Thoughts and links for Thanksgiving

Snurched from mysticalforest: Recipes are key on Thanksgiving, and regionality makes all the difference. The NY Times provides a really nifty tool showing what recipes are most commonly searched for in each state via a clever interactive map. What do people in your state typically search for most? Check it out.

Thanksgiving is a day when we express our gratitude for all the goodness in our lives. My brother, my friends, my kitties are my goodness. And as an expression of my gratitude, I share with you one of my top ten favorite sequences from Friends, perhaps the only time you'll ever see Courtney Cox with a turkey on her head.

Garrison Keillor observes that on Thanksgiving we gather among our kin who know us a little too well, and put civility to a true test. He also gives Sarah Palin props for encouraging the conservative right to join the book-buying public. Well, I'll give her that anyway, but no more--and neither will he.

And lest we forget, you can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant (excepting Alice).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. So many of us are having a tough time right now, but having each other makes it all a little easier and for that--having each other--I'm truly thankful.

Teatro ZinZanni (food & theater) and Thanksgiving

If I count Thanksgiving from sunset to sunset as we do days on the Jewish calendar, then my Thanksgiving festivities began with last night's excursion with oldmangrumpus.

OMGrumpus invited me to be his guest for his company's holiday shindig. It's a small company, maybe 7 people, and so the boss treated the whole team to a night out at Teatro ZinZanni, the one true dinner theater venue in the Seattle area--but don't be put off by the phrase "dinner theater." This isn't community theater with a cafeteria. This is caberet, comedy, and circus arts accompanied by a five-course gourmet meal created by Tom Douglas, the chef behind some of Seattle's most remarkable restaurants.

For my foodie friends, here's the menu we enjoyed. I also ordered the wine flight, a half-glass to accompany each course: ( Details, details... )

The entertainment was a sort of revue called "Beaumount & Caswell--Together Forever...Again!" Centered around the tempestuous, on-again off-again relationship between the flamboyant Clifton and the diva Vivi--a passionate, gender-confused pair if there ever was one, the show follows their negotiations for remarriage between outrageously, bodaciously costumed skits. They used audience members liberally (I'll never look at a panini sandwich the same way again). And between their skits, the audience was treated to songs performed by the smoky-voiced Francine Reed, contortions performed by Vita Radionova, arial gymnastics by Erika & Andrew (she'd had a baby in July and looked as lean as if the entire thing had never happened), and comedy and acrobatics by Les Petits Frere.

Though I enjoyed the Beaumount and Caswell stuff well enough, I think I enjoyed the circus arts performances almost more. Some of the B&C stuff felt a little forced to me, though I'm not sure why. Francine Reed sang her guts out; she was marvelous. And Erika & Andrew and Vita were all captivating.

Today was Thanksgiving with jackwilliambell at DVE's place: turkey, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, peas, yams, cranberry sauce shaped like cans, gravy, two kinds of pie, dark chocolate pudding--all homemade. That girl can cook! Lovely evening--lots of food.

And now, I'm for bed. It promises to be a busy weekend, and I have miles to go....