10 on the 11th: My 10 Fave Foods of Thanksgiving

This is a fun monthly thing instigated by Marsha In the Middle. 
Usually we answer 10 questions.
And usually I answer over on my fashion blog SpyGirl. 

This month, however, there was one question: Tell us 10 of your favorite things about Thanksgiving. My 10 things are all about food! I love Thanksgiving food!

1967. Grandfather carves, I pose.

I'm no longer a fan of Turkey (I find fowl foul), but I do love 

1. Stuffing! 
    My Mom's version is what I compare all Thanksgiving stuffings to... 
    most don't live up to my flavor memory.

2. Gravy
    I made the gravy when I was growing up.
    Recently I made pork gravy for Severo and the recipe/muscle memory immediately returned.
    I was missing the proper utensil, however.

    You might think me weird, liking gravy and disliking turkey.
    It's not the taste, it's the texture of the meat.

3. Creamed Onions!
    OK, I'm starting to drool.

4. Mashed Potatoes
    I make really delicious mashed potatoes.
    I cook them in a pressure cooker and use some of the potato water as my mashing thinner. And lots of butter.

5. Roasted Yams (or Butternut Squash)
    I prefer my yams savory. I slice in 3/8" rounds and roast them in olive oil.

6. Baby Green Peas
   I use frozen, boiled, with a bunch of garlic power in the water.

7. Cranberry Relish
    I'm team made from scratch.

8. Pumpkin Pie
    OK, I'll accept Pecan or Apple as well

Hmmmmm. These are my most important Thanksgiving items.
Only 8!

our plates in 2016

After looking online at what Whole Foods offers I'll add:

9. Spinach Artichoke Parmesan Dip
    Yeah, that would be nice to graze upon while cooking the other stuff.

10. Brioche Rolls (to go with the dip)

Tada!
Hungry yet?
What foods say "Thanksgiving" for you?

Link to Marsha's answers for this month.

Linking up with Marcia

and

Shelbee's Shelbee's On the Edge

The Flight from Hell

Sixteen hours in Newark.

A lot of it is recorded in the text alerts:

Translation: the AC is malfunctioning and the cabin is 100F

They have to cool it down.

(Kind of hard to depart in 10 minutes if everyone is still in the terminal)

Translation: all westbound flights are grounded because of weather.

We board. We wait on the tarmac, there's a long queue for the runway. There's a lurid sunset.

8:13

8:33

Plane is broken.

We return to a gate (that takes a while, we have to wait for one to clear).

8:51

At this point, the flight attendants meet their time limit and a new crew has to be located.

I think more weather issues are involved -- lightning and flight pattern closures.

And catering. They have to refresh the catering. This detail annoys everyone.

We reboard. We wait at the gate. And wait. The tow is broken and another is found.

We finally amble onto the tarmac.

The pilots meet their time limit.

We return to the gate.

They can't find anyone to drive the gateway.

Passengers start yelling.

The line at Customer Service to rebook is very long and since my seat was in the back of the plane, I am near the end of it. When the last agent leaves at 3:30am, there are maybe 25 of us without new boarding passes. Most leave in a mob to the lobby. Four of us like the look of being first in line when CS reopens at 5am, staying inside security, and having carpet to loll upon (most of Terminal C is linoleum).

3:40am

Add to the mix a forecast of thunderstorms that will start around 1pm.

5:15 am: get a 1:00 direct flight, same seat. Hmmmm. Will I beat the weather?

Lurid sunrise. 5:24

Trying standby seems worth a shot, since I have nothing better to do.

The 6am to LAX is already boarding, nevermind.

I go to the 7am LAX gate -- first in line! -- and add my name to the list.

I am Standby #6, because of my lowly miles status.

I am the last passenger to board the flight, with a window seat, no less. Whew!

It is an uneventful journey (aside from the new terrible high tech window which remained in "blackout" mode until Arizona).

You can barely see the plane's wing. This is the view at 10am.
I pushed that button many many times, with no success.
The flight attendants had my side of the plane on "blackout" override.
So much for doing artwork of the landscape patterns.
Super annoyed.

SO glad to be home!

[added 7/23] 

I WILL say that the crews and all the agents (that I observed) were GREAT. One of the pilots kept us abreast of what was ACTUALLY transpiring vs the vague text alerts that we got. He was even willing to take the blame (and gave us his name, which I immediately forgot) if anyone wanted to spew angry words at United.

Also, I only heard three episodes of a passenger yelling (one guy twice). 

Linking up with
Catherine's #ShareAllLinkup
Shelbee's On the Edge