I can’t believe the long Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. We had four days at home to get through our list of “to do’s” and, while we accomplished many things, it just seems that the time went too fast.

Part of this is because one whole day was spent cooking a Thanksgiving feast. Our initial intention was to go out for a Thanksgiving dinner, since it was just the two of us, but at the last minute we decided to stay in and cook. As soon as I agreed to it, I knew I’d gone crazy. The only thing that got me through the long day of cooking was the thought of eating all the leftovers over the weekend – no leftover meal satisfies like a turkey taco with dressing.

And although I enjoy turkey, for me Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes. We were only two, but I just couldn’t decide what not to make. So we didn’t skimp – potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts with bacon, gravy and cranberry relish. We also made a pumpkin praline pie. I didn’t make a homemade crust, but I did roast the sugar pumpkins. Honestly, this is one of the most incredible pies ever.

Although the sides were good (except the very pretty, but very bad cranberry pear ginger relish recipe I tried out), the most important dish to me was my mom’s sage dressing. As we waited for our bird to finish in the oven, I realized that all I really cared about was digging into that huge bowl of intensely flavored dish – the bread moist but still fluffy and crunchy from the onions and celery.