Later on, we'll perspire, as we dream by the fire

Dinner was a triumph. It was everything that Child 1 wanted for what is probably her last Thanksgiving home for a while. We cooked all morning because we made it all from scratch. The only thing bought was the cranberry sauce, which apparently must come in the shape of a can, and the cranberry ginger-ale which is our celebratory drink of choice. The menu, which we prepared together while watching the Macy's parade in New York, consisted of the following.

1. A perfectly cooked juicy turkey with lots and lots of dark meat
2. homemade cream cheese and tarragon stuffing
3. strueseled sweet potatoes (no marshmallows!)
4. green bean casserole with home made french-fried onions (gluten-free of course)
5. mashed potatoes
6. gluten-free gravy (which was really, really delicious this year because I used my own stock and the turkey drippings and some gluten-free flour)
7. pumpkin pie with homemade crust. Child 1 took a class on how to make pie crust and she is very, very good at it. Too bad it's not gluten-free, but that was the flakiest pie crust I've ever seen. The gluten-free version used a brown-sugar, pecan, and butter crust and it was really delicious.

These are what the sweet potatoes look like. You should know that if you buy yellow sweet potatoes, they turn green when exposed to air and your casserole turns out to look like snot. But it still tastes delicious and is very popular with small children especially if they like to say we're eating snot for Thanksgiving over and over and over again.

But one of the most fun things about the day was going over to friends' for dessert first. You see, a friend of ours in Virginia not only was one of my Norwegian language students years ago, he is the brother of one of our good friends from our first tour in Seoul. So he invited his brother and us over for dinner, but because of the gluten issue, we decided to just make it dessert, but they ate earlier than us, so we had dessert with them and reminisced and watched the football game and had a great time, and then we came home and took the turkey out of the oven and ate dinner, and then more dessert. I am so full I can't move. But it's a happy thing because I love cooking dinner for my family and this year, we were all here to celebrate together--one last time.

Oh, and that sweet potato casserole? Totally better than a brownie. We use half and half in ours instead of milk. And the title of today's blog is brought to you by Child 2 because she thought that's what the words were to Let It Snow. Makes sense, no?