After the fact...

Who does a postmortem after Thanksgiving? Apparently, we do. There we were with notepad in hand, surveying the Thanksgiving buffet line. "Next year, we need half as many sweet potatoes," I said, looking at the less than half empty 9 X 13 dish of sweet potatoes, still covered with caramel brown marshmallows.

"And let's not forget to put the cranberry relish out BEFORE the meal, instead of after the meal," Steve snickered. Touche! We both looked at the mounds of food before us. We planned on 20 people, and cooked for 50. As people were gearing up to leave, my sister-in-law loaded up bags and bags of leftovers, and still had a mountain of food for her own refrigerator.

We gave thumbs up to the dry brining technique we read about in Bon Appetit Magazine, based on an article by Rick Rodgers, a phenomenal cooking teacher and author of dozens of cookbooks. This guy really knows his stuff. It's so easy and less messy than submerging your bird in a bucket of liquid salt brine. I even think it makes for less salty drippings, key if you use the drippings as the basis for gravy.

But then there was Mom's cornbread dressing. We're still not there yet, and what we wouldn't give to have her back to show us how to do it. We're close (although it was a little green from two bottles of sage) but we're just not there yet.

So we have written notes - a postmordem - from this year that will make next year even better. Now if we can just remember to review them.