Week Ahead

Monday, November 20, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving week! This week is never a year’s easiest. Many of us will find ourselves wrestling mightily with various situational issues. Like, how to cook a turkey or another main dish that ought to be a Holiday Dinner Special; or what we can take that’s perfect for adding to a dinner we’ve been invited to, or wondering if we will stay cool among a group of diners that tend to agree or disagree in personal passions.

Yesterday, some women customers told me they always cook big Thanksgiving dinners and will this year, too. Some added that only she and her husband will share that dinner these days. I get it that the tradition of big cooking combines the holiday mood with a good outcome of having leftovers and not needing to cook again for several days.

Through the years that I’ve lived alone, I’ve often cooked on Thanksgiving, even if I were eating alone–for the same reasons–to participate mindfully in the holiday and to enjoy some leftovers. I find very few eats are a smidge more delicious than biting into a sandwich made of day(s)-old cooked turkey with spooned-on cranberry sauce.

I’m still debating my potential contribution as an appetizer to the Thanksgiving dinner I’ll attend. While shopping in good old WinCo the other evening, I ran across a charcuterie board set that included sauce jars and utensils. I brought it home and started reconsidering what to take. Now, I’m leaning toward some cheeses complex and delicious. The trick might be finding what I want.

In previous years’ holidays, Costco typically stocked a few fine imported French cheeses. So far, I’ve not spotted those on its cheese shelves for this holiday. Across town are gourmet markets that might carry some fine cheeses, and I’ll go looking today.

Dear Friends: A holiday week that’s never easy until finally, people are gathering. Diana