Turkey Day

I'm thinking about Thanksgiving. My sister and aunt are coming again - YEAH. They'll arrive late on Thursday - actually, they'll probably arrive into our house in the early hours of Friday morning. It will be a small gathering. Probably just the five of us.

Thanksgiving dinner is always traditional for me. With Christmas dinner, I'm willing to experiment with the menu a little. But not with Thanksgiving. I've got to have some dressing (sage & onion), must have cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, gravy and of course the turkey. Last year, we had so many left overs, we were eating it for days afterward. So, I'm thinking about how to cut down a little. But I don't want to leave out anything critical from the menu.

The local Organics store had fresh turkeys last year. Maybe Russ can take a trip down there this week while I'm in Saudi. One year, when we were in London, we paid GBP 40 for a turkey. That's about US$60. Whew - we weren't expecting that when we picked it up from the butcher. The same butcher that Russell saw a customer pay US$100 for a crown roast. That year we told everyone we had a "40 pound turkey" - heh, heh. I'm sure the fresh organic turkey will be a bit pricey, but none of the shops have a 29 cent/pound special on the Butterballs. My mom used to stock up on the turkeys during those specials. She'd buy two extra and have the butcher saw them in half. A couple of times a year, she'd pull out half for our dinner. So, if you have a deep freeze, get a couple extra turkeys!

We can pretty much get anything we need for the traditional dinner. Even cranberry jelly - but I think we have a can of that left over. Actually, I prefer a relish made from fresh. Last year, Amy packed a bag in her luggage. Canned pumpkin is also available here - it's popular for a lot of Indian curries and soups.

Sounds like some shopping is in order tomorrow to see what we can pick up.