Thanksgiving blasphemy…..

My annual Thanksgiving RANT!!!!
When I turn on the TV there is at least one cooking show on every minute of every day  portraying the culinary experience  as a fun and fulfilling activity that not only  satisfies a need to be creative but keeps the family well fed and healthy.  My response to this entertainment trend is BULL PUCKY! Where is the cooking program for the “I Hate to Cook” people? Where are the cooking programs that promote a delicious home cooked meal in 3 ingredients or less?

I am not cooking a traditional Thanksgiving meal although I did for many years!   I will indeed be giving thanks, but not by using every pot & pan in my tiny kitchen, preparing and cooking really bad food all day, washing, soaking and scraping all night, then stuffing a refrigerator full of leftovers that will probably spoil before they are eaten and eventually be thrown out. And of course the worst part is, the incredible guilt I feel because by the end of Thanksgiving Day I have truly hated the entire experience, and am anything but thankful.

This year I will be celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, sharing a few beers, great stories and amazing conversation.  Our thanksgiving blessing will be on "no reservations needed" Wednesday evening  over a blooming onion, followed by a nontraditional but marvelous cooked just the way I like it....Thanksgiving  filet!.  Then, and here is the best part, I will go home to an incredibly clean kitchen! No cooking.... No muss...no Fuss...oh, I am so grateful!

Thanksgiving day I will watch the parade and Santa arrive, remembering how the boys and I marched around the coffee table drumming to the marching bands with the pots and spoons I had just set out to begin cooking.  I will smile and remember, how unorthodox most of our Thanksgiving dinners have always seemed to be despite our best attempts to be Norman Rockwell normal.   This year...I will express my gratitude the best way I know how to,  dancing with paint brushes in my hands in front of a large, white, freshly stretched and primed canvas ...and...there will be no cooking!

                                                                              I know, I know Thanksgiving blasphemy…..

 "Good Girl"     Julian Moon