I know, if you watch soap operas you get the impression that all white people are home in their house on the hill, eating gourmet food off their finest china and wiping their hands on the finest linens. They are discussing the stock market, financial planning and pharmacueticals. They dab the corners of their mouth with the aforementioned linens. Everything is Martha Stewart "perfect." I hate to burst your bubble but T.V. does not equal reality. Here's how a few old-school punks celebrate the day. I do most of the cooking. I start the night before chopping celery, olives, garlic and onions. The next morning, I drain all the corn juice out of the corn and set it aside. I replace the liquid with chicken broth. Everything I cook is soaked in juice: apple, olive, corn or chicken broth, for hours on end. I cleaned and stuffed the turkey, beat the potatoes with an electric mixer and neaded the stuffing, gradually adding my onion, garlic, olive compote to find the right combination, not too oniony but clearly seasoned with natural spices. I cut away my birds skin, pressed compote between the skin and the meat and sewed that baby back up. I slathered it with butter then covered it in cheesecloth. After all was said and done, I made gravy with the drippings. Here's the bird straight out of the oven. The skin was crunchy but the meat was tender and juicy. In the morning, I caught glimpses of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, it was a good one this year. The evening's music selection consisted of the following CD's and DVD's. Most links go to iTunes. DVD links go to Amazon: Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo A Tribe Called Quest - People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein We watched two episodes of Third Rock from the Sun. That is, after Michael and Michael Jr. got the correct audio-in jack connected to the correct audio-out. After a couple of Third Rock episodes and choice between pumpkin or apple pie, we transitioned to watching the Naked Raygun "What Poor God's We Do Make" DVD. I had to gloat about how my old gig flier is the exact one in the movie..."right there...look, that's MY flier", I tell everyone. You gotta realize, this is the family that were 'Zed Records - Back in the day'. People like this don't listen to top 40, and wear designer clothes. Topics like plastic surgery, fake tans and bikini waxing are just...plastic. We talked about Obama, the family and the movie Eyes of an Angel with John Travolta. I got my husband sufficiently curious enough to search for the trailer on YouTube so we could all watch it. If you love animals or kids or both, this movie is irresistable. Based on a true story. Everyone enjoyed the food and music. I sent my in-laws home with two Ziploc bags filled with turkey, and plastic containers full of potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, corn and dessert. They will easily have enough for some nice leftovers tomorrow. This is the first Thanksgiving in years where I did all the cooking. I got burned out a few years ago, sick of always being "the one in charge." I essentially went on strike. For three years in a row, we went to Kourhy's Restaurant, stuffed our guts at the buffet then wheeled ourselves back to our respective homes. Not the most festive way to celebrate the holiday. This year I wanted the good old feeling of Thanksgiving back in my home. I wanted the smell of garlic and butter to saturate the walls and knock you over as you walked in. I wanted to hear the words, "this turkey is great." I wanted to share my cooking secrets and I wanted to hear extended versions of what everyone's been up to. Mission was accomplished. We listened to music, we ate, we dozed off in our chairs, just like the good old days. Here we are at the end of the night, sufficently stuffed and glad to share each others company for the evening.