Thanksgiving Part One

I whipped up four* different** fresh*** cranberry**** sauces Sunday for Monday's office Thanksgiving luncheon. There are tables and table and tables of food. The wonderful thing about working and living in such an ethnically diverse center as Miami is the sheer variety of food.

We have flan, and cheesecake, coconut cake, pecan pies and sweet potato pies. There are potato salads and three varieties of sweet potaoes. I saw succotash, an assortment of green bean casseroles. I passed by a platter of yuca cooked with garlic, and watched as one of my fellow workers carved a turkey that had been roasted under a blanket of bacon. (Small swoon.)
I mean, really, as a Southern girl, is there such a thing as enough bacon? Southerners are all about the pig, and so are Cubans.

I present to you all the TurBacon: (not to be confused with Turducken)



Today, I'm going round two with the cranberry sauces, and making a pear pie. Then the RLA, the noble dog Nails, the "special" dog Jojo and I will pack into the Cruiser and cruise north to the land of my relatives where we will celebrate the holiday with the traditional overeating, raucous behavior and unconditional love.

Recipes are available on request.

* Mom's 1950s relish: fresh cranberries, a whole orange (peel and all), sugar, and a little cinnamon. Toss all in the cuisinart and pulse until finely ground.

** Cranberries in port wine (a perennial favorite, and even though it was the first time the office saw it, by the time I got to it — 3/4s of the way back in the line — there was only a tablespoon or two left.

*** Cranberry salsa: tequilla, honey, cilantro, jalepeña pepper, orange, cumin. Another office winner.

**** The one and only Susan Stamberg's famous cranberries with sour cream, horseradish, onion and sugar. I think this one scared the folks at the office.