Caroline's Kickass Thanksgiving Dinner

Little did you know that I am a kickass cook! Haha!

Well...maybe not a kickass cook all the time (salmon cakes a la the NY Times were not very tasty) but I do make a splendid Thanksgiving dinner---and you can too! With a tip of my hat to the FoodNetwork, I present various recipes for a wonderfully delicious Thankgiving dinner:

Roasted Turkey (I've made this recipe for the past two years and it is fantastic. The brine for the turkey seals in a salty flavor, which leaves the turkey moist and delicious.)

Sausage, Dried Cranberry, and Apple Stuffing (The perfect sweet and savory stuffing. The tartness of the cranberries. The sweetness of the apples. And the utter divinity of sausage. Mmmm...sausage.)

Caroline's Yummy Mashed Potates (No recipe for these. I just boil potatoes with a few cloves of garlic and then mash them up with plenty of butter, salt, pepper, and cream. A secret I've learned in cooking mashed potatoes? After you drain the potatoes, throw them back into their pot and saute them for a minute or two to allow any water to evaporate.)

Creamed Spinach (I don't add the nutmeg, but maybe I will this year. Could be good.)

Good Ol' Mac and Cheese (I planned on making mac and cheese last Thanksgiving, but I got too stressed out. Maybe I'll again this year.)

Tart Cranberry Dipping Sauce (No more buying cranberry sauce in a can! This recipe is simple and easy and so good.)

Pumpkin Pie (I kid you not, the best pumpkin pie ever! The cream cheese in the filling makes this pie thick and rich and delicious. Easy directions too. As a side note, the recipe is only for one pie, but I find myself with enough filling for two. So buy two pie crusts or make an extra one.)

There you have it! I certify that all of these recipes are not too hard to tackle yet amazingly delicious too. I am not a great cook by any measure, but I do have demanding taste buds. And my taste buds love these recipes.

Invaders!

Apparently, I have an infestation of gnomes living within the walls of my apartment.

I know, I know... Gnomes only exist in fairytales and in that old Nickolodeon cartoon "David the Gnome"! But Justin assures me on regular occasion how gnomes do indeed live in our world. He even sees them on occasion.

For instance, I oftentimes leave a glass of water on our coffee table---only to find it empty of its contents after I turn my back away for a few seconds. Other times I will leave some food sitting on the kitchen counter, hoping to munch on it later in the day, only to find the entire plate eaten by the time I get hungry again.

Every time this happens, I turn to Justin and ask, "What happened to my stuff?"

He lets out a small burp and looks at me with his innocent green eyes. "The gnomes took it."

I frown and tell him, "Gnomes don't exist, honey."

"Of course, they do," he says while wiping the mysterious crumbs from his mouth. "They live in our toilet."

"Then why didn't you try to stop them from taking our food?"

"They're too fast. Plus, they're nasty and covered in poop."

How baffling! I wonder why he sees the gnomes all the time while I have yet to catch a glimpse of one. How puzzling indeed...

One for the history books...

Last night, as we watched the crowd at Grant Park cheering for President-elect Obama, I turned to Justin and said, "This is something we're going to tell our kids about."

My heart was filled with happiness for my country. For here indeed in America, anything can happen. In November 2008, the son of a Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother rose to the highest office our nation has to offer. What a beautiful representation of the American Dream.

Will Barack Obama be a great president? A mediocre one? A terrible one? Only history can tell. There have been presidents, like John Adams, who entered the presidency with an impressive resume and a shrewd intellect but who left the White House with a tarnished reputation and with the country a little worse for the wear. There have been presidents, like Franklin D. Roosevelt, who inherited a nation on the brink of destruction, yet who found a way to stitch our country back together, piece by little piece. And there have been countless presidents, like Millard Fillmore and James Garfield and Warren Harding, who entered and left the presidency without leaving a clear legacy behind---forgotten by the annals of history. Where will Obama stand in the mix? You know, I have no idea.

I can only say this: I look to the next four years with hope and cynicism, with idealism and a critical eye.

But today, I am filled only with pride.

History Factoid of the Week, Part II

Okay, this is for all of you Republicans out there...

Question: Why is the elephant the symbol of the Republican Party?

Answer: Thomas Nast strikes again! In 1874, Nast---a political cartoonist who helped propel the donkey as the symbol for the Democrats---drew a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. In this cartoon, Nast drew a stumbling elephant to represent Republican voters who were unhappy with the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. Other cartoonists picked up on the pachyderm imagery and the elephant soon came to represent the Republican Party itself, and not only its voters.

Democrats perceive the elephant as bungling, slow, and stupid. Republicans, however, view the animal as intelligent, strong, and dignified.

Oh, to live in a battleground state!

I have a little (political) confession to make.

I've always harbored a desire to live in a battleground state like Ohio or Florida. Every election that passes by, I have watched the news with a pouted lip because my vote didn't seem to count as much as the votes in Iowa or Indiana or Colorado. My heart has burned with flames of envy as candidates continually passed by my hometown to stump in states where independents and undecideds abounded. No fair!

Of course, I can't really blame the politicians. I grew up in the beautiful state of Maryland---the seventh state to join the Union and the home of the Star-Spangled Banner---which has voted Democratic for over thirty years. We Marylanders don't just lean blue, we are drenched from head to toe in a royal blue hue. In the election of 1980, for instance, Maryland was one out of four states to vote for Jimmy Carter rather than Ronald Reagan. One out of four.

Then in the fall of 2000, I moved to the state of Utah to attend college---and not only did I move to one of the most conservative states in the nation, I moved into the most conservative county in the entire country. Talk about the color red! I was regularly denounced by perfect strangers for being a Democrat and constantly questioned how I could support a party that "killed babies." Once bitten, twice shy, I suppose. I tried to avoid political discussions as much as possible out at BYU. (Although sometimes I couldn't help but get roped in...)

Two years after college, I moved to the great state of North Carolina, home of the Duke Blue Devils and the breathtaking Outer Banks (where my romance with Justin all began). Although I grew to love my new adopted state, I couldn't help but sigh when the presidential primaries revved up in 2007. North Carolina may have a Democratic governor and a healthy number of both Democrats and Republicans in the House, but the state has steadily voted a Republican into the White House since 1980. That's before I was born.



*Another sigh* When, oh when, would I be able to taste the sweet savor of living in a battleground state? When would candidates sweep into my city to court my precious vote? When would my ballot actually make a difference?!

The answer is: RIGHT NOW!

That's right. To the bafflement of news media everywhere, North Carolina has become a toss-up state---and boy, am I excited. Both Barack Obama and John McCain have made numerous stops to North Carolina in the past six months---and both candidates ventured to my town of Fayetteville in the past couple of weeks! Even the BBC wrote an article on the new battleground status of North Carolina. This is unbelievable, I tell you, and I absolutely love it.

Come tomorrow, Justin and I will cast our votes at our local elementary school, and then we will spend the entire night biting our nails and wondering if North Carolina will turn a bright blue or remain a scarlet red.

Goodness me, this is even better than the Super Bowl, or---dare I say it---the finale of Project Runway.

History Factoid of the Week! (Presidential Edition)

Question: Why is the donkey the symbol of the Democratic Party?

Answer: When Andrew Jackson ran against John Quincy Adams in the 1828 election, his opponents deemed him a "jackass" due to Jackson's populist views. Interestingly enough, Jackson liked the nickname so much he started using the donkey in his campaign posters to represent his doggedness and stubbornness.

Later on in the 1870s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast helped propel the donkey as the national symbol of the Democratic Party.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Go vote!