Thanksgiving Countdown

I am in the midst of preparing our traditional Thanksgiving meal again this year and last night I made the pies, pecan pie and pumpkin pie, our two traditional desserts for Thanksgiving.

I've made my list and I've been checking it off as I go.

I seem to be writing more and more on my list these days because I think my memory is getting worse and worse each year! I started my list last week by making the menu first which is easy since we always eat the same thing for Thanksgiving. Then, I copy off all my recipes so they're at my fingertips and then make the grocery list. I started my grocery shopping on Sunday. Monday was my day off work so you can see I had a lot to do. I worked on Tuesday so I did the last bit of grocery shopping on my way home from work and made pies last night. Most the cooking will be on Thanksgiving. Today, I am making the , cranberry sauce, the shrimp spread for our appetizers, shrimp toasts and the famous Hernon Green Gelatin Salad. The weather is warming up here so now we've decided to smoke our turkey on the Traeger. We got an early snow storm this year and it snowed before the leaves even had a chance to fall off the trees. I'm happy it is warming up again.

As you can see from my list, we are going to have tacos tonight with our homemade corn tortillas and margaritas which is a light and simple meal for the night before Thanksgiving. Ever since we returned from Japan, I can't stop thinking about their healthy lifestyle and our American gluttonous ways, a bad thing to be thinking about on Thanksgiving, the biggest eating day of the year! (Next to Super Bowl Sunday?) This Thanksgiving, my portions are going to be Japanese style - small! The interesting thing about being in Japan is that the Japanese are not obsessed with their diet like we are. They just eat whatever they feel like. They only have whole milk in the grocery store and only white bread. They have french bakeries everywhere, eat a lot of ramen noodles and also McDonalds. I've decided their lack of obesity in their culture is because of their small portions and the fact that they walk everywhere and the staple in their diets is always fish and rice. Anyway, I can't stop thinking about our experience there and now I need to get going on my Thanksgiving cooking. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everybody, and remember - small portions!

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