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Well, it's been a while...

Between travel (Equatorial Guinea, Kenya and soon, El Salvador) and work (end of fiscal year deadlines) I've been neglecting the blog.

Thankfully, I've still been able to cook! I've been trying to get up the energy to start posting again, and Thanksgiving provided the perfect opportunity.

We had a wonderful holiday this year - with family (Natan, Rachel, Rebekah, Manuel) and friends (Mary Ann, Levi, Josh, Katherine), from here and out of town. Unfortunately, the weekend also involved two trips to the ER (thankfully none for food poisoning!). Nonetheless, we were all together by 3:00 on Thursday, and had a wonderful feast, with contributions from everyone. Thankfully, I wasn't responsible for the pies! As those who know me are well aware, desserts are NOT my forte!

After snacking on delicious cheeses from Eastern Market (including a Camembert that tastes like butter - in the best sense of the word) and drinking Prosecco, I used shots of pumpkin apple soup spiked with sherry to get everyone to the table. For the meal, we had a traditional turkey (fondly referred to as "the roast beast" in the Weissburg home) stuffed with baby portobello mushrooms and roasted chestnuts, stuffing with tarragon and walnuts, Brussels sprouts with walnut oil and chives (that only Katherine and I really liked - my attempt to win Josh over into Brussels sprouts territory didn't work), traditional Weissburg potatoes (brilliantly prepared by Manuel), cranberry sauce with dates and orange zest (Josh handily took over preparation of the dish in Rachel's ER absentia), delicious wholegrain rolls (grace a Mary Ann) and an arugula salad with candied pecans, dried cherries and pomegranate seeds. Let's just say no one missed the candied yams and marshmallows (or if they did, no one mentioned it!).

I had great fun cooking Wednesday and Thursday - I'm already planning for Christmas dinner! I'm thinking a roast leg of lamb. Suggestions for accompaniments?

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