Julia's favorite part of the meal

Remember this squash centerpiece?

Carried lovingly into our gathering by this vagabond:

I have the most excellent recipe below for you. This is a great one for my veggie friends, not my vegan friends, as it is teaming with cheese and cream. (For some reason I am having a terrible time coming up a G-rated description of this dish, as each time I write something it sounds like a harlequin novel). All I can say is that my little sister nearly ate this entire squash herself. She strategically parked the thing in front of her and had consumed a good portion of it before my dad could say the blessing. It is like the best macaroni and cheese you've EVER had but with squash . . . served in the squash! No cleanup!

This is a recipe from one of my mom's friends, Rosemary. Thanks for sharing, Rosemary, as no holiday meal will be complete without it. I hope you try it -- I am confident potiron will be adopted as a stable for your family, too.

My knife skills came into question after the muscle relaxant.

Potiron is the pale yellow at twelve o'clock.

Le potiron tout rond (stuffed pumpkin)

*Rosemary Fornshell’s recipe

1 large soccer ball sized pumpkin or winter squash

2/3 cup chopped onion

1.5 cups fresh bread crumbs (1 loaf inexpensive white bread)

6 T butter

1 cup grated Swiss cheese

2-3 cups whipping cream or half and half

1 tsp salt

½ tsp sage

½ tsp nutmeg

Dash of pepper

Cut off the edges of the bread and place on a cookie sheet, toast in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes turning occasionally to make sure they do not burn. Put in a bag and use a rolling pin to finely crumble. Using a large sauté pan, melt the butter and cook the chopped onions until translucent. Add the bread crumbs, salt, pepper, sage, nutmeg and grated Swiss cheese to the onion mixture.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin or squash and clean the inside out well. Save the top. Place the bread crumb mixture inside the cavity of the pumpkin or squash. Fill with cream or half and half to within 2 inches of the top of the squash. Place the top back on the pumpkin or squash and bake at 400 degrees for at least 2 hours or until the stuffing sets up. Serve in the pumpkin, scoop out the stuffing mixture with the pumpkin or squash.

The reason for the holiday

Well, folks, one very successful presentation down, one more to go next week. I can only hope that my next one will go as smoothy and will be as well received as today's. Phew! Such a relief to have it behind me and be one step closer to the end of the semester. I forgot how exhilarating that little light at the end of the tunnel feels when it warms your skin. For those of who are no longer in school -- it's intoxicating!

Hopefully you have recovered from your tryptophan-induced comas and can read about turkey and stuffing without dozing off, as I have something quite special to share with you today. The following recipe is my great grandmother's recipe for chestnut stuffing. I'm going to forewarn you: WE STUFFED THE TURKEY. For those finicky, germophobes who think you should never stuff a turkey, I know, I've heard it too. So has Grandma Joyce. Does she care? Not two shits. I quote, "I was married at twenty-one and starting stuffing turkeys at twenty-one. I'm still alive." Point taken. We stuffed our bird, and we stuffed it good.

I have to give a shout to my lovely mom who evaded all of the holiday photos, less her hands, because she was at the helm of the camera a majority of the weekend. Thanks, Mom, for your efforts, as you captured some spectacular moments.

I am fond of a particular stuffing recipe that is a lovely mingling of country sausage, granny smith apples and fresh sage. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed when I heard that my beloved stuffing would be sidelined this year for Grandma Joyce's. My stuffing recipe is good . . . Grandma Joyce's stuffing is out of this world. Is it the butter? Is it the tender, meaty chestnuts? Perhaps. I think it's the fact that the wittiest, sexiest 83 year old woman I've been blessed to know made the stuffing, and she's made this recipe literally hundreds of times. I don't think I've made anything hundreds of times -- coffee maybe?

Nonetheless, this stuffing is moist (sorry for those of you who hate that word, as there seems to be a number of you!) and so flavorful. The chestnuts are the piece de resistance. From what I understand, they can be tricky to find in the grocery store, but look in the bulk section during the holidays.

I thoroughly enjoyed being her sous chef -- chopping and sautéing and following instructions. I know she appreciated having another pair of hands to stuff and pin the pesky bird. Looking back at the photos, I feel as if the kitchen was taken over by Paula Deen -- two sticks of butter and a turkey covered in bacon. Tis the season, right?

We doubled this recipe to feed ten with leftovers.

One shelled chestnut. My wrinkly hand.

How awesomely retro is this box?!

The amalgamation of goodness.

She has lovely hands.

How she produced such tall children will forever perplex me.

All tucked in.

mmmm, bacon.

Did I mention we bacon-wrapped our turkey? SHA-WING!

Grandma Joyce's turkey and dressing

10-12 lb turkey (double the recipe for a larger bird)

1 lb large chestnuts, (1.5 cups) shelled

1/2 cup butter or 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup turkey fat

1 cup celery, chopped

1/2 cup onion, minced

1/2 cup carrot, chopped (I added this)

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

6 cups fine bread cubes

1 egg

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp savory seasoning (we used poultry season)

Cook chestnuts for 20 minutes. Remove shells and brown skin. While hot, chop them. (She had pre-roasted them for us. Here's a great link that will show you how to roast and peel the little buggers).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet. Cook onion, celery, carrot and parsley. Combine bread cubes, vegetable mixture, seasonings and egg. Sprinkle inside of turkey with salt. Fill turkey with dressing. Pin up the opening to seal in the dressing. Cook 3 - 3.5 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 185 degrees.

Fat and happy

I just finished uploading over 300 photos that were taken the past few days. One would think they would be of family. However, 90% of them were of food -- glorious, rich Thanksgiving goodness -- all of which will be posted for your enjoyment over the coming week.

I figured everyone is turkeyed-out so I would amuse you with a few of my favorite photos of my very groovy, entertaining family.

Here's my mom crushing breadcrumbs

with this bottle:

Muscle relaxants that read:

may cause drowsiness or dizziness.

I may have had the best Thanksgiving in history, as I

was given one of these little guys to cure a kink in my neck.

Let me tell you, I had no stress this Thanksgiving.

LIFE WAS GREAT.

This will be part of my Thanksgiving routine from now on.

Lovely table setting. Notice that squash in the middle?

It's not just a decoration -- it's full of cheesy goodness.

Recipe to come this week.

Not too shabby, eh? My dad claimed it was the best

Thanksgiving meal he's ever had.

I'm fairly certain he says that every year.

We did have two turkeys; one organic

brined, and one butterball covered in bacon.

Hard to say which was better. I do love me some bacon.

Insert Heather's face and this picture would be perfect.

The Honorable Dad with squash from the farm.

Uncle Bryan refusing his photo.

Who knew deboning a turkey could be so fun?

This was the first Thanksgiving I had spent with my family in a number of years, and I am so glad I was able to be with them. We created some tremendous memories. We have lots to be thankful for -- health, happiness and lots of love.

I have many wonderful things to post this week. I can't wait to share with you my great-grandmother's chestnut stuffing recipe and the fun my grandmother and I had making it. That perhaps was the highlight of the weekend for me -- the two of us elbow-deep in stuffing and turkey carcass. That Grandma Joyce is a pretty special lady. Nonetheless, I hope you and yours had a safe, enjoyable Thanksgiving.

It's the final push for the semester -- two papers and two presentations, and I am done! Happy day.