Ode to Tryptophan

Thanksgiving was a fabulous day -- so fabulous, in fact, that I forgot to snap any lovely photos of the bounteous amounts of food, fun and family. Oh well. Nonetheless, it was a nice day to rest from work, watch the Macy’s Day Parade, get things done around the house… oh and eat, of course!

While Dave headed for our ward’s Turkey Bowl Extravaganza, I headed for an hour session of kickboxing at the gym. It was freezing as I stepped out the door but the sky was a crisp, clear blue and the cool air was invigorating. I was energized for the “Turbo Kick” class where I would be “roundhouse-ing” and “upper-cutting” with the best of them. In the end, it was an awesome class and a great way to prepare my body for the onslaught of calories awaiting me at the Thanksgiving table.

Because Mom was cooking the majority of the dinner, she assigned me the easy task of vegetables. At first I thought I was getting off lucky, but then I thought – vegetables? We were already having mashed potatoes… isn’t that ‘vegetable’ enough? I grabbed my handy cookbook to get the creative juices flowing. Eventually, I decided to make some rosemary potatoes (the more potatoes, the merrier – right?) and a chopped green salad, complete with grape tomatoes, scallions, cranberries, almonds & cilantro. But, of course, that was not enough for me.

I wanted to try out a new pie crust recipe, and what better time to do so than Thanksgiving dinner with willing taste-testers? The trouble was trying to find something tasty in my pantry to fill that flaky goodness. My first thought was chocolate cream pie because I don’t care for pies made from large orange vegetables. Unfortunately, the recipe I had required the pie to set for 5+ hours and I was working with a 2-hour window. Scanning through a load of cookbooks, I came across the Toll House Pie. Genius! A giant cookie in the shape of a pie! How could I go wrong? Because the pie went together so nicely and quickly, I had it in the oven in no time. Fast forward 50 minutes and I had a golden, piping-hot dessert sitting on the counter. In case you're curious, here is a link to the recipe.

Though we were running a little behind schedule, we quickly packed our goods into the car and headed for the freeway. As we crossed the overpass, you could see bright red tail-lights for miles… and they were not moving. This was not good. We opted for Highway 9, but so did everyone else in the greater Seattle area. Needless to say, we were quite late for dinner. Fortunately, everyone was kind enough to wait.

Mom had unrolled a beautiful array of good food and pretty dishes; we brought up a fresh autumn bouquet of sunflowers, statice and eucalyptus as a final touch. Around the table sat Dad, Mom, Gabe, Kali, Brent, Dave & I. Even with our small numbers, it was an enjoyable, lively meal.

After dinner, we kept up tradition by going to a holiday movie with the family. Because we didn’t have any little ones with us, we opted for a more grown-up film, “Dan in Real Life.” We went in knowing nothing, other than Steve Carell was in it and we enjoy him in “The Office”. While it’s a little slow to get going and the lilting soundtrack will lull you to sleep (especially if you are in a post-Thanksgiving dinner stupor), the movie was well worth the price of admission. How can you go wrong with family talent shows, sibling rivalry, silly songs, a little love story, lots of laughter and a little dose of crying? It was a great way to cap off a very nice day.