Ms Chef in Seattle

There was Thanksgiving frost on the stairs and driveway this morning at 8:30. I’m thankful that the threatened snow earlier in the week stayed in the mountains where the snow bunnies and water table may benefit.

The first scent of the day was, naturally, coffee, but I’ve just saluted the frost with the aroma of walnuts toasted in a spicy mix of sweet paprika, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, red pepper flakes and salt. Walnuts will grace the top of roasted, spiced sweet potato and onion side dish tonight.

Later:  Because I had already made the raspberry ice cream and cranberry lolly and was only cooking for two plus the essential — leftovers — it wasn’t necessary for me to get busy in the kitchen until 1:30 for dinner at 6. My daughter prefers savory to sweet, so I don’t make the jello salads and pies that were a normal part of the preparations for Thanksgivings past. This year we agreed to skip the dinner rolls since most of them went to the squirrels and birds last year.

Just before dinner, she found and borrowed one of my vintage silk dresses, played beauty parlor and then was impatient to eat since dinner wasn’t at exactly 6 PM but maybe 15 minutes late.  We cooperated to get everything on the table while hot. Then? Hurry up, take pics now! Hurry, hurry!

The result? Lousy photos but delicious herb-roasted turkey breast half, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, bacon and cornbread dressing with pine nuts, brussel sprouts roasted in olive oil with lemon pepper, spicy roasted yams and onions topped with the nuts made in the morning, green peas with a little butter, Cranberry Lolly, some sparkling apple juice and wine … and a leisurely dinner that was definitely NOT 4500 calories.

A few hours later, I reminded Maria that there was homemade and exquisite raspberry ice cream in the freezer for dessert. She wanted chocolate sauce on the top so I whipped up a quick batch in the microwave, scooped 1/2 cup of ice cream into a bowl, put it on a tray with the dish of hot fudge and and spoon. Made me laugh, too, when she put approximately one teaspoon of the fudge on her ice cream, leaving the rest in the bowl. Honestly! Next time I will just bring in the chocolate syrup squeezie. One teaspoonful!

It was the Heaven already known to me, that ice cream, and Thanksgiving dinner?  Great again this year.