Thanksgiving countdown - one week!

This is a picture of our dining room with my big wooden bowl loaded with different knobbly gourds, some mini-pumpkins and four white pillar candles - a really pretty autumn centerpiece for the middle of the table.

I feel like I have a lot to be thankful for because this has been a pretty good year. We had a little bit more money this year, which meant we had only one unpleasant encounter with the utilities company last winter, ha ha ha! Ha! Ha. Huh. It's amazing that it's still hard to find that funny, even eight months later. Ugh.

But I also have a lot to be worried about, for instance: WHAT DRESSING RECIPE AM I GOING TO USE?!?! I am freaking out. I bring the dressing to Thanksgiving and the dressing I brought last year was awful. Oh, the recipe was okay, but after I baked it in the oven, I put it in my pre-heated slow-cooker to take to Pat and Angie's house, where we have Thanksgiving dinner. They live about twenty-five minutes away, and by the time my dressing got done steaming, it was total mush. Slimy. Oh my gosh, it was terrible; the only time I have EVER thrown leftover dressing away. It was pure smoosh, and I don't think even the dogs would have eaten it.

So maybe I'll make the same recipe, but just bake it at home and heat it up in the oven at Pat and Angie's house. (If we'd all known when they built that house that we were going to be having Thanksgiving there every year, we would have campaigned for double ovens.)

Our family likes firm dressing that comes out of the 9x13 casserole dish in slabs, a bit moist underneath, brown on top and crispy around the edges. This is what I am determined to serve.

Hopefully, this time next week, I'll be giving thanks for a successful attempt. PRESSURE!!!!