Ambrosia (Fruit Salad)

As Rives said to me:

I think the key is that you shouldn't have any ingredients left in any can, bag or tub: buy and combine. Serve. Done.

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orangey cranberry sauce

Not overly sweet, a touch zippy with a hit of orange sunshine. Mr. Mari prefers the stuff out of a can but I prefer sauce over jelly with dinner.

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Apple, Chestnut and Mushroom Stuffing

This stuffing was cooked outside of the turkey since I was worried about internal turkey temperatures, even cooking and just plain freaking out about it all. Maybe next year, I'll place some inside the turkey so it picks up more turkey flavor. Hate to say it but all the butter makes this dish sing.

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slaw

As I've mentioned before, my mom's a great cook. She can pretty much adapt any recipe - French, American, Italian, Indian - and somehow make it Japanese. Growing up, we'd have a mayo-laden coleslaw but more often than not, we'd have a lighter Japanese-style version, similar to a German-style slaw: zero mayo, slightly sweet and brackish due to the rice and white wine vinegars. These days I'm usually eating coleslaw with something casual yet rich (hamburgers and fried chicken come to mind) so I appreciate having a cold, acetic slaw as a palette cleanser. Yet somehow it leaves me wanting a soy sauce glazed hot dog...

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