Get your gobble-gobble on

Have you already started cooking up a storm for Thanksgiving? Is your house a pre-feast disaster zone? Guess what? Thanks to hubby's crazy holiday work schedule I get an extra 2 days for preparations!

That's right! We'll be postponing the annual ravishing of the turkey until Saturday (hubby is slated for work on both Thursday and Friday and we both don't feel like squeezing it in into the short late dinner slot of regular dinner time). That means this time I'll have to wait 1 year and 2 days until my extra favorite American treat: Thanksgiving Dinner. Ugh!

Not being of the American persuasion, I had my first ever Thanksgiving dinner after moving here with the hubby, 3/4 of a year into my life as a legal resident in the US. We never had any of that "your mother's or my mother's stuffing recipe" strife but instead lots of amusement on the hubby's side when I bought a "Thanksgiving 101" book to prepare both mentally as well as practically for the most typical American holiday. If there's anything more loaded with tradition than Thanksgiving I have yet to discover it; even Christmas doesn't get close.

So, what's on the menu (which shall not be trifled with unless it's pre-meal appetizers served around lunchtime)?

• Turkey, brined, basted and stuffed to perfection (hubby takes care of The Bird, mainly because I'm stumped when confronted with handling a 26 pound bird which we usually have. I'm also too short to handle it effectively)
• gravy
• stuffing made according to hubby's Mom's recipe (I'm not crazy about sausage in any way, shape or form but her sausage stuffing is K.I.L.L.E.R!)
• steamed broccoli and/or green beans
• cheese sauce and/or browned butter for veggies
• mashed potatoes
• homemade Cranberry sauce
• mixed winter salad with a light vinaigrette
• variety of pies, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream for dessert

Hubby handles The Bird, start to finish, and I take care of all of the side dishes and for the past years it has worked beautifully! Yes, we do aim for left-overs and embark on a turkey tour through the cuisines of the world for almost a week after Thanksgiving before we can't stand the idea of eating turkey anymore. Then we're happy to know that there're still some containers with stuffing and turkey and gravy in the freezer for those cold drear winter days when we need a touch of comfort food again.

Is it Saturday yet?

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Thanksgiving with countless blessings!