HELLO ALL!

The world remains in many many ways a shitshow and I am avoiding it all because my bubble is currently nice, dammit.

So, while it is only 9/28, I would like to start planning my Holidays.

As you all may know, Thanksgiving is my favorite Holiday and I will cook all the food whether for a house-full or just me. I also am a bit of (read absolute) control freak about certain things, so going out or joining others for this one day is not a great fit for me.

I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who may not have a place to go, would like an alternative place to go, or just wants to come.

Here's the deal:

I have 2 full sized beds and a slightly smaller than a twin bed available. I'll be working from home and in a training the Wednesday before T-day which means food prep will be on Tuesday night and on breaks Wednesday and Wednesday night (if you like to be a part of that stuff). Thursday the parade goes on when the pre-parade broadway show performances start and it stays on until it's over.

I make the following (but am totally open to adding to this and or having other people cook what they want): Turkey or chicken dressing gravy cranberry salad cranberry relish green salad green bean casserole mashed potatoes - regular and sweet crescent rolls (optional butternut squash something, brussel sprouts) at least 3 pie options one of which is pumpkin

Meal time is always flexible with me and other than the parade and food I have no "rules" about the day.

The house has dogs and only one full bath.

So, look at your schedule and options and if you wanna come, let me know.

Damn, this enormous continent! msbelle, I would love it beyond the telling of it, but this is not the year! I hope you get a house exactly as full as you would like it to be (and figure out a way to send a leftover turkey sandwich & a slice of pumpkin pie to California)!

Not looking nice for Sanibel & Captiva islands.

My cousins have a condo on Sanibel (they are not there now) and I just heard the causeway is completely wiped out so it will be a while before anyone can get to the island to even find out what the damage has been.

Yes, I saw the pictures and it looks like just a relatively small section of the causeway collapsed, but no doubt the whole thing will have to be inspected. Not going to be a quick fix. They will be on ferry service I guess!

Cell service is sketchy so I am not getting a lot from the family there.

It all looks so awful.

Yes, I have been watching their local news all day and more and more drone footage is showing the mess. Lots of roads and bridges gone. Beachfront mansions. Gone.

I'm still getting used to my new double oven, which came without instructions.

So when I tried to make a frittata, I wanted to use the broiler to brown the top. But instead I burned it all entirely black.

And I thought, "Well, that's an hour's worth of cooking and food wasted. Or....I can take off the burned top and treat this like a kind of strata."

Eggs, veg, cheese. It didn't look great but the underneath tasted fine.

My thought was, "You know what fixes just about anything? A good cheese sauce."

Now it turns out that Bi-Rite makes latkes you can buy before Rosh Hashannah. Which I did.

So if you're thinking, "If you took that strata and those latkes and you covered them both with a gorgeous, savory, chedder-y sauce that'd probably taste pretty good."

And you would be right.

In conclusion: Cheese sauce.

Normally this would be TCG’s night to take ltc to karate, but they have Krav instructors guest instructing today. So, I had to tag along.

Yum, cheese sauce!

I am suddenly sad that my veggie-tastic stir fry doesn't have cheese sauce.