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Good morning! Family dinners and celebrations, including family members with food allergies and dietary restrictions, yard work, elections at various levels, and all the other things that arise, we come here to chat, support, listen, celebrate and commiserate. The Coffee Cart is open, fresh brewed coffee, tea water and tea leaves at the ready, and some pumpkin pie ready to serve. All is ready, all are welcome. Come on in when you have the chance! And Happy Thanksgiving for all who celebrate it today!

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Good morning! Family dinners and celebrations, including family members with food allergies and dietary restrictions, yard work, elections at various levels, and all the other things that arise, we come here to chat, support, listen, celebrate and commiserate. The Coffee Cart is open, fresh brewed coffee, tea water and tea leaves at the ready, and some pumpkin pie ready to serve. All is ready, all are welcome. Come on in when you have the chance! And Happy Thanksgiving for all who celebrate it today!

C(_)/ c\_/ c[_] c(_)

And toss in mental irregularities for excitement ... we could call them deviance or even deviants ... somewhat deficient in greater fields! They don't even know there is more than themselves! Pointed heh goes ... shafting's dear lord my rod so I can see how he measures up there ...? It appears to have an odor ... regarding greater concerns ... for the populace ... nah he only cares for the ONE! No greater concern what so ever ... it hw the story goes ... trying to correct the lies imperfectly ... for personal benefit ... religious polity? The key is sacred ... sacra blue ... wipeout ...
 
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I do think that pot luck is the way to go- especially the more sensitivities there are.
For family turkey dinners (Thanksgiving, Christmas, sometimes Easter) one family member always brings dessert.

And another brings a casserole dish of mashed potatoes to pop into the oven. She prepares the potatoes with roasted garlic which has become a new tradition for us.

We celebrated yesterday. We needed two coleslaws to accomodate certain sensitivities. Easy peasy to split it in two and prepare two different dressings.

It was a great day. Very nice church service in the morning and a good family visit. There were a few sad moments as we remembered the granddog who died a couple of weeks ago.

Quiet day today.
 
So, welcomed my guy home today after a few days away. I made the pies for tomorrow's dinner and the jellied salad (oh, don't ask; there are marshmallows in it)...and we discussed what had to get done tomorrow. 7 people, at least 6 allergies/intolerances. Cow's milk allergy, gluten and soy sensitivity, coconut allergy, onion/garlic restricted, also no rice/pasta. So I have to make enough neutral stuff that no-one will starve. Thank godde there's no vegans.
I can't even think of suitable foods for that mixed group. Way too complicated for my brain. Good luck - and I hope everyone is very grateful to you for making their meals.
 
We didn't plan for a traditional meal for this weekend. Only way that would happen would be if one of our kids invited us. They didn't. We did get a text on Saturday from one to say their kids were home for the weekend. If we wanted to see them we should get there within an hour and leave before noon. Neither of us had showered or dressed yet and we couldn't comfortably do that in half an hour. So Thanks, but no thanks. We didn't bother to point out that the kids had driven past our house on their way home and didn't pop in for a visit and hug.

However we will get a free meal (soup, beef stew, bun and dessert) thanks to a local restaurant who sent out a notice yesterday inviting anyone who was interested to sign up. They are even offering delivery! It will ne fun to hear how many meals they provided when they post a follow up message.
 
We don't have a lot of food allergies to navigate. That would be challenging. We just have Zach, who, while allergic to nothing, refuses to eat almost everything.

With my folks under the weather, they gave advance notice that no big Thanksgiving dinner at either house. They can't afford to catch whatever Zach undoubtedly has brought home.

Yesterday, a 15lb turkey went on the kamado grill (basically like Big Green Egg) at 1pm. I'm used to it taking too long to cook things. The grill temperature got away from me while I wasn't looking and was as high as 440F. Throttled it down successfully, but the effects were undeniable. The turkey hit 170F at 3:30pm. Ugh. Sides were rushed, the turkey rested a little longer that I'd have liked but we kept the heat in and had a lovely meal at an hour that would have made my grandparents proud.

Rookies.

Actually, we have hosted Thanksgiving before, last one being about 10 years ago. That year my parents were sick and our friend was newly separated and so we invited her over. That went great. The food, at least. That turkey has smoke rings (no such luck this year with speed turkey). And I'm pretty sure we drank more that night. But Thanksgiving is usually my parents putting out a spread. We help, but my dad is very protective of doing the turkey himself, in the oven. I prefer to grill it.
 
We had a quiet day with my sister and her husband. It was nice.

We heard of a crash on the highway shortly after we got home. It must have happened about ten minutes after we passed by. People who saw it figure someone turned into the northbound lane by mistake. There's a cement barrier there so they were not able to move to the southbound lane and get out of the way. It's a little strange to have just missed that. I hope it wasn't as bad as it appeared.
 
@chansen My son-in-law has done turkey in the smoker and it is quite good. But this is a summer thing for us. Yum yum.

Tonight is leftovers night.
 
Anyone know much about sweet potatoes? We had some yesterday that shrunk up a lot in the oven. Very orange inside and really delicious.
 
I often make them in the microwave with each wrapped in very wet paper towels then set them in a bowl uncovered in the microwave until they are soft....about 15 minutes or more depending on the microwave. When I take them out I slit the skin open on one side and scoop out the potatoes with a spoon into a bowl, add some butter, a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg; salt and pepper to taste with a bit of milk or cream and then mash them. You can do this with the oven too it just takes longer.
There are a few recipes but this one is fast.
 
I made enough food to feed the 5000 but everyone was well fed, some leftovers went out the door, and we'll be eating ham for a month.

We had cheese and crackers to start, lots of goat options for me (brie and chevre) and some delightful smoked cheese that was raved over.

Then ham with fresh pineapple
Scalloped potatoes in three iterations: chevre and caramelized onions, one with no onions, one with no chevre. All made with a veloutine sauce whitened by cashew milk.
Roasted root vegetables - beets and carrots
Steamed brussel sprouts
Jellied salad, two layers, with fruit and marshmallows
Composed green salad
White dinner rolls and crescent rolls

Blueberry Pie
Sweet potato pie
Whipped coconut cream
Butterscotch ripple ice cream
I made a fruit salad but it didn't make it out of the fridge...

Pomegranate lemonade
Sparkling rose
Nice white
Beer
Tea Coffee and Espresso

Everyone left happy and uber-stuffed, and I delivered my two passengers home by 7:30. Thank all the Goddes for the dishwasher. We almost never use it, but a family dinner creates a LOT of dishes.

The coconut free girl ate no coconut, the cow's dairy allergy consumed nothing wrong (except that Becel margerine has buttermilk in it), there was no soy in evidence, the gluten sensitive woman voluntarily ate a dinner roll, so I didn't worry about the bit of flour in the potatoes.
 
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