Yesterday ten of us got together for a post-Thanksgiving feast. My parents were back from Texas, Team E— was home from their travels, and H— was available. That meal was so good it hurt.

The menu was incredible. Team E— smoked a pork butt, spiced with rub special #1 augmented with ginger, black pepper and a touch of cinnamon. tillyjane (a/k/a my mom) made knot rolls (again) and caesar salad. Jersey Girl in Portland made potatoes au gratin and carrots poached in butter with ginger and garlic. H— made Mama Stamberg’s cranberry relish (which was righteous when matched up with the pork butt), and a very nice cranberry ring. My (step)mom brought roasted Brussels sprouts and Mama Dudley cake (think devil’s food carpet bombed with fudge icing). I made roasted potatoes. Plus we had leftover apple pie from Thanksgiving.

The smell and taste trumped even my food issues. I ate the first full meal I’ve managed in weeks. ZOMG was it good…

Photos © 2012, B. Lake.

This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.