My husband doesn't believe me . . .

. . . but some critter is trying to gain access to my kitchen. The noise is behind the refrigerator. It's too irregular to be of mechanical origin and there are no unaccounted-for humans. Nor is anyone doing work in the gap between our building and the next (which gap is behind the refrigerator). I'm mentioning it here because the noise is so loud and so persistent that I'm starting to think things like, "I hope that's a mouse." If I'm still here when Eric the Vanquisher comes home from conquering the library, there will be some applicance moving. Robyn, I hope you aren't sending me the rejects from the Department of Mouse Housing?

So, trying to calm down (I love rodents, have I mentioned that?) I thought I'd share our delightful Thanksgiving meal with you. Eric and I started cooking together at 4:00 and sat down to eat at 7:00. During that time we prepared a rabbit, roasted root veggies, brussels sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and oyster stuffing from scratch. We also got most of the way through a bottle of wine, reorganized my spice drawer and researched family games online. And the kids were mostly awake for all of this. Thanksgiving does not have to be a day-long stressful event.

The food was amazing. Rabbit tastes exactly like turkey, it turns out, and one rabbit is a much more sensible amount of food for four than one turkey. Oyster stuffing was . . . fishy, but good, and reminiscent of Eric's grandmother. The veggies were delightful--we discovered parsnips this year. The brussels sprouts were shredded and sauteed with bacon and garlic. There's never enough. The cranberry sauce was heavenly. I wish there were so much more of it. I cooked the cranberries down with orange juice, red wine, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. I accidentally doubled the cinnamon which was fine. Cranberries can hold up their own flavor under a lot of cinnamon and all that spice gave it a bit of heat. Wonderful. I'm going to make it again to go over vanilla ice cream.

I took a picture of the whole table, but Eric thought a plated meal looked prettier, so there it is. We have these Orchardware cherry dishes we bought while engaged at a yard sale from a little old lady who had owned them almost fifty years and teared up as we carried them away. We have used them twice including last night and every time we move I think of getting rid of them. We'll see. I love interesting china but I hate clutter and too many possessions. It's a constant battle around here--especially with the books.

Our day was lovely as, I hope, was yours.