Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Here in Casa Loco (aka Bin of Loonies and House of the Hopeless), we have a great deal to be thankful for. Things that come right to mind, in no particular order:
- Debbie and I are both in age-adjusted good health.
- We live in a wonderful place, surrounded by admirable and tolerant neighbors.
- We're blessed with an assortment of friends who watch out for us, and make us smile.
- We're not worried about money (this is a huge change for us in the past four years).
- Our animals are all healthy and happy.
- Our several friends who have had recent health scares are all feeling much better.
- Our immediate families are all healthy and at least sometimes happy.
- It's a beautiful day today, and our holiday meal is being prepared.
My brother Scott will be down for Thanksgiving dinner with us. We have a non-traditional menu: the main course is a b'stilla (a traditional Moroccan holiday dish, a kind of pigeon pie - though we use chicken), a Moroccan carrot salad, and chocolate mousse for dessert. We've made the b'stilla several times before, using a recipe given to us by the Moroccan restaurant where we first had the dish. It's full of rich food (eggs, almonds, butter) and exotic flavors (cinnamon, especially) Americans don't often associate with chicken. The carrot salad we're making this year is a different recipe than the one we've used in the past; the jury is out on that one. I make the chocolate mousse from Julia Child's recipe (the best I've ever had), using Callebaut chocolate. If you love chocolate, you should make that mousse – it's not complicated, and it's been a favorite of ours for years.
We're planning to be near-comatose by around 5 pm. I hope you are too!
