A Trunksgiving Potluck

Thanksgiving cooking is starting today. We invited some local friends to do a safe and socially-distanced Trunksgiving potluck, where:

– people drop off food (in family individual portions) on my porch sometime between now and tomorrow @ 11

– I move food to our basement fridge (the party fridge) as needed

– I set out some appetizers, drinks, and the portions of food on the porch by 11 on Thanksgiving (it’s nice and cold here, so everything will stay chilled, but should be clear and not snowing, which is ideal, thank you weather gods)

– people stop by the porch between 11 – 1 on Thanksgiving to pick up their food (maybe pause for a warm samosa or chilled apple cider mimosa, saying hello to masked me with good distancing), take food home, reheat it

– 1-3-ish, we jump on a Zoom and hang out while eating, maybe play a round of Codenames. Might just be a quick 5 minute hello, depending on people’s schedules.

Locals! I, of course, wanted to invite everyone I know, or actually, what I really wanted was to invite all of Oak Park, but the logistics of that overwhelmed me. But if you’re reading this and thinking, hey, Mary Anne usually invites us to her Christmas and Sri Lankan New Year’s parties, and I’d love to participate in this too, it’s probably not too late — drop me a note!

It’s called Trunksgiving because you’re driving around with food in your trunk. Someone on my wall called it that, and now it’s stuck in my head, so thanks.

*****

Menu:

– on the porch for pick-up time: samosas from local cafe Wise Cup & apple cider mimosas

(SIDE NOTE: Samosas and Mimosas really needs to be the name of SOMETHING. Maybe a memoir. Hm.)

– macaroni and cheese (Emmanuel)

– stuffed cabbage and eggplant salad (Darius)

– roast ham (Madhurima)

– mashed potatoes and possibly cranberry relish (Carollina Song)

– Aunt Leslee’s vegetarian barley casserole (Stephanie)

– roasted brussels sprouts (Mary Anne)

– turkey and gravy (Mary Anne)

– spicy sausage & cornbread stuffing (Mary Anne)

– gingered cranberry & blood orange sauce (Mary Anne)

– sugared cranberries, gingerbread (Amanda)

– lemon bars (Madhurima)

*****

Festive! I have to finish up two batches of cookies for the Patreon treat boxes this morning (some cookies might also make their way out for Thanksgiving), but this afternoon, I’m planning to switch over to Thanksgiving cooking, with plenty of dumb holiday movies on the TV for company. This morning, I’ve been listening to the Home Cooking podcast’s 2nd Thanksgiving episode, which is also lovely company.

Side note — it is very hard to bake this kind of cookie, with sticking out bits, without over browning some of it. Possibly impossible. But it’s okay. A little pistachio icing will camouflage a multitude of sins.

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply