Dear Friends,
Well, we've had ourselves a pretty exciting couple of weeks, haven't we? And Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Like so many of you, I'm not going to be with my family this year. My youngest lives in Phoenix, my oldest and his fiancée are in Chicago, my dad is in Indianapolis, my brother in Florida, and my husband and I are in Virginia. So... no one wants to risk traveling right now, or infecting anyone else. So we're staying put in our various homes, and Zooming instead. Christmas will be the same.
My husband and I are going to do a traditional dinner, just smaller. Not as many side dishes or appetizers and a smaller turkey. But we still want the traditional Thanksgiving favorites, like dressing. My recipe is the same one from the Joy of Cooking, and it's a good one. Very moist. The key is the homemade croutons—much better than store bought. And I've become a fan of Ina Garten's make-ahead gravy, because gravy always trips me up when I make it at the last minute. Just Google it and you'll find it. It's really a lifesaver!
No matter how small your Thanksgiving is, of course the kitchen is going to get a workout! And we are finding that we love our new kitchen in ways we hadn't expected. We had redone our kitchen in Chicago, and it was truly the kitchen of my dreams, all shiny and new with fancy cabinets and quartz countertops. Our kitchen in our new home is... not that. Original cabinets (it was built in 1990) that aren't deep, the doors stick, and they're not painted very well although I love the color (a pretty celadon green). I don't have a double oven anymore. The drawers don't glide shut.
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