Well, shoot. It's 80 degrees every day here in Las Vegas, and the flowers are in bloom, and I have spring fever.

Somehow, I have to get excited about cooking a real Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks, and so I'm at the list-making stage. We might go ahead and do the shopping tomorrow for the staples and a frozen turkey. Vons (same thing as Safeway) has Butterball turkeys for $10 if you spend $25 on other groceries at the same time. That might be pretty easy to do, but we'll have to see.

Mr. Kitchentales always brings home a frozen pumpkin pie from the casino, so I might make another dessert that is more edible. I see where Trader Joes sells an irradiated or something heavy whipping cream that is shelf stable for up to 6 months. Isn't that an interesting idea? We're not going to make a special trip over there just for that, but I'll see if a regular store has such a thing. The idea behind whipped cream is if it tastes good enough we can cover up the taste of that frozen pie.

I can still remember the last time I had the in-laws over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was 1994. I kept wanting to make something easier, but couldn't because they are such picky eaters and stick in the mud traditionalists. Mr. KTales stayed home from work two days before to paint the kitchen ceiling because I didn't want my dad making snide remarks about the water spot where the skylight had leaked. He didn't realize that paint was going to spatter all over the eating area below, so spent a lot of time cleaning that up. I called him from work and asked that he wipe the walls around all the light switches. He acted like that was the craziest thing he'd ever heard, but you know how there can be fingerprints that you don't even notice until there is company, and then it is too late.



Here is Mr. KitchenTales, his momma, and his grandaddy in 1952. Big stick-out ears run in the family.



Look at that tray full of serving dishes in the foreground: a big bowl of fluffy mashed potatoes, and a big bowl of gravy, another of candied yams and then there is the stuffing. Yum, yum. No wonder Jean looks a little worn out there. That was before there was so much convenience food available, but when it did come out, she embraced it and she and Betty Crocker were 'like that.'

Mr. Kitchentales and his family all prefer the canned cranberry sauce that is smooth, not the chunky kind. He wants it dumped out onto a plate still in the shape of the can, not sliced or cut into star shapes. I prefer this raw cranberry orange relish from the Joy of Cooking.

Cranberry Orange Relish

4 cups fresh cranberries
1 orange
2 cups sugar, part of it can be dry Jello - orange or cranberry or raspberry

Grind the cranberries, not too coarse or fine. Cut up the orange and remove the seeds, then grind into the cranberries. Stir in the sugar and/or Jello to sweeten. Place in jar in the refrigerator for 2 days to ripen.

I think my Joy of Cooking pre-dated food processors, so when they say 'grind' they are thinking of those old-fashioned meat grinders that clamp to your counter. No big deal, just process in the processor until granular but not too fine.

Some nuts like walnuts would be good in this, and if you wanted to make a fancy Jello salad, make up some red Jello, and stir this into it with maybe some miniature marshmallows. But it's really good at the most basic level - cranberries, orange, sugar.

Okay, that's one recipe out of the way.