Pre-Ramble:   As is tradition, Daisy (our culinarily inclined canine) is making the pies while we watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade; pumpkin spice with nutmeg-walnut crust is her specialty (not it at right).

The Take-Away:  As is also tradition, we want to wish you and yours a very warm and happy Thanksgiving!

Post-Note:  “Warm” is right — could hit 60 degrees here in Minnesota today!

Pre-Ramble:  Hi everybody — it’s me Daisy!  As is our Thanksgiving tradition, I will be your guest-blogger today. Mom is in the kitchen mincing meat or something, and I have been assigned the task of providing color commentary on the parade and sounding the alert when the Snoopy balloon comes up Broadway. Personally, I’m kind of partial to the Energizer Bunny, Mr. Potato Head and the new Pillsbury Doughboy (shown right), but since I’m a white dog with contrasting ear coloring, people just assume that I’m a Snoopy fan.

If you want to know the truth, I can really take or leave the whole balloon thing – and the parade, for that matter (… if you’ve seen one lip-synched show tune, you’ve seen ‘em all …  And while we’re grousing, what the heck is Cyndi Lauper doing on the Barbie Dream Castle float?!?)

But, so, if we’re talking about Thanksgiving – I’m all about pies.

Sure, turkey is the mainstay, … divine smells wafting through the house. And, the stuffing!  The great thing about stuffing is that it’s all chunky and loose and lots of it usually ends up on the floor. Same goes for gravy … especially during the concoction phase.  Invariably, puffy oven mitts clumsily grasp the edges of unwieldy roasting pans and before you can say, “Over here, Daisy!” the pan drippings are running down the side of the counter into the splash zone.  Toss in a little Chex-mix and some cranberry sauce (the real deal, NOT the vacu-form can-shaped kind) and you’ve got a real treat. 

But, so, yeah … pie … preferably pumpkin pie, is the most excellent part of the Thanksgiving feast.  As always, my array of pies will be stellar again this year. I will be making the traditional recipe and a couple of variations that involve zested citrus rind and a walnut-gingersnap crust. I thought about trying the apple-and-dried-fruit spice pie , but the lattice topper is tough to do without opposable thumbs … (And really, the fruit and nut stuff is pretty similar to the type of fare that I can scare up in the backyard). 

Well, no discourse on the Thanksgiving holiday would be complete without a nod to the real reason we celebrate this tradition. Like you, and the early colonists at Plymouth Plantation, I know that I have a lot to be thankful for — a bottomless bowl of kibble, lots of room to roam, a patch of carpet that gets the afternoon sun, and a family that scratches me behind the ears and tells me I’m cute. Love, family, and all the creature comforts of hearth and home – what more could a dog ever ask for?

The Take-Away:  That, plus a nice warm piece of pie, and the rest is gravy.

Pre-Ramble: Mom is in the other room chopping celery, so I, the resident canine, Daisy, have been appointed as your esteemed guest blogger for today. My topic for the ramp-up to Thanksgiving Day will be the Top Ten things I am thankful for this holiday season. Between you and me, we should all be thankful that Mom is not cooking anything for the big Thanksgiving dinner beyond a couple platters of crudites and her signature/fool-proof apple cake. My plan is to busy her with setting the table and filling water goblets while the girls prepare the pumpkin pies (complete with hand-rolled crust embellished with maple leaf cut-outs and freshly whipped sweet cream). 

Turkey Talk: Before I share my list, I just have to comment on Audubon‘s rendition of the “wild turkey” (shown right). I don’t know what he was looking at, but I’ve chased plenty of wild turkeys out of my yard and I can tell you that they are not good looking birds. There is clearly some photoshop going on here, both in the coloration and arrangement of plumage, and in the fowl’s implied demeanor. Far from the picture of soft, brown, calm, coyness depicted by Audubon, in addition to being ugly, this plucky breed is skittish, ornery, and mostly grey. Benjamin Franklin however was evidently a fan, indicating in a 1784 letter to his daughter, that he preferred the feisty and courageous Wild Turkey over the aloof slacker Bald Eagle as his choice for national bird. But, enough of this turkey talk; here is the run-down of the Top Ten things for which I am thankful this Thanksgiving. I am thankful that…

1. … my family loves me and takes good care of me
2. … two rabbits live under the back porch (we’ve had endless hours of fun)
3. … rescue dogs (like me) are going to represent in the new White House
4. … nobody feeds me canned dog food (the canine equivalent of Spam, which I also wouldn’t eat even if I was sitting in a sky box at a Saints game)
5. … I don’t have to go to The Nutcracker this year (that old guy in the cape gives me the creeps)
6. … my Pilgrim hat wouldn’t stay on (so Mom had to go with that lame Audubon print)
7. … nobody makes me fetch things (a couple laps around the dining room table and I’m good)
8. … I don’t fit into a standard size roasting pan
9. … no one in my family likes dark meat (score – more for me!)
10. … no one is tracking my Neiman Marcus tab

The Take-Away: Well, I can’t sit here blogging all day… I have stuffing to do.  I hope this Thanksgiving finds you happy and healthy, and that you are able to find a warm, sunny spot on the carpet to sit and reflect upon all of the wonderful things in your life. I will leave you with this final thought on thankfulness from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

For each new morning with its light; For rest and shelter of the night; For health and food, for love and friends; For everything Thy goodness sends.

“Woof!”