THANKS!!

neighbors,
i had two platefuls of amazingness yesterday.
yuuup.
too much is the right amount,
and all of it was too diverse and abundant to fit on one big dinnery disc.
so i doubled down.
i mean,
 why wouldn't we do that?
if one thanksgiving gratitude platter is good,
then two must be even MORE expert.
word up.
wanna see how we started?
ok.
check the thank-you-and-you-and-YOU-type teleport:

BOOOOOOOOM!!!!
we got very bust in the Folk Life & Liberty Fortress.
yep.
a whole dang day of preppin', and choppin', and stuffin', and stirrin',
and generally getting completely rad with all the best bits and pieces of
a truly epic edible endeavor.
yes.
maple and harvest and crabtree and i,
a quartet of quality ingredients, in a recipe for molto indulgent
meal of gratitude and generosity, memory and spirit,
and ultimately involved, competent, capable, conscientious active participation.
we do that.
we live it, we love it, and we ate every last scrap.
actually, i may have made more food than a large family could consume,
despite there only being three people, including my big-but-still-small ones.
uh-huh.
let's talk about that full plate of power, though, guys-
and we'll begin with that stuffed acorn squash!!!!
halved, gutted, and steamed upside down in the oven for 30, at 375F,
flipped, and filled with a celery, sweet onion,
pumpkin seed, carrot, garlic, wild rice,
and shredded collard green stuffing!
sage, thyme, parsley, GPOP, and a splash of tamari completed the look.
nice?
SO nice.
...word.
covered and baked again, for another 'nother thirty,
and you've got squash that melts around your fork,
and stuffing that satisfies the textures of a thousand cravings.
damn. i was freaking out over it.
actually, i still am.
*
garlic mashed potatoes?
F* yeah.
we get into a big ol' blend of red skinned and chef's white goodness,
with vampire-repelling levels of alium, and half a sweet onion boild dow alongside 'em.
butterish, milkish, GPOP, and olive oil had these mutha-effers
somehow both smooth and a little lumpy,
so you know that we did it right, y'all.
*
garlic'd kale?
c'mon.
what do you think we're doing over here?
messing around?
no way.
sauteed garlic, just barely beginning to brown,
plus all that rough torn kale,
broth-braised to a wilty dark green heap of hottness,
in olive oil, for that italiano nod from the old country
to the whitest green leafyveg you know.
yummy.
*
homestyle new england maple cornbread!!!!!!!
c'mon, man.
we know what;s up.
dense, spongy, moist slightly-gritty good-for-you sweet triangular triumph.
the cornbread game over here is hella tight,
and while we take it easy on some things,
the corn styles and the bread styles are never allowed to falter.
and that's no joke.
there's a recipe for it in the king arthur flour cookbook,
and i recommend you take it,
veganize it, and eat some, immediately.
you will regret not one motion in that effort, i promise.
-
buddy,
how dope is that salad?
well, i ate about a pound of it,
and i wasn't about to waste prime gravy space on anything unworthy.
so,
it's got frisee, and red cabbage, and scallions, and cilantro-
plus, there's see-through-thin cucumber slices,
quartered orange and red grape tomatoes,
and crispy onion flecks, with buttery pumpkin seed sprankles.
if there's gotta be salad, then it's gotta be expert, am i right?
almost always, actually, yet i keep hoping that i won't be.
why?
because i'm a proof-positive pessimist, and that's a tough way to go.
***********
y'know what can temporarily assuage even the saltiest of sourpusses, though?
this:

WOOOOOO!!!!
butternut squash, cubed up, and tossed with olive oil,
black pepper, REAL maple syrup,
dried cranberries, halved pecans,
and a dusting of cinnamon, with the barest hint of nutmeg.
guys, the food is simple, there's just so much cutting and baking involved.
time consuming, in direct opposing proportion to food-consuming.
i think we terrorized two huge platefuls in under twenty minutes?
gross, but impressive, and also expert.
we don't waste time, we invest it,.
that's the smart money move to make.
***********
it snowed a bit.
that's pretty and all,
but i raked a grand total of about 0 leaves before it did.
y'know what that means?
that means i just guaranteed that springtime will be very ugly,
and labor intensive,
and somehow, i'll need to find time where the isn't any,
much like the events that led to not raking i the first place.
whilst giving thanks for the good fortune i have,
all while remaining well aware of the distance between relative success
and practical application of effort-
(i.e. i have what i have, but it's only half as good as what i would like)
i also took a minute to reflect of the year.
guys,
did ANYBODY like 2016?
i feel like no good things came of it,
and i find myself in the same position i was in nearly five years ago.
huh?
yeah.
like, somehow,
i lost a batch of years somewhere between work and sleep.
jeez.
i've got these kids here.
that's good.
i've got work to do at the studio. that's bittersweet, to say the least.
i've got my dog, and he's undeterred by any and all bad events in his life.
his worldview is such that he's actually THRILLED to eat sh!t.
literally.
he seeks it out.
so,
here i am.
grateful that i can keep getting my metaphorical A* kicked right off of my body.
it's happening.
daily.
prometheus had his regenerating liver, i guess.
in the modern age, with fire already being well-understood,
i s'pose that a regrowing butt,
cheekily ready to be kicked off, again and again and again,
is just about the best i could've hoped for,
given my much more meager contributions to the world.
this is What Is,
and i'm doing what i can to ensure that the time spanned with my peoples
is as good as can be, come what may as soon as they leave.
...and they all leave.
on that, i rest my reputation;
never quiet, never soft.....