A Meal To Remember

With Thanksgiving approaching, I was beginning to become very apprehensive about how and when I would prepare a neat meal for the family. I have been so tied up with Little Shop, Meeting in Durango and Simi Community Christmas that I have barely had breathing and sleeping time, let alone cooking time. I checked into prepared heat and serve dinners and realized they would cost just as much as eating out, and I would still have to serve and clean up.


Spence driving us to Thousand Oaks

I talked with Audrey and discovered she felt the SAME way...so we opted for Thanksgiving out. I had hoped to go to the Grand Vistas for their Thanksgiving buffet, but this year they discontinued it...bummer, because at a buffet, everyone gets something he likes. We waited too long to get reservations at Marie Callendar's, so we ended up with noon reservations at Mimi's in Thousand Oaks....not exactly our favorite time for the meal, but a lot better than doing dishes!


It was actually fabulous. I thought we would be ordering from their menu, but they had a one- size-fits-all menu for Thanksgiving, with just a few choices in starters and desserts. I love their French Onion Soup, and that was my choice. Their turkey dinner was huge...about 8 oz. turkey (your choice of white or dark or both), corn bread stuffing, mashed taters and gravy, mashed yams (a bit too sweet), pumpkin bread, rolls, broccoli, carrots, cranberry sauce (yummy) and choice of pumpkin pie, bread pudding or chocolate mousse pie for dessert We have enough leftovers for another meal (something we didn't count on). Spence (one might guess) was the only one to clean his plate.

We figured we wouldn't get dessert, so unbeknownst to each other, Audrey bought 5 pies and 4 kinds of ice cream, and I bought 2 huge Costco pies and 1 gallon of ice cream and tons of whipped cream in cans. Guess we will have to have a huge dessert party soon....that's a LOT of pie.

Of course I forgot my camera, so I took pics with my phone in not so good lighting, and you can see what a wonderful time everyone was having, simply by looking at the expressions on their faces.






















The best picture, of course is this last one. It will always remind me of the dishes I did NOT have to wash. And now.....I am going to relax and enjoy the rest of this WONDERFUL day. I have a great book I want to finish.