CSI: Turkey Division

Last week, I managed to come down with the flu, which I'm still fighting, so between that and work deadlines, blogging just didn't happen.

But I did manage to accomplish other things. Exhibit A:

Things I made: maple-glazed roast turkey, sausage and chestnut stuffing, gravy, and green beans with maple-Dijon almonds. Things I did not make: canned cranberry sauce. (There were also mashed potatoes, but the less said about those, the better).

Exhibit B:

This is the only photo I have of the table. Behold! a bunch of covered dishes and some foil lumps.

In case you haven't figured it out yet: I cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner this year. I cannot adequately express how aggrandized my sense of accomplishment is. When that turkey came out of the oven, I wished there was a cliff nearby to pose on top of.

Gluten-free sweet potato chiffon pie: Exhibit C? Beautiful thing I did not make. (I've run out evidence of "things I did instead of blogging," but I still have photos left.)

I talked Mom into making the pie, and it was delicious. (Baking frightens me a little. I feel there's some truth in the adage "Cooking is an art; baking is a science." And gluten-free baking is like replacing half the elements in your experiment with "things nearby on the periodic table" and hoping the result won't burn off your eyebrows.)

We have a mini-fridge out back where we kept the main dish (in a brown grocery sack). When I retrieved it on Thanksgiving morning, I said "hi" to the neighbor's turkeys, like usual. And suddenly, I felt like I'd been interrupted in the middle of dragging a carpet-wrapped body from my car trunk: "Heeeey, Bob. . . . How're the kids? Nah, nah, I got this, thanks."

Later, they visited the scene of the crime.

"You know and I know what happened here, Becky, but no judge is going to convict on butter splatters alone."

"I can't prove you did it, but I can defecate on your deck."

I can't end a post without giving you something to read, but I really just want to suggest every article I've read about Ian Dengler, food sleuth. He can deduce your family's history just by hearing what you eat for Thanksgiving. Also, I love breakdowns of what people eat in each state for Thanksgiving. So here's one on the most googled Thanksgiving side dishes by state (chess bars for Kentucky sounds about right). Moving across the country has driven home the truth that there's no agreed on "typical" Thanksgiving meal.

I've been asking people this all week (and loving the answers): What dishes (beyond turkey) are required in your family to make Thanksgiving feel like Thanksgiving?