giving thanks and enjoying leftovers

My parents and Jay joined me up in No. Cal. for Thanksgiving this year to celebrate with my aunt and uncle and my grandparents. Our gourmet menu consisted of a roasted grape and shallot arugula salad (pg 68), garlic mashed potatoes, Greek stuffing, traditional herb stuffing, Kibbah with a yoguart dill sauce, roasted acorn squash, green beans, and homemade pumpkin pie.


The following day we joined some friends of my aunt and uncle for a leftover dinner party. We had such a blast and I enjoyed the creativity with our leftovers. I think we have a new tradition to add for years to come. We brought to the dinner party a few more gourmet dishes; turkey, sweet potato and watercress salad, turkey croquettes (made with leftover mashed potatoes, turkey, and bread crumbs), and a pumpkin cheesecake.


If you click on the menu items that are in bold, it will send you to the recipe. Here's a few Thanksgiving quotes to remind you of gratitude and what this special day means.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action. ~W.J. Cameron