post thanksgiving break

what a weekend.... a well needed vacation dissappeared in no time. It is the 4 day away from work and busy hectic life that I am talking about that I wanted to cherish and treasure. Unfortunately time flew by real fast and I am left wondering where time went. My dad came to visit from New Jersey as well as my sister, nephew and brother in law from Virginia. Weeks prior to the vacation, I was counting down days until everyone flew into town... I was yearning to see familiar faces and to hear gossip on family members.... and juicy gossip, I heard. a cousin that went to India for a year for volunteering and another that had a grand wedding. So grand that just the cocktail hour had couple dozen varieties of appetizers.

My turkey day was just perfect. I prepared roasted pepper dip (a marvelous recipe MG forwarded to me) and sun dried tomato dip , -omitted roasted peppers because I didn't want it to be redundant. I also made my pumpkin pie crust on Tuesday evening and cut up the green beans on Wednesday night. I was as prepared as I could be for Thursday and spent minimal time in the kitchen.

Speaking of my nephew, he is the joy of my life. Even though he lives hours and hours away, when I have the opportunity to see him- it's delightful. He started talking few months ago and now tries his hardest to speak in full sentences. My favorite was on late Friday his dad asked him to change into his pajamas, he went searching for my sister through the entire house, figured she was in the bathroom, came running to tell us all that she was in the bathroom for a long potty break. Now I know that may not sound so pleasant but his broken language combined with out of order noun and verb structure made it very cute.

My first thanksgiving feast included the dips, nuts, roasted 15 lb turkey, green beans with almonds, vegetarian stuffing, shepherd's pie with soy ground meat because my sister and brother in law are vegetarians and pumpkin pie. I managed to do it all and have some time to spend with the family. I admit, I was very impressed with myself. My sister tried to help me but unfortunately the little one was distracting her enough to keep her out of the kitchen. I was glad I planned in advance and prepared things prior to allow some down time on Thursday.

My dad left early Monday morning and I was really happy. We were able to spend some time with him and discuss important (financial, are you able to survive?) matters. I am not sure why but my parents always worry about my sister and I and wonder if we're living okay. Of course we are. If we weren't we wouldn't plan a big Thanksgiving feast for all.

If last weekend didn't have enough gorging day and night, we planned a Cooking club for Saturday the 2nd. The theme is holidays of the world. It's hard to find Christmas recipes from around the world and/or holidays in December that have delicious foods.