thanksgiving day

i cleaned the apartment top to bottom.

i have always admired my friend, marie m. who seemed to be the ideal hostess. she would welcome her dinner guests and serve them drinks, chat and then disappear for only a moment before dinner was presented at the table. it seemed so effortless. i have tried to emulate her in preparations but have not yet arrived at her success. nevertheless, i try. i prepared the potatoes yesterday. today i bought a lot of green beans at the thursday morning market, prepped them and pre-sauteed them in batches. all i had to do later was to cook them for another 10 minutes. i made gravy from chicken stock that i had saved in the freezer.

then all i had left to do was to pick up the turkey at 6pm. i went to the metro at 5:45 as i boarded the subway, there was an announcement that there was a short delay because of a “suspicious package” in the stop between me and the turkey. “...and thank you for your patience and understanding in our effort to keep us all safe”. i waited 5 minutes then joined the other rats jumping ship and headed upstairs to get a velib bike. i arrived at the butcher in 10 minutes (mostly along bike paths), and hoped that the metro problem would be resolved for my trip home. i couldn’t imagine trying to fit an 8 pound cooked bird in the front basket of a bike. the butcher put the turkey into a big, deep plastic tray and wrapped it with big saran wrap in several layers and gave me a bottle of a mixture of juices and drippings and oil. the metro was still out of commission and i had guests coming in ½ an hour! so i had to do what i had to do. the platter fit width wise but not lengthwise in the bike basket, so i wedged it in halfway. i laughed all the way home, just imagining the sight of me! got there safely. thanks again to the velib bike system!

luckily jj had gotten home in time to welcome anyone arriving early, and the first guest was already there. he had brought some really nice champagne – tattingers. the rest of his family came and they brought a papaya salad and apple pie. the other family brought delicious stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. these were the 2 families who now take care of maynard the dog for a few days a week. maynard’s other families. jj exclaimed how our parties used to be made up of her friends and their families and NOW they are maynard’s friends! how true!

the tattinger champagne was very delicious. something really perfect about it – crisp taste, sharp bubbliness, perfect flavor balance. the rotisserie turkey was delicious! moist, tender and crispy skin. everything was delicious. the thanksgiving combination was great. the company was good and in all, a very enjoyable evening.

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