Hasta La Gadget!

Three and a half decades ago, Republican rhetoric about the border sounded rather different than it does today.

I used to host elaborate Thanksgiving celebrations, where I’d cook and prepare for days on end, only to be completely exhausted by the time my guests arrived on Thanksgiving day. After one glass of wine, I’d be nodding off at the table, dreaming of my pillow! I finally wised up by simplifying my menu and recipes. From an addictive cocktail snack to a show-stopper dessert, here are my ten favorite easy and delicious recipes for Thanksgiving.

1. Sweet, Spicy & Salty Candied Pecans (aka Crack Nuts)

My husband calls these candied pecans “crack nuts” because they’re wickedly addictive. They’re perfect to serve with cocktails or just keep around the house over the holidays. The best part? You only need four simple ingredients to make them — and if you start right now, you’ll be done in 15 minutes. GET THE RECIPE

2. Super Simple Butternut Squash Soup

This has to be the easiest butternut squash soup recipe ever. You start with pre-cut squash from the supermarket, then you basically throw everything in a pot, simmer it, purée it and you’re done. It’s still everything you expect a classic butternut squash soup to be: silky, slightly sweet and full of flavor. GET THE RECIPE

3. The Easiest Roast Turkey You’ve Ever Made

Over the years, I’ve tried every method of cooking turkey. I’ve brined it, deep fried it, marinated it, injected it, buttered it, dry-rubbed it, butterflied it and stuffed it. I’ve tried Kosher turkeys, organic turkeys, free range turkeys and self-basting turkeys. After all this, my advice to you on Thanksgiving is to keep it simple! Make an easy roast turkey along with an over-the-top delicious gravy and some cranberry sauce to go with it. Focus your time and creativity on the side dishes and desserts because that’s what everyone really looks forward to anyway. GET THE RECIPE

4. Easy Sausage & Herb Stuffing

This delicious sausage and herb stuffing relies on store bought stuffing cubes, which eliminates the step of slicing and drying out the bread. Believe me, when you are using a pound of sausage and an entire stick of butter, the bread does not matter much! The stuffing can be made in advance and reheated on Thanksgiving day. GET THE RECIPE

5. Cauliflower Purée with Thyme

Everyone loves mashed potatoes on Thanksgiving but the downside is that they can’t be cooked ahead of time. Try this cauliflower purée instead — it happens to taste remarkably like mashed potatoes but it’s easier to make, healthier and perfect for making ahead of time. You won’t even need any oven space to reheat it — just put it in the microwave! GET THE RECIPE

6. French Green Beans with Shallots

How can a vegetable recipe with only one tablespoon of oil and three simple ingredients — olive oil, green beans and shallots — be so delicious? It’s all in the technique, which combines slowly cooking shallots in olive oil to coax out their natural sweetness and simmering beans in a bit of water until tender. GET THE RECIPE

7. Sweet Potato Pecan Crisp

Say goodbye to that old marshmallow topping — these sweet potatoes are mashed with butter and brown sugar, then baked with crunchy pecan streusel topping. Like most sweet potato dishes, it straddles the line between sweet and savory. It’s “that dish,” the one everyone reaches their fork into long after the meal is done. GET THE RECIPE

8. Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic Vinegar & Honey

These simple brussels sprouts are roasted in a high temperature oven until golden brown and crisp, then tossed with a touch of balsamic vinegar and honey. Be sure to make extra — they’re as addictive as french fries! GET THE RECIPE

9. Apple Pecan Crisp

Forget that fussy apple pie — this apple crisp is so much easier to make and more delicious. Make it a day ahead of time and simply reheat it after dinner. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it’s a wonderful and cozy Thanksgiving dessert. GET THE RECIPE

10. Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

This pie might look complicated but I assure you, it’s not hard to make! Take it from one reader who made it for a fall pie contest and won first prize: “I felt a little guilty because it was one of the easiest pies that I have ever made.” GET THE RECIPE

Why Should You Know About C. P. Cavafy?

I have a tattoo stretched across my collarbone that reads “So Much I Gazed Upon Beauty – My Vision Is Alive With It.” Now, this may seem a bit extreme in support of a dead poet but maybe you are not familiar with Constantine P. Cavafy. The translations of his words, which I have only understood in translation so therefore can also be described as modern day gossip, are timeless. It is rare that I run into someone that reads my script and identifies the author but more often they have a look of surprise or discomfort when I say “and I am looking at you.” This poet deserves more than a permanent advertisement on skin and reading through his archive with a consideration to the timeframe will make the most current trailblazer feel adequate.

Constantine’s work echoed a life bouncing around Europe as a gay man in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Growing up from Egypt to England but maintaining his Greek heritage, Cavafy was selective if not secretive in his publications. His political phrases have been considered the greatest musings of the early 20th century but his poems of love have also resonated. I was given his words by my Italian professor in college. Gianfranco knew something that I did not; these phrases would guide me in my adult life … especially in the romance department.

“I never had you, nor will I ever have you
I suppose. A few words, an approach
as in the bar yesterday, and nothing more.
It is undeniably, a pity. But we who serve Art
sometimes with intensity of mind, and of course only
for a short while, we create pleasure
which almost seems real.”

“I never found them again – the things so quickly lost…
the poetic eyes, the pale
face…in the dusk of the street…

I never found them again – the things acquired quite by chance,
that I gave up so lightly;
and that later in agony I wanted.
The poetic eyes, the pale face,
those lips, I never found them again.”

Now, if you are going through a break up…those might not be the best choices for taping on your bathroom mirror. Keep flipping through or clicking through the choices for some inspired pieces that reflect new love or even an acceptance of self love; the kind that makes you love your life just the way it is.

“And if you can’t shape your life the way you want,
at least try as much as you can
not to degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much activity and talk.”

“My life’s joy and incense: recollection of those hours
when I found and captured sensual pleasure as I wanted
it.
My life’s joy and incense: that I refused
all indulgence in routine love affairs.”

But if you want to spark up a fire in an old relationship or cement a new one; there are so many pieces filled with lust that in a group of modest words, he creates the story and captures the emotion of strong desire. Holiday season is coming up so you may want to stop by a bookstore (do not order online lazy, defeats the purpose) and get a copy of his works or if this is really a new thing then just grab a screen shot and text it.

“Come back often and take hold of me,
sensation that I love come back and take hold of me–
when the body’s memory awakens
and an old longing again moves into the blood,
when lips and skin remember
and hands feel as though they touch again.

Come back often, take hold of me in the night
when lips and skin remember…”

This one kills me:

“So much I gazed upon beauty,
my vision is alive with it.

Contours of the body. Red lips. Voluptuous limbs.
Hair as if taken from greek statues;
always beautiful, even when uncombed,
and it falls, slightly, over foreheads.
Faces of love, as my poetry
wanted them…in the nights of my youth,
in my nights, secretly, met…”

If the holidays are too soon then you have a grace period to Valentine’s Day to explore C P Cavay’s romantic side. Pass up those obvious choices of Whitman and Dickinson for someone who really captured a rich life. You will find some easy reading that has profound meaning. Maybe a tattoo is in your future so FYI I have already called another one that’s slapped on my back:

“I went –
I did not hold myself back.
I gave in completely and went.”

READ MORE ABOUT CP CAVAFY AT WWW.CAVAFY.COM OR WWW.POETRYFOUNDATION.ORG.

Translations by Edmund Keeley, Philip Sherrard, and John Cavafy. A little flavor from me.

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. (AP) — Police say a father has accidentally shot and killed his adult son during a hunting trip in New Jersey.

WCAU-TV (http://bit.ly/1qQBVN4 ) reports that the shooting happened Saturday afternoon in West Windsor. Police say the older man mistakenly shot his 45-year-old son in the back of the head. The son later died from his injuries.

West Windsor police and the Mercer County prosecutor’s office are investigating.

If you thought maggots in the ear were bad, you’ve been warned: this is much, much worse.

In video of an endoscopic procedure that tiptoes the line between medical marvel and pure horror, a patient has live maggots removed from his nasal cavity.

The graphic footage was shared earlier this year by Dr. Meenesh Juvekar, an ENT consultant at Bombay Hospital in Mumbai, India. It is four minutes of stomach-turning terror — especially when the removed maggots writhe around.

The condition is called myiasis, a parasitic infection of fly larva. According to the CDC, it generally occurs in tropical and subtropical climates. Flies lay eggs in an untreated or open sore, and when the eggs hatch, the maggots begin eating the surrounding tissue.

Not surprisingly, myiasis can be fatal if left untreated. So while this video is not for the squeamish, the doctor probably saved this patient’s life.

According to the Daily Mail, the patient in this case was a 55-year-old man who ended up having 50 maggots removed from his sinuses during the two-hour procedure. He is said to have recovered from the infection completely.

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