Turkey Day

Many of my friends were worried about me today. Never have I received more looks of concern and pity than when I informed them that I would be spending Thanksgiving at my apartment – alone. For some of them it was as if they thought they hadn’t heard me correctly and just stared. For other friends I could see the wheels turning and it was fun to predict at what point they would extend an invitation for me to join their family.

The truth is that I have enjoyed my day alone. Yes, it might have been fun to have someone around to share my cooking adventures with, but I haven’t really been up for large crowds lately and a bit of solitary time was greatly needed.

I slept in this morning – not terribly late, only about 8:30 or so, and spent the first part of the morning in bed watching the Today show and Good Morning America. I watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade until about 11 and then got up to begin working on my various food dishes. My parents even called this morning from their cruise to say hello and it was fun to talk to them.

I attempted four new low-calorie recipes this weekend. Last night I made a pumpkin cheesecake (it had to chill overnight). I made the topping this morning and it’s still chilling in the fridge – I’m planning dig into it later this evening. I made a spinach-artichoke dip that turned out quite well. It’s a little “spinachy” for my taste, so I think next time I’ll use less spinach and more artichoke, but overall it was great. I also tried two versions of Mashed Potatoes. The first used cauliflower as a substitute for potatoes. You still use one large potato, but it’s mostly cauliflower. It didn’t turn out too bad, you can definitely tell it’s not all potato, and I think I added a little too much milk so it was a little runny, but overall good. The second potato recipe was better (and has 30 more calories than the first) and consisted of all potatoes – no cauliflower substitutions.

In case you didn’t notice, there was no actual turkey on my menu for today. I had intended to make a small turkey breast for myself, but then decided at the last minute that it wasn’t worth the effort. I don’t care enough about turkey, the chicken I made earlier this week is sufficient. :)

All that to say, my Thanksgiving has turned out well enough so far – despite being alone most of the day – and I hope yours has too. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!