Process

One of the things that I enjoy most about holiday cooking is the process of planning a special meal. Selecting the menu, organizing the day's cooking, chopping, measuring, and stirring together the food, getting out the serving dishes, and setting the table are all details that must be planned out. For me, it is this process that helps to make a holiday meal special. I enjoy planning all of it.

What I love about the process is the way that it combines my appetite for organization and details with my sense of history and family.
When I plan for holiday cooking, I organize all of the food to be prepared before I get started. It takes a lot of practice to set an entire meal on the table at once. I wash and chop, measure and plan so that once I start the actual cooking it's a seamless process of moving things into and out of the oven and the stove and then setting food out on the table to be enjoyed in one big meal.

But cooking is only half of the process. For me, good food is made better by the way it is set out on the table.
I have a collection of antique dishes that I like to use for special meals. The core of the collection is a few large bowls that belonged to my grandmother. She used them everyday and I can still see (and taste) the green salad with red wine vinegar dressing that she would set on the table when our family came together for supper at her home. She gave me some of her bowls; auctions and antique stores rounded out my collection. Now I have a set of dishes worthy of serving a feast.

And if any meal should be a feast, it's Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving!