Thankful

What a busy couple of weeks! I took the first two parts of my exam last Friday and Tuesday and passed them both! I am definitely thankful for that. Now, I just have to get through my orals next Tuesday. Even though my stress level is starting to decrease a bit, it will still be a very busy time until the semester is over. I'm working a lot over Thanksgiving break, but I am definitely taking most of today off. Granted, I'll still do a bit of work-related reading and some grading, but today is all about cooking and eating :)

As I mentioned in a recent post, Nick and I are staying in Philly for the holiday. We don't really have the time or the money to journey to be with family, even though we'd like to. We aren't that close with many people in the area, so we didn't receive any invitations for the holiday, and most of the people we are close to either have family in the area or are traveling elsewhere. We're making this work, though, and we have a full day of cooking to do. Here's our menu:

• Sage butter roasted turkey with cider gravy
• Rustic bread stuffing with red mustard greens, currants, and pine nuts
• Chipotle cranberry sauce
• Broccolini with smoked paprika, almonds, and garlic
• Herb and cheese poppers
• Pumpkin butterscotch pie

We were originally going to have a few more dishes, but we axed those for a few reasons. We love to cook, but didn't want to stress ourselves out too much preparing everything ourselves. Also, there are just the two of us to eat all of this. I would love to be having some scalloped potatoes, some green bean casserole, or roasted acorn squash, but Nick rightly acknowledged our limits and then convinced me of the same. Yesterday, I prepared the cranberry sauce and prepped the pie crust and filling. After I post this, I'll be chopping up basil, thyme, sage, and parsley for the poppers. Yummmmmmm.

Anyhow, I am thankful for so many things, and this seems an appropriate time to acknowledge them. I'm thankful for my husband and our loving marriage. I'm thankful for my family, and am missing them so much these days. I'm thankful for the opportunities that have presented themselves to me. I'm thankful for our health and for a little down time over the holiday. I'm thankful for my friends, especially those who have been so supportive this semester during my long slog towards exams.

So many things to be thankful for today. Happy Thanksgiving!