Thanksgiving Prep

This week, many of us in the U.S. will gather with family and friends, cook ourselves silly, eat until we are close to bursting. There may be football, both on a television and in the backyard, an old football resurrected from the garage and tossed around while turkey cooks. There may be too much wine poured, relaxing tongues and spilling into conversations no one really wanted to have, secret thoughts offered up to regret later.

Or, maybe, there will be an honest effort at finding something for which to be thankful, looking for something good that is sorely needed in this moment. That’s where I’m at this week, thinking about how my kids, their partners, and my granddaughters will gather with Mick and me around our table this year, lucky that we all live in the same area so we don’t have to navigate airports and highways and worry about the weather. Lucky that we have a house to gather in. Lucky that there will be food on the table and a fireplace we can hang out in front of afterward.

Of course, I am delighted to be planning the food and figuring out what help I need to ask for. There are other really good cooks in this family.

This week, I’m going to make fudge with my oldest granddaughter Camille the day before Thanksgiving. We’ll melt chocolate, stir in marshmallow creme, pour the mixture into a pan as we recreate the same recipe I’ve used since my son Shawn was five years old. I found another recipe for marble fudge that I’m also going to make with Camille, something new to add to this year’s offerings.

As I write this, a 16-pound turkey is resting in our refrigerator. A bag of potatoes waits on the counter. I’m scrounging around for a salad recipe that is different from what I’ve offered in the past. Wine and soda are stocked in the cupboard. And it feels a little festive around here, a little more joyful than it’s felt since the election. Joy is something that can co-exist with awful things; a necessary co-existence that I acknowledge and embrace.

This is part of our resilience – to find the joy, to find the gratitude in our daily lives. To store it up, remember it later.

Happy Thanksgiving. Look for your joy.

OUR FAMILY FUDGE RECIPE

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
5 oz can evaporated milk
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
7 oz jar marshmallow creme
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar, butter, milk in 3-quart saucepan. 
Bring to full rolling boil, stirring constantly.
Cook about 4 minutes over medium heat - keep stirring. 
Remove from heat.
Stir in chocolate until melted.
Add marshmallow creme and vanilla. Stir until well-blended.
Pour into foil-lined pan - 13"X9" for many small fudge pieces or 8" square for fewer but thicker pieces. Let set.
Store fudge in refrigerator.