twice as thankful

I love holidays.  Yesterday marked the beginning of my favorite time of year - "the holiday season," or as I like to call it, Christmastime.  I have a strong desire to do my meager Christmas decorating tomorrow because I know me and I know what my schedule looks like between now and the blessed day, and if I don't decorate before Monday, it won't happen.  There is a minuscule part of me that even wants to hit up some of the Black Friday madness, only because I know that if I don't start soon, I'll end up doing all of my shopping on Christmas Eve again and that really doesn't allow me to enjoy my favorite time of year much.  Minuscule.  As in, maybe I'll make it to Borders but probably not.

Anyway, my parents are counting their blessings for having raised a child who loves holidays enough to sit on an overcrowded train for nearly an hour to come out for Thanksgiving the day after celebrating it with 100 of our closest Greek relatives.  Okay, there weren't 100, but there were times it felt that way! (if I haven't said it before, the movie is absolutely true)  My mother had come up with this awesome idea; ordinarily (see last year), she cooks a turkey breast and two sides at her house and I cook tofu turkeys and two sides at my home and then we join together.  This year, Mom says to me, "Why don't we cook together?"  So I sent her a list of ingredients for the Savory Vegetable Cobbler and when Mister and I had settled in, hung up our coats, and after Dad and I opened the Beaujolais Nouveau, Mom and I got to chopping and steaming and mincing and laughing and simmering and smushing and finally...baking.

look at all those pretty fresh herbs!

Mom, with her adorable mini-cutting board, mincing sage

after artfully smudging the biscuit batter over top of the veggies-n-gravy, I decided to sprinkle a garlic-herb blend over top for extra fun

came out looking pretty rustic, don'tcha think?

pretty caramelized almonds my mom makes for the salad

So, that was dinner: Savory Vegetable Cobbler, salad with mandarin oranges and those killer almonds, and an apple-yam-walnut bake that made my mouth happy.  Even though I've been pretty good about not eating my way into the much-talked-about "food coma," I still feel like Marilyn Monroe had the right idea and I feel some celebrity emulation coming on: