Thanksgiving at Mom's.

A buffet in the kitchen with enough food to easily feed 16 of my dear family members (more was warming in the oven to replace any dishes that might have gone empty) awaits the parade. Starting at the top of the photo, moving clockwise: stuffed cabbage, baked sweet potatoes and white potatoes, rolls and amazing Sullivant Street sourdough bread from Cousin David, turkey, more turkey and gravy, sweet potato pie, stuffing, roasted vegetables (my addition) and sauteed green beans. My favorite part was the stuffing. Mom's is the best. She sauteed an onion, mushrooms and celery in oil, then added them to a bag of Pepperidge Farm cubed stuffing with some veggie broth. She then puts the mixture in a Pyrex baking dish and bakes it untill it's crispy on top, but not dry in the middle. I could live on the stuff. For the roasted veggies, I followed Gourmet's recipe for roasted vegetables with gremolata. It's made from carrots, parsnips, turnips and brussels sprouts. If I had to do it again, I wouldn't use the brussels sprouts because they stank up my kitchen and fridge. However, they were pretty tasty.

I also supplied the group with Vegan With A Vengeance's Crispy Peanut Butter Cookies and some Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Fruit Sweet and Sugar Free. Both were a big hit. I ate way too many of the oatmeal raisin cookies. They're really not all that healthy with all the butter in them, but healthy or not, they're plenty tasty. MMMMMM.

And so today, I recover from an extremely busy last few days cooking, baking and painting the dining room. By the way, I used Benjamin Moore's Alpaca for the walls and Acadia White for the trim. Since the ceiling downstairs is in good shape, I opted not to paint it. Next week, I begin getting the kitchen ready for painting. This is going to require a LOT of work since John and I put shelves up to act as a pantry when I bought the house. There's a love story behind the shelves, but that's for another time.

Regardless, I have to figure out how to store all the kitchen pantry items (cookbooks, canned goods -- most likely in the garage, baking ingredients, snacky cakes, and so on). One method will be to ruthlessly take stock of all the dishes and cooking implements in all the cabinets. If I haven't used them in a year, they're going to be lovingly wrapped and packed in a box and stacked in the garage until we move (whenever that is). I'm betting that I'll be able to move all the pantry items into the empty spaces in the cabinets so I can take the shelves off the walls to paint.

So much work. Tired just thinking about it. What I'd really like to do is have a spa day and a 2-hour long massage. Maybe in 2007.