I guess you could call it fusion?

My Thanksgiving feast brought together two wildly different cultures - mine, and Smooth Melon's.

It was a potluck hosted at our place. Good thing we have a place, because there is no way our families would gather in one spot at the same time otherwise. Especially not for a group meal that would require, ahem, accepting our differences. All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time and even enjoyed "all them different flavors!".

La mia familia:
* Handmade ricotta gnocchi and tomato sugo w/ parmegiano reggiano
* Cranberry sauce with orange zest, slow simmered from real berries
* Stuffing made from Grand Central bread
* Roasted brussel sprouts with bacon and pecans
* Lemon-Lime jello with whipped cream and walnuts
* Mashed potatoes
* Cranberry-orange pound cake

Smooth Melon's folks:
* Roasted root vegetables (my favorite dish of the night, by my no-dairy no-wheat sis-in-law)
* Yeast rolls from scratch
* Wheat-free dairy free pumpkin pie. No, I have no idea how this is accomplished. Something about amaranth flour.
* "Scalloped" corn (canned corn with saltines and ... something?)
* Green bean casserole (canned green beans with cream of mushroom soup and those crispy onion thingys)

These last two are courtesy of my mother-in-law. 'Nuff said.

She did make two apple pies, though.

And of course, we roasted the turkey. My first turkey. After I pulled the bloody, purple neck and giblets out of the carcass, I could no longer touch the raw bird. Smooth Melon had to take over. We brined it, though - it was soooo tender.

Turkey soup and turkey tacos are on the list for this week, since we got a damn 17-lb bird. Cripes.

Giving Thanks in Chicago

Allright, you all. Just saw this on Big Sweet Tooth, one of the blogs I read with amazing regularity. Thought you'd enjoy.

http://sweettooth.typepad.com/mst/2005/11/these_legs_just.html

And, if you don't already read this blog, you totally should!!

http://www.sweettooth.typepad.com/

Happy Turkey Day

Hey there, Team. Happy Turkey Day to you. Me, you ask? I'm heading out to Florida. Watch for stories of my culinary torture on the Sweet T blog (that's my new moniker, hope y'all like it).

Anyway, I wanna see everyone's thanksgiving menus up here next week, and if you feel like sharing, what you are thankful for too.

Allrighty, safe weekend to you all. Blog updates from me on Monday!

PS-Anyone else think it is weird that blogger's spell check doesn't recognize the word 'blog'?

Bacon tshirt ... it's so ... meta ...

http://www.threadless.com/product/345/You_Are_What_You_Eat

Please, someone buy this for me for Christmas ...

Foodie magazines on newsstands now!

A year ago I saw this new magazine stuffed into a back row in the foodie mag section. Called CHOW, looked cool and different, bought it ... it was a little lacking, like most debut mags are. Today at lunch (pulled pork sandwich from New Seasons - too greasy, needed more spice and more slaw), I spied a CHOW magazine in the rack. "Wow," I thought. "They beat the odds and actually lasted a year." (you can find it at www.chowmag.com)

Long story short, I picked up the new issue of CHOW, and it's pretty darn good. Irreverent, a little visceral, a foodie ReadyMade of sorts ...

And appropriately enough, the current issue of ReadyMade is the "food issue" (www.readymademag.com). It has an article on how to start a supper club (among other good articles, like DIY sushi plates and covering your ugly fridge with stainless steel). Says supper clubs are "sprouting up across the country as a growing number of urbanites seek connection to one another and to the growers, process, and politics involved in food preparation."

Guess we're part of a delicious wave, EPsters.