Mr. Thanksgiving

Or Mr. T... I met him recently. If you go to culinary school and your nickname becomes "Mr. Thanksgiving", you are the real deal. You must have earned the moniker. Surrounding a roasted turkey with a slices of turkey roulade - boned breast and legs separately stuffed rolled and tied, then roasted - in the midst of a plated, multi-course Thanksgiving for 35 is not for novices.

So while I wait for my Indian Pudding to finish cooking, I am reminded of my family and friends and of this delicious Bolivia Cup of Excellence coffee I roasted last night. It is exceptionally bright and smooth. I did not find the "apple blossom" aroma, my purveyor describes, but it is excellent.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year (other than this excellent coffee).With the passing of time and events, my appreciation of the significance of "my people" has changed. With the illnesses, births, deaths, marriages, dissolutions, beginnings, and goodbyes, the preciousness of these people grows.As an aside, you know the end of apple season always gets me thinking this way (about the transience and preciousness of life). But this year I am especially grateful - for recovered friends, healthiness, recoveries, additions to my baby portfolio, my work, and a just completed decade of marriage (I know you are incredulous someone could put up with me that long mostly continuously).

Mr. T will certainly inspire me to create with Parker a wonderful meal to celebrate this good fortune for us and ours and to request, to pray for more health, more happiness, more fulfillment in a world of more health, more peace, more kindness. Happy Thanksgiving! Alex