Life in the northern prairie is good.  We spent Thanksgiving with family in my grandparent’s house in Hickson, North Dakota.  It was traditional in most  respects (green bean casserole and marsh-mellowed yams notwithstanding) with the added Norwegian touch of  homemade lefsa and flatbread,  reverentially set midst aunt Lil’s best china and stemware, shadowed by waftings of game scores coming from the living room and kid’s playing along to a twister movie in the den, and celebrated with more food than I would have thought possible to imbibe at one sitting.  Life is good.

For once T.M. ceded his favored position as head turkey baker to aunt Lil, who is the commander and chief in her own kitchen, and I gave up my position as sous-chef to my cousin Debbie who, after all, IS the most “beautiful woman” when she isn’t being La Ditzy the clown.

Because of the vast bounty of dishes, we decided to start with a salad course, and that, itself, was a smorgasbord of choice.   My favorite, and  one worth mentioning was thanks to Kim and Kristin, who shared as follows.

Create a dressing (by taste) using orange juice, honey and red wine vinegar and toss with mixed greens.  Top with crumbled feta cheese, chopped pistachios, and pomegranate seeds.  Ring with clementine slices.  Beautiful and low fat and yummy!

We then proceeded with the beautiful, yummy, and not-so-low-fat feast!

NOLAN GETS A LEG!

ALEX FINISHES FIRST

And while resting up before the pie course, we did something hardly ever done in these northern parts at Thanksgiving – we sat outside on the porch!  (The ones not napping.)

TAKK FOR MATEN.  TAKK FOR FAMILIEN.