What is on my mind....

Pie.  I have two beautiful pumpkin pies with 18 minutes left until their gorgeous finish.  I am trying two recipes for the crusts: one is Trav's Yia Yia's recipe and the other is from my Everyday Food Magazine. (I am excited for both of them) I am doing this in preparation for the big day!  Not Christmas, or some other get together, but the big one, the mother of all cooking days, the day I wait for all year, that I plan in my head for months before---- THANKSGIVING!!!!!!  I sit and can picture the spread of the table- what I will axe from the menu, what I will add.  Scouring all my October and November magazines, I will spend hours planning how I will create the perfect meal that everyone will stop and say, "Wow, that was the best thing I have ever eaten.  I mean ever!"  That is my goal.  That is my hope.  It means a lot when my father, who never really comments on anything, says to my mother that she should take lessons on how to make gravy from me!   I want people to compare their turkeys that they eat for the rest of the year to the beautiful, moist bird I set on the table.  One day when I am rich, I am going to buy the most wonderful set of dishes along with a elegant table just so that I can have the perfect dining room all set and ready to go for my guests. (I am talking like the ones in the Norman Rockwell paintings or the ones in Martha Stewart Magazine, the ones with totally too many plates and glasses, but it looks so gorgeous before anyone sits down) 

Cooking this one dinner is the one thing in this world that I can do and I will say it (even though it makes me sound seriously vain) well.  Being in the kitchen cooking, puts me in a zen like state where I really don't care what is happening.  (unless it is taking place in MY kitchen, then I turn into a mix between the Incredible Hulk and Martha Stewart) 

So, in 5 minutes when my pies come out, it will be the first test of my dishes. Let the Holiday season start.  To me, this month is the most wonderful time of the year!