A Big HAPPY THANKSGIVING ... Gobble Gobble

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends today.  I'm pretty thankful for everything all year long ... I've been blessed to be sure ... but this time of year I like to pass it on to perfect strangers.  

I made a quick trip to the grocery store yesterday at 8:00 am, hoping to miss the crowds.  WRONG!!  The place was packed and the lines pretty long.  My idea was to pay for someone's groceries, but the guy ahead of me beat me to it, except he bragged about how much money he had while doing it!! Still, it was a really nice gesture.  So the lady behind him, wanted to pay for mine.  I let the checker get a few things through, then stopped him (my bill was well over $100).  I appreciated her gesture tremendously, but told her I had more money than THAT guy!!  I paid for the remainder and we had a good laugh!!  Before I left, I paid for the elderly lady behind me, who gave me a huge hug!!!  It truly makes you feel good.   I had the biggest smile on my face as I drove out the parking lot.

That wasn't enough for me however .... I stopped in at another very small grocery store and walked around handing out happy Thanksgiving wishes along with cash.  There's lot of places you can donate money, but most spend more on the CEO than they do on the people who need it.  I'm telling you folks .... there's nothing that makes the heart happier than helping a mom and her little girl or maybe grandma have a wonderful exciting day.  I was smiling from ear to ear when I left.  I even gave my last few dollars to a lady in the parking lot who was irritated that I was backing out and she had to wait.  

I could have kept that money and bought something for myself, like a new bed, another pair of boots or a visa for my Russian Fiance .... but seeing the look of shock turn to smiles on those faces just made my day!!!  

When I finally made it home, I dug out Paula Deene's recipe for pumpkin cheesecake.  I still have four cans of pumpkin in the cupboard.  It turned out really well ... I think.  The taste test after dinner will reveal if that's true or not.

Since I decided to roast, not smoke my turkey (what??  No dressing or gravy or hot turkey sandwiches said I ??) I went about fixing some cornbread for the stuffing.  I have several of those little boxes in the cupboard, but for some reason decided to make the REAL stuff, since I found some cornmeal in the fridge.  Yeah, I keep lots of weird things in the fridge so they last longer.  

A minor disaster was averted when I discovered I was following the recipe for sweet corn muffins instead of cornbread.  See how easily I can get in trouble??  You can tell by the looks on the faces of the puppies that it came out WONDERFUL!!  I guarantee I will NEVER make that box stuff again!  It was just delicious!!!

On with the cooking ... this isn't MY turkey, but it's what I hope mine will look like when it comes out of the oven this afternoon!!  Since I'm cooking for myself, I'm trying out a couple of new recipes. Better to do a test run on me than a big RV group!!  I'm doing a version of the green bean casserole, brussell sprouts with squash, garlic mashed potatoes and of course turkey and gravy.  If you see big flames in the sky followed by the sound of sirens, I probably had a minor problem!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone ... remember the reason for the season!!  

Gobble Gobble ..... or in Russian .... Mooooooo Moooooo