A Successful Friend Thanksgiving!

Check out that spread.. Isn't it beautiful?

That's Clive, Kelly, Kelly's friend/our friend Jen, Patrick and Brian yesterday at a very successful and gluttonous Friend Thanksgiving. Clive and Kelly -- who hosted a Thanksgiving last year that Brian and I visited after my own family's -- will be in Napa Thursday and invited us all over to celebrate anyway. This is the group Brian and I have spent the past few New Year's with and who comes with us to Jazz Fest. It's a great group dynamic -- we're all on the same page in terms of level of energy, being adventurous with food and just being genuine people, I'd say -- so  Friend Thanksgiving celebrated that and then some.

Our spread had a lot of garlic. Pictured you'll see Brian's garlic mashed potatoes; sweet potatoes in a sage and butter sauce; turkey sausage dressing; fancy green bean and garlic casserole; homemade cranberry sauce; brown-n-serve rolls (the best!) and  of course, turkey. The turkey was juicy -- they got a fresh one, which apparently is really difficult to order for the weekend before Thanksgiving -- and the eight or nine bottles of wine we killed (there were six of us) tasted more fantastic as the night went on.

My contribution: redneck crab dip and jump shrimp. Jen brought amazing chocolate chess square and Dutch custard apple pies.

Can't go wrong when you hit all the right notes.

Are we lucky or what? We're surrounded by good people and amazing food to share. Thanksgiving has become my favorite holiday because, as my former boss summarized it, there's no other focus than getting together with people you care about and being thankful for everything life's given you. No presents to distract, nor stress over a tree. Kelly made a point to keep the stress of dinner to a minimum; it was a perfect combination of home-cooked food and store-bought goodness.

During dinner we went around the table and said what we're thankful for. Some of the offerings: "That we all have jobs." "Friends." "Malbec."

Happy Thanksgiving.

REDNECK CRAB DIP
1 can white crab meat
1 package cream cheese (reduced fat OK)
1/2 lemon
garlic powder
cocktail sauce
crackers

Mix the crab meat, cream cheese and a sizable sprinkling of garlic powder in a bowl; squeeze 1/2 lemon into it and mix thoroughly. Form into a ball and place in dish; top with cocktail sauce so it's about 1/2 covered. Serve with crackers.