monkeys and ponies

Logging this for reference next year:

• Tortilla chips and guacamole (note to self: three avocados' worth for five people had no leftovers)


• Gourmet's adobo turkey, done out on the charcoal grill even though it was 41°F outside, because what even is the point of doing an adobo turkey if you aren't going to grill the sucker (a 10lb. bird in that weather was done in 1h45m, but honestly could have used another 15 minutes)


• vegetarian/gluten-free main for the vegetarians, one of whom has celiac: cheese/black bean/roasted poblano enchiladas with Veganomicon's mole sauce


• GF cornbread dressing (guests raved about it this year, and I think the secret was even more butter and half and half than usual)


• the usual cranberry-tangerine conserve


• King Arthur Flour's gluten-free biscuits made with their baking mix, still a biscuit you would never know was GF unless someone told you


• shredded Brussels sprouts sautéed in butter, finished with toasted walnuts and honey


• apple-ginger tishpishti, which is exactly as baklava-like as promised and is also something I'm going to make again at Passover


• rum ice cream


• apple pie and mini cheesecakes brought by our guests

That's enough food for five people, right?

We also played Wine Roulette with the case of wine C and I had brought back from my father's collection now that he's gone. Some of the bottles in that cellar are still drinkable; some are not, and there's only one way to tell. But we got very lucky: the 1985 Silver Oak cabernet sauvignon was on the decline but still delicious, the 1980 Beaulieu Vineyards Latour was right on the edge but still drinkable, and the 1977 port is fucking magnificent. (We still have some of that left, though I predict we won't by the end of the year.)

Anyway, that was Thanksgiving. If you celebrate it, I hope you had a delicious one, too.