Thanksgiving, 2021, Year of the Charcuterie Board

We have been very happy over the past few months to be spending a lot more time with one of Troy's brothers, Sam. Sam's family and our family trade off having Carol, Troy's mom, over for dinner every other Sunday, plus about once a month one whole family joins the other at the dinner as well. It's been really fun, and I am appreciating feeling closer to family. And as we progressed through the months of September and October, Sam's wife Kathleen and I began chatting more and more and often the topic was Thanksgiving. We laughed at ourselves over how lame we were to be that excited, but we couldn't help it!

It was the Preslar family's year to be getting together, and Kathleen and Sam were very gracious and offered to host, since really none of us have any place better than theirs for a bigger group. We can handle folks at our place when it's warm outside but not so much in November. We weren't too sure who else would be joining us - there has been, like in many families, a lot of differing opinions about current events and, well, let's just keep it simple and say we weren't sure who else would come. It ended up being our two families, Carol, and one more of Troy's brothers; Rick and his wife Tonja. It was so nice to be able to be together with everyone who could make it.

The day before Thanksgiving I was thrilled to pick up a tradition that had been skipped the year before -my dear friend Emily was able to come over so we could have a pie day together. She hates making pie crust and I am always searching for the perfect recipe. I think I have tried a new one every single year and every single year I've been sure I have finally found the recipe to beat all recipes. And guess what. I had a new recipe this year and I'm certain that this is the one! This time I actually know that I'm right. I started using this recipe months and months ago, and it's worked perfectly every time. I LOVE this recipe. Here's the link: https://www.cucinabyelena.com/ultimate-all-butter-pie-crust/  Emily and I had a lovely afternoon listening to Christmas music, slicing apples and stirring pots of pumpkin filling. I just love making pies with Emily.

Kath and I were already pretty excited about the start of the holidays, and we had grand plans for how long we were going to hang out together on Thanksgiving day, how many Christmas movies we were going to watch, and all the yummy things we were going to make and eat. Of course, not all of that worked out just so, but we did have a nice long day of cooking together and eating yummy things!

The biggest highlight, besides Sam's amazing stuffed and smoked turkey, which he deboned all by himself (a feat which terrifies me), was Kathleen's charcuterie board. Charcuterie is a word I only learned this year. I had never heard of it and and now it's a major thing. It's so funny to me that in February Sheri was literally teaching me how to pronounce this odd word and trying to explain what it was. Now I hear about them all the time, see them on social media, come across tiktok videos about them....it's crazy! Well, Kathleen outdid herself and put together quite the amazing appetizer for us. She couldn't have done it without Sam, who made her the board and it's like 3 feet long. It takes a lot of charcuterie to fill up a board like that! The real challenge was keeping the kids from eating it before we could build it and take photos.

Well, it was a grand day of cooking and eating. We ate so much that by the time the pie was served no one wanted any! Including me. We were so so so full, and happy. There's something just so cozy and wonderful about the Thanksgiving holiday, and of course best of all for me is that it flings wide open the doors of Christmas!