Holiday overeaters anonymous

[muckefuck]

I've been meaning to add my Thanksgiving recap to the growing pile, but I've been too overcome by overeating to attempt it. It doesn't help that in diaspora years (i.e. whenever monshu doesn't host Thanksgiving at home), we also have Second Thanksgiving the day after, and this year was no exception. To my surprise, he agreed to come along to spookyfruit and welcomerain's dinner for deep-fried turkey and Spooky's ass-kicking butternut soup. (It has got be at least 20% pure milk fats.) I was especially curious to try the "tasty oat dish" advertised in the invite (yes, there were vegans present apparently), but it turned out to be quinoa instead. The must-have dessert there was mollpeartree's legendary sour creme apple pie topped with Little Spooky's (well, how would you alias spookyfruit's brother?) Holiday Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. (So called because, according to his wife, he can't be arsed to make it for anything less than a celebratory dinner.)

I wasn't quite sure why one of welcomerain's perky female friends was pal-ing around with me so much until I mentioned it to monshu and Nuphy afterwards and they pointed out that I was the only young-ish gay male there. (Many years ago, I threatened to come to a Halloween party as a Straight Boy until princeofcairo pointed out that unless I were able to suppress my natural "safe-as-house" vibe, my costume would be a total failure.) For my part, I confined myself to flirting with the father of spookyfruit's guitar teacher, to the blissful ignorance of everyone--himself included, of course. (As opposed to last weekend, when everyone could tell I was hitting on gracefuleigh's ex.)

Afterwards, I crashed Diego's anti-Thanksgiving (what else can you call a dinner party on the fourth Thursday in November where the starring protein is beef?) when everyone was in their cups, a little laid-back and flirty. That didn't stop us from some nice chat about literature, though; Uncle Betty is reading García Márquez' autobiography in English for much the same reason as I'm reading it in Spanish and Diego has copies of Cien años de soledad in both those languages plus Italian (don't ask me), the commemorative edition of which is looking like a must-buy if only for the handy glossary of not only all Gabo's Crazy Jungle Spanish but most all words that might give your Spanish-speaking middle-schooler a little trouble.

In comparison with First Thanksgiving, tonight's queer threesome was much more low key. Even though I tried to talk him out of it, Nuphy brought cask-strength Laphroaig. monshu laid a modest but tasty board (full menu under the cut, below) and my contribution consisted of manning the stereo. I was very tempted to conclude with Christmas carols, but by a fluke of the calendar Thanksgiving is as early as it can be in a given year, leaving a whole week between Second Thanksgiving and First Advent rather than the customary day, so it seemed inappropriately premature (although I would've ignored that had Nuphy brought marzipan treats from the Christkindlmarket, but his was scared off by the line at the Sweets Castle).

Roast Turkey with Cornbread/Sausage Dressing
Potato/Parsnip Mash
Brussels Sprouts with Asiago/Sherry Sauce
Cranberry Sauce

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Clos du Mont-Olivet 2005
Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Bollig-Lehnert, Spätlese 2005

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
Dove "Beyond Vanilla" Ice Cream

Alvear, Pedro Ximénez 2003
Rutherglen Tokay, Campbells

Coffee, Tea

Amaro Nonino Quintessentia
Amaro Montenegro

Spiritual notes: The Goldtröpfchen was rather dry for a Spätlese, which is just how monshu likes it, and I liked the Châteauneuf-du-Pape, although I suspect it may not have been as "big and chewy" as he was hoping. The Alvear is what we call the "liquid raisin" and it held up well against the incredibly rich pie--Nuphy and I agreed that the tokay wouldn't have, but we had to have a glass each anyway since we'd never had an Australian before. monshu and I both prefer the Nonino to the Montenegro, since it's a bit more complex, but they're both pleasant and seem to do the job as digestivi, although I tend to prefer them mixed with tonic as an apéritif.

Comments

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

well, how would you alias spookyfruit's brother?

spookypip?