Happy Thanksgiving, 2006!

Happy Thanksgiving Day, 2006 - just a day late! Here is a picture of the turkey breast I cooked. I only cook turkey breast now - the whole bird is too hard to balance, white meat and dark meat. The breast was brined overnight, then cooked for a couple of hours face down in a mixture of chopped prunes, apricots, dried cherries, onions, garlic, and carrots, with vast quantities of herbes de provence, extra sage, lots of rum, and lots of butter pats inserted under the skin and then rubbed across the surfaces, at 400 F. Then when it almost done, I flipped it over to brown the top. Some folks find the resulting stewed fruit compote too cooked out, others like it; I serve a bit well drained with dinner. I also made mashed potatoes - lazy mashed potatoes, jackets on, cooked in microwave in olive oil, white wine, garlic, and salt, then loosely choppped with lots of butter, cream, half and half, olive oil, garlic, and more salt added.

Heart-stopping, it has to be said of this whole meal.

Jean-Marie made green beans, sausage and cornbread stuffing, creamed corn from Amish dried corn, and cranberry relish. And pies: pumpin, cherry, maple syrup cream pie - and Kathleen made apple-pear and pecan.

We were settling down for a low key Thanksgiving, with just Uncle Jack joining Jean-Marie, Renee, and me, and then we were on the phone with our friends Kathleen & Chris and their two kids - their parents suddenly couldn't make it over - so they brought food to our house and we all sat down together. It was really lovely.

It all has been very low key because I am in the midst of rewriting the text of my short book on global governance, legitimacy, and the UN, which is going to the editors on January 2. So I am doing nothing, nothing, nothing that is not utterly essential and devoting myself to this writing project. So you won't see much blogging from me until after this ms. is turned in.

But a lovely Thanksgiving holiday weekend to everyone from all of our family!