favorite item though was ---- dessert.  This may seem like a no brainer but, I am not typically a huge sweets person.  Hmmm… that's kind of a lie.  I try not to be a sweets person so I usually steer pretty clear of desserts as a rule and, if I'm going to indulge I get something that I can split with several people or I steal a bite from someone's plate.  This Thanksgiving though, my strategy was to try a little bit of everything.  But, I digress…  For dinner at her parents house, my friend Amanda made Mini Honey- Almond Cranberry Crostatas for her dessert contribution.  As it turns out, every year she and her dad have a bit of a dessert rivalry and they pole the table to find out who has been victorious in creating the most delectable dessert that year.  It was extremely close but, Amanda came out the victor.

I don't know if this is the exact recipe she used but, it looks like the same ingredients and process.

Make these minis for an upcoming holiday gathering and bask in the compliments as people, with mouths still munchin', tell you how good your dessert is.  Seriously.  These are "tell it to the chef with your mouthful" good.  Amanda doubled the recipe and used almond filler since she couldn't find almond paste at the grocery store.  Uhhhh.  So good.  It was one of those desserts that you tell yourself, "Okay.  Just one more bite," until all the sudden, its gone, your dabbing up the crumbs with your finger, and your eyeballing the few that remain on the buffet.

My husband disagreed with me about the winning dessert (I guess that's allowed).  His choice, "hands down," was the home made pumpkin pie artfully crafted by Amanda's dad.  It wasn't too sweet.  It wasn't too pumpkiny.  It was Goldie Locks good with just the right pumpkin to spice ratio where the natural pumpkin flavor sings and the spices are there in the perfectly palatable measure.  I too tasted this pie and it was most definitely exactly what a pumpkin pie should be.

Well, there you have it.  My favorite from Thanksgiving 2010.
I hope your holiday was full of family, friends, and food and that it was a holiday to remember.


XO,
Rachel

I am Thankful For:

1. the beautiful morning frost

2. the priviledge to vote

3. family

4. morning coffee

5. my husband and best friend

6. sunshine

7. friends

8. my bichon

9. rest

10. nail polish

11. kindness

12. skyping with far away family and friends

13. jamming to music in my car

14. space heaters

15. a warm bed

16. a wonderful mentor

17. joy

18. power tools

19. laughing so hard you don't make a sound

20. switching the alarm clock to "off" on Saturday

21. the word, "Marvelous"

22. Chef Luke

23. having more than just what I need

24. people watching - when noses and cheeks are pink and hands are warmed around steaming cups of ciders and cocoas

25. friends that become like family

I am thankful for all the men and women in this Great Nation's history, who died to secure the freedom that I now enjoy.  I am thankful for all those who have lived before me to perpetuated the principles of freedom that grant the patriots of this country such astounding advantages.  The freedom to be free.  Hmmmm...

"Thank you" to the Good Lord and Creator for the blessings he has poured out over the history of this Great Nation, America.

"Thank you" to those who gave dearly and suffered much at Plymouth Rock so that many of us today could enjoy a life of abundance.  

"Thank you" President Abraham Lincoln for, in 1863 delivering the "Thanksgiving Proclamation" establishing this day of remembrance and Thanksgiving as a national holiday:

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. 

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the iron and coal as of our precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in 

anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. 

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

How marvelously moving.  How magnificently American.  I am just so thankful today.  Thank you for reading this blog.  I pray that your time spent today is a gift to you and to all those with whom you may see, pass, and interact.

"May the Lord bless you and keep you; may He make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you; may He lift up His countenance (smile) on you and give you peace." - Numbers 6:22-27

Happy Thanksgiving,

Rachel

Text for Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation taken from infoplease.