This year, having moved away from the parents and not wanting to spend the cash on a plane ticket back for such a short weekend, I opted to stay in-town for the weekend. Given the opportunity for excessive work and toil instead of rest, I chose to cook Thanksgiving dinner for others also sticking around.

Cooking turned out to be a bit of frenetic experience. Because of work schedules and some very The Man management inspired exercises in frustration, I didn't have much time to try out new recipes before the big date and was pretty frazzled. I ended up pulling the menu together at the last minute. Breaking the oven latch so I have to use a screwdriver to open door did not help one bit.

How-ev-er...dinner itself turned out quite tastily. At least, that's what the survey said. Everyone was rather stuffed by the end.

The final menu is as follows:

• Roasted Brined Turkey with Herb Butter


• Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Acorn Squash with Sweet Spiced Butter


• Your Standard Salad Mix with White Wine-Walnut Oil Vinegarette


• Andouille Sausage Cornbread Dressing


• Braised Leeks with Bacon Bechamel Sauce


• Cranberry, Pomegranate, Orange, Lime Sauce


• Gravy, Glorious, Gravy


• Pecan Pie


• Pumpkin Pie

Of course there were leftovers, but for some reason, I haven't been in the mood to eat them. In fact, I've been going through other leftovers and eating out. I suppose all the effort I put into putting making the dishes turned me off a little in some strange sort of way.

Asides from that, I took the opportunity to relax and catch a break. I got some DDR and Halo 2 in. I also got the apartment cleaned again and just chilled. It's been very nice, but I could use another few days.