Thanksgiving - PostscriptIt all began so well....

I went hardcore on the prep, the products, and the passion. The execution was a bit off the mark.

This bad boy turkey was dry like the Sahara and I was crushed. Look how awesome it appeared:

Yet it was a #Fail. My instant read was right and I followed the recipe to the letter. As it turned out and upon further research this Heritage bird should have been cooked more like duck and to a lesser temp than a standard turk.

I also discovered at 11:15 that night that I had a 101 degree fever and had likely been delirious most of the day. Neither my wife nor my guests have fallen ill and it may have indeed been stress combined with a little bug from the nasty gym germs.

Nevertheless, some things were good. Some things sucked ass: See gluten-free dressing in my shot below next to the very good wine:

At the end of it all, I am not near the TG cook that my Mom or Grandmothers taught me to be. I went too far outside the lines of tradition and paid a price.

My pumpkin pie was OK, but Odie's crushes it like Berkman crushes the hopes of Texas Ranger fans.

I will say this; my wife makes some bad-ass fruit salad. It kept me smiling and regular even in the wake of too much brown food and my dry-ass turkey.

Juliet is also the master of the centerpiece. Here she has used Fall leaves harvested from local neighborhood trees, small pumpkins, a persimmon that was not ripe enough to eat, and a giant yellow squash from our friends' garden in Colorado

Now my cheese plate, decadent deviled-eggs and wild boar salumi were a big hit and belied the dryness to come.

Of course our friends brought this killer bottle of vino from our amazing time in Tuscany last summer. Fun shot to finish the post and cheers to all of you!

I promise I will get better and I will conquer Turkey Day...someday (sigh)