Counting my blessings.

Despite having lived in the US for almost seven years, the concept of Thanksgiving Day is still very foreign to me. It's not that the notion of being thankful is that hard to grasp. It's just puzzling to me that the tradition of this holiday is all about about consuming food until act of passing out.

Situated in the middle of all this hoo-hah is the fleshy giant of a noisy bird - the turkey. It's really difficult for me to wrap my brain around how this could be the favourite food of many Americans. Many don't even care for it much. They just spend hours preparing and cooking it just because it's tradition. I've had it roasted, smoked and deep-fried. Sometimes I even add ground turkey as a replacement for ground chicken in my recipes. No 'gobble-gobble' epiphany yet. I still prefer to use chicken - smaller, easier to handle, less tough and juicier. Sorry, I digress.

So, every year at Thanksgiving, we've decided to focus on different main dishes, creating as big a variety as possible. We've had cornish game hens, pork tenderloin, this year it was roasted leg of lamb. I came up with a recipe based on traditional seasoning for lamb - the usual garlic, rosemary and lemon juice- added cumin, for extra smokiness, an onion for fragrance and ground everything up in the food processor with olive oil. Throw in 24 hours of marinating and this baby tasted as good as it looked. Feast your eyes, my honorable readers and fellow bloggers!

Of course, my darling husband forgot to take pictures of the accompanying sides - roasted red, yellow and orange peppers, mashed celery root and potatoes, delicious gravy made from the lam drippings and the tangiest mint sauce all the way from England! GAWD.....it was a fantastic meal, if I may say so myself.

Okay, okay, I don't get to cook much anymore. No, not because I'm lazy or because I'm pregnant. It's the huge cut in my gourmet budget that I've had to make this year since quitting my job and running the business into the ground. *Sigh!* BUT, this Thanksgiving meal marked a small return to my favourite past time. And since it is the day to give thanks, I wish to express my thanks and gratitude for all of you in my life.

Till my next epicurean adventure, I bid you all good food, plenty of love and life to the fullest.