Thanksgiving Boot Camp

I have never tried to hide the fact that I am not the best cook. Mostly it's because my life is busy. Really busy. Dinner usually consists of something I've thrown together at the last minute. I may have once fed my children Beef-a-Roni and buttered hot dog buns for dinner.

For the last several years we have had Thanksgiving at our house and you can't slack off in the preparations for that meal. Unless, of course, your husband stuffs the turkey and your mom brings the bread, corn, green beans and pie. However, I am quite skilled at opening the wine.

This year will be different though! This year, Thanksgiving dinner is my responsibility. Why? Because I went to Thanksgiving Boot Camp! My instructor was the lovely Robin Davis, food editor of The Columbus Dispatch. The location was the fabulous North Market.


The first thing I learned is that your ingredients should be fresh. That means you use real celery, onions and bread in your stuffing! Real bread! Okay, the pumpkin for the pie was canned, but everything else? Totally fresh! Almost all of our ingredients came straight from North Market vendors.

Here I am with my friend, Amy, right before I crushed her in the pie-making competition. Oh...wait. I may have forgotten to put sugar in my pie and it may not have cooked thoroughly, even though Robin tried to save it by sprinkling brown sugar on it while it was in the oven. But, my crust was amazing! I mean, not that I scraped the not-done pie off the top and ate the crust or anything, because that would just be wrong.

When we were finished, we sat down to some lovely conversation, a delightful Pinot Noir and the most delicious turkey I have ever had.

I will be taking over the entire refrigerator for this recipe, but it will be worth it. Robin knows her stuff.

Well, except for how to save my pie.