We're in Thanksgiving recovery right now.

I cooked most of the food on Wednesday night including the Ruby Port Cranberry Sauce, the turky stock for the gravy, the butternut squash soup, brining the turkey, and the pumpkin cheesecake. (Who knew Food and Wine had all their recipes online?  I've been subscribing for years!)  Actually, the cheesecake was more of a tart.  And I have no idea why, but I have a fascination for making tarts despite the fact that I absolutely suck at it! Nonetheless, I continue to make tarts including the homemade tart crust at nearly every big family function.  Things started per usual with the tart.  The crust looked a bit sketchy when I put it in the fridge to chill before rolling it out.  But then, something amazing happened!  I actually was able to roll it out into the prescribed shape and size!  That has never happened before.  I used a lot more flour than I normally do, so maybe that helped in the rolling.  But I was so excited.  I had visions of this being the tart I actually made well!  Then, I did what I've never done before:  rolled the dough up on the rolling pin to put in the tart pan.  I was so excited to be a real dough making tart baker.  Then, of course, because I have no experiece doing this, I didn't position in right and the dough only covered 80% of the pan.  WHOOPS.  I had to reposition the dough.  There were tears in the dough and tears of frustration in my eye.  There was folding and pushing and prodding and covering holes in the dough.  Again, I felt doomed to tart failure.  I cooked the crust and make the pumpkin cheesecake filling.  I put it in there, it looked as if it would overflow, but didn't.  It cooked and I made the cranberry gelee for the top.  I felt all fancy until I poured the gelee on top of the tart and it did not stop at the edge of the tart.  No.  It continued on off the tart and onto the kitchen counter.  I was not amused.  I stuck it in the fridge on top of another platter so that it wouldn't drip all over the fridge.  :-(  I have to be honest with you though.  When I removed the outer ring of the tart pan to put it on my fancy cake stand to serve, it looked beautiful.  No remnant of either its tears or my tears were apparent.  And it tasted pretty darn good too! I was SHOCKED!  I believe that this was the only good dessert I have ever made!  So if I can make this dessert, you, too, should try it. 

Dave and I got up bright and early Thursday morning to finish cleaning the house.  Then we went to the Charlotte Southpark Hyatt to run the Tukery Trot.  The Turkey Trot is so much fun.  It's an 8K, a little less than 5 miles, and everyone is there.  I think about 2000 runners showed up and I ended up running the race with a friend of a friend.  Both of us had a better race than we anticipated due to pacing each other.  It was very nice, although she kicked my butt in the last 200 yards!  The best about the Turkey Trot that allows for 500 extra guilt free calories for the day. 

We came home and cleaned ourselves up.  I made the appetizer trays and the dressing (which did not turn out as good as it usually does.  I was quite disappointed).  The cauliflower surprise was not nearly as eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-your-head as it normally is. And my roasted winter root vegetables were not all that tasty, or done, either.  The 17 pound turkey was done in 2 hours.  No I'm not kidding.  The recipe calls for 2.5 hours, but I always start testing with a thermomester at 2 hours because I don't want it to dry out.  After brining Tom and letting him rest, we turn him on his side to roast one wing at 475 for 15 minutes, and then turn him to the other side for 15 minutes, and then we turn it down to 325 and finish cooking him while he rests on his back.  We let him rest for at least 40 minutes and then Dave does the carving deed.  It's such a moist turkey.  I love it.  But I really should wait to the last minute to start him.  I always have Tom hanging out well before the meal is ready to be served!  At least he's not too hot to handle.

The highlight of the meal was definitely the pumpkin cheesecake, which if you had told me that on Wednesday night, I would have just ordered out for pizza.  Who knew, huh? 

We had a good time with the whole family.  I'm pretty pooped today.  I feel hungover despite only drinking O'Douls and herbal iced tea.  I can't tell if this is just regular fatigue or pregnancy fatigue.  I do know that I have to work on this manuscript like a wild woman today because I totally farted around on Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm  behind.  Bleah. 

I must become more focused on my work.  I must be a better professor.  I must write more, more, more until I don't have to worry about tenure anymore.  3 more years to go.  Yippee. 

8:00:52 AM