Giving Thanks

Growing up we did not have many Thanksgiving traditions. Our family of four lived many many miles from our nearest extended family, and thus the Boise McKinleys tended towards very low key Thanksgivings.  Sometimes we would just have the four of us, other times we'd gather a rag-tag band of other turkey day loners - family friends, high school boyfriends, circus school dropouts.

The one McKinley semi-tradition (as in something that happened once or twice over the years and I adopted it as law) was listening to Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant".  And I've picked up some Donovan traditions as well - including Home Alone after dinner - complete with recitation.

Despite the lack of a strong Thanksgiving tradition, it has become my favorite holiday.  A holiday that revolves around food suits my planning/cooking sensibilities.  I hosted Thanksgiving for the 3 years we lived in San Francisco, and I relished planning the menu, shopping for ingredients, mapping out the exact timing in the week leading up to and the day of, shopping again for the ingredients I forgot the first time, and executing my plan.  Of course there are minor traumas and mishaps thrown in for good measure - like my first turkey, which taught me that I did not know how to properly insert the thermometer (and I almost served a medium-rare bird).  Or the time when I thought self-rising flour was the same as regular flour and I ended up with pancake-like biscuits.  Through successes and failures, I relish the chance to share my hospitality and love of food with the people I care about.

I have so much to be thankful for these days.  We're still settling into our new Michigan lives.  We're in a small-ish apartment, but should be closing on our first home around the end of the year (more on that soon!)  So we spent Thanksgiving in Commerce Township, MI at the Bartmans' house (Kevin's aunt Susie and uncle Greg) along with their son Andrew, daughter Sarah and her husband and seven month old son, and Kevin's parents and brother.  And we did our best Arlo "Kiiid!" in the car on the way there.

I brought my two current favorite "tried and true" Thanksgiving dishes:

Italian mother-in-law stuffing (I stuck to this recipe, except used less butter/oil):

The Bartmans' dog Emma scarfed down on the leftovers when we weren't looking.

Pecan browned-butter tart (I couldn't find golden syrup, so just used regular corn syrup):

There is nothing in the world quite as tasty as browned butter.
(btw, I'm not so vegan these days)