We had a very small and very lovely Thanksgiving chez our friends, four adults and one baby boy and one Little Stranger and two actual cats and the one phantom. One of the two actual cats is actually a dog, because he is so friendly, unless he is a shawl, because he wears himself around your neck.
Charley is also the head of the family, because he sat on a chair peering over the end of the table while the humans sat on either side.
We had an amazing meal: poached pears with prosciutto, crab-stuffed tomatoes, butternut squash soup, pork loin with oven-roasted potatoes, green beans, apple pie with cheese (because we forgot cinnamon ice cream) and ginger chocolate cake.
Yeah, I've got this ginger-chocolate thing going on, haven't I? Before she knew what desserts I'd brought, JJM remembered that a cookie I served at Clove's shower was very popular, and very tasty, but she didn't remember what it was. I was glad she remembered it favorably because RDC had confessed while I baked that he is not as wild about this cookie as I (and everyone I bake it for) is. But I only cook desserts, and the other day I pulled Moosewood Desserts off the shelf and it fell open, I swear, like Dr. Dolittle going to Spidermonkey Island because that's how the atlas opened to Tommy's pin, to ginger chocolate cake. With mango sauce.
Also I made an apple pie, because it is Thanksgiving. Actually RDC made the crust, because while peeling and slicing and flavoring apples is not precision work, making pastry is. It was fun, cooking all day with each of us listening to our books.
Both were good, and RDC admitted that he liked the cake, so mleah.