A shared Thanksgiving

Our thoughts are turned to Thanksgiving now as, along with the rest of America's foodies/moms/persons-with-appetites, we ponder what might be served and enjoyed on our overladen tables of autumn bounty. This year's turkey day will be very different from years past, and, I must say, I am quite looking forward to it.

For my nuclear family (i.e., My Prince and our real and fictive children), there has been little opportunity to have a Thanksgiving Dinner at our own home with just our own selves to please and serve. Instead we have had to divide ourselves among three households of our parents' generation and consume at least two massive turkey dinners within the typically four-day holiday period. These dinners have been prepared (his side of the family) by some wonderful cooks and served in mass quantities or consumed (my side of the family) at various buffets in hotels and restaurants. This was (a) expensive, (b) food coma inducing, and (c) occasionally stressful.

This year will be different in that we have removed My Prince from the struggle. He will stay--peacefully and happily--in Austin while we put together a version of Turkey Day here in Houston. Instead, for him and the grandkids still in Austin, we will share a meal on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (when I hope to be back there to prepare it). We still don't know what that meal may be, but we've all agreed that it can be as simple as Mystery Casserole just so long as we can be together and express our thankfulness for each other and the good things in our lives. I look forward to it.

Meanwhile, here in the Bayou City, Big Kid Cousin and I have collaborated to have a shared Thanksgiving Dinner, which we will prepare for our mothers and her aunt. The youngest person in the group will be >60; all of us have our own handicapped hang tags for the cars. Needless to say, BKC and I are concentrating on simple and easy fixings at the same time we are striving mightily to keep everyone from slipping into a food coma for one reason or another.

Our biggest concern in this meal is carbohydrates, of course. Three of the five participants in this feast need to avoid carbs like the plague. Getting the sugar out of the menu is pretty easy--we are opting for sugar-free on just about everything. Getting the starch out is an altogether different matter, so we are going to have to sacrifice some traditional items from the menu or seriously reinvent those items to get rid of the starch.

There are other challenges to be overcome, of course. We have picky eaters who like simple foods which would do well on the Children's Menu of a restaurant. We have menu restrictions related to gout and colitis and some concern about phosphorus levels. We also have traditionalists who can't quite see a Turkey Day without "the official Thanksgiving menu." It's gonna be fun to try to work our way through all these problems.

I look forward to it.