Holidays For Two!

Dear J/VA,

We're both single by choice (ours!) and have thrown huge bashes during our married years. As a result of all the strum und drang (i.e., fire and lightening), we tend towards quiet, but fun, cooking.

We both like the small turkey breast roasts for ease. We unwrap, then pound the pieces (2-3) a bit, spread on the stuffing and re-roll in parchment. Bake as usual at 325-350 degrees F. and it's a most credible turkey with spiral stuffing. Excellent! Roomie does a fabulous version of Yams Chatham, using both Fuji apples and mandarine oranges (super YUM!). I do the stuffing (dressing) using her recipe for onion bread, to which I add herbs, for the best bread cubes I've ever had. Dessert is a pumpkin bread pudding (I made the bread myself from a recipe clipping, but cheat and use the spiced version of the canned pumpkin).

An excellent white wine, some aquavit before dinner (Scona, one of the better ones from Sweden) and maybe a small brandy afterwards. We set the table with the good stuff, but wear our comfy clothing, too!

It's fun not having a crowd to worry about, not to mention getting "something" on dressy duds (or piling on the makeup and the fancy hairdos).

We call it our "kinder, gentler holiday dinner" and have a great time making it as well. Plus, since there is no pressure, we enjoy all the cooking and tasting and stories about the "old" days even more.

Cheers!