use real butter

Recipe: tora no maki roll

Thanksgiving is about food, loved ones, and giving thanks. We have the food in spades, loved ones too – although we’re not with friends or family today. And then there is the thanks. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I got my breast cancer diagnosis just over a year ago, right before Thanksgiving. We were waiting for biopsy results and so Thanksgiving was a bit of a bust. While we had a quiet holiday that year – just me, Jeremy, and the dog – the uncertainty of our future and of my life hung heavily over the day. There was no point in crying, no point in making any plans because all we could do was wait and keep a level head about it. It was surreal, but at the same time I would rather it be me than anyone else I cared about. My treatments turned the past year on its head. Jeremy and I forged through it together, but chemotherapy was an incredibly isolating, dismal, freakish experience: physically, emotionally. While I pride myself in my ability to reach from within for the strength to plod through shitty times, I could not have gotten through it on my own.

I thank every day that I have Jeremy in my life. I will be forever grateful to those loved ones who were there for me when I needed them most. I’m thankful for my tele betties who gave me something to look forward to each week when I began my chemo. I’m thankful for my awesome physicians, nurses, radiation techs, and PT. I’m thankful for the incredible friends I have made (and even met!) through this blog and for all of the use real butter readers who make me laugh and cry and laugh some more. And lastly, I am thankful to be alive and relatively well. Well enough to hit the slope today…

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: roasted butternut squash soup simplified

I know a lot of people are traveling today. I hope everyone got to or gets to their destination safely and without incident. We are staying put – the way we like it. Keeps things low key and stress free. I went to the dentist this morning to get fitted for a crown and realized that after an hour, I could feel my gums again. So I think that may be why I suffered such immense pain yesterday because my dentist was jamming the posts down my root canals about 2 hours after she numbed my mouth. *Great* I love it when that happens! Today was a walk in the park by comparison.

While most folks are preparing their turkeys, we have been contemplating the leftovers (there are a lot) as well as eating them. Those potatoes au gratin really do get better with time.

Recipe: dry-brined roast turkey with gravy

Before my parents left for Hawai’i, my mom called me up to find out if I would like her to ship me a Smithfield ham – the uber salty, delicious, country-style ham from my home state of Virginia. I said I’d love to have one and she made a note of it (her thing is to ship hams all over the country to friends and family). I asked if I could get one for Thanksgiving and she said, “No! They come out for Christmas and besides, everybody eats turkey for Thanksgiving.”

Well, not everybody. It’s been a while since we’ve had turkey for Thanksgiving. I always get waylaid when planning the Thanksgiving menu because other mains sound so much better. This year, I decided that no, we wouldn’t be having turkey for Thanksgiving, but yes, I would roast a turkey. Remember that organic bird I picked up at Whole Foods last week?