Gorgeous cumin-Aleppo pepper-cinnamon carrots, Mr. Turkey

Aren't these beautiful? I bought them last Sunday at the farmers market and am eagerly anticipating them post-roast as they're slicked in olive oil and then sprinkled with cinnamon, ground cumin, Aleppo pepper and salt. The turkey is a real hodge-podge, admittedly, but still looks good. He's stuffed with butter, sage, thyme, garlic, salt and then drizzled with white wine, more butter, stock and so forth. Can you really go wrong?

How is your cooking going? How is your TG so far?

Macy's parade

Has anyone tried to watch the Macy's parade on TV? What a bummer, what a joke. We've seen exactly 75% of 1 balloon. I'm not watching coverage of the parade so that I can hear Elle McPherson talk fashion. Sheesh. We had most of our blackberry pie for breakfast. Nothing wrong with that! My rice and cornbread dressings look gorgeous, and my turkey is stuffed with butter, garlic and sage. Off to get that sucker in the oven. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Pecan-oatmeal pie

Don't you just want to stick your face in that and get going? I do. Good thing it just came out of the oven and is still bubbling-hot; otherwise, I might. I'm also glad it's for us. I just sent that last, gorgeous pumpkin cheesecake out the door and found it be a sad farewell. Today was a fun marathon. Now that I'm getting into the groove of the catering thing, I really find that I can work like a calm machine. Doing what you can in advance helps tremendously, but so too does having a more intuitive knowledge of how long each item will take, at what temp, oven or stove, and so forth. Would you even believe that I've got a ton of room in my fridge right now? And nothing left to cook tonight. Bravo!

I'm off to good wine and take-out. If you're still prepping, carry on! Happy TG!