I love your pig stories. When they have personalities and names it sure would be hard to eat them. They sound like they really like to ride in the van....who would have thunk it??? LOL!!! After finding a gold mine of food in the van, they will really try to go for a ride!! Thanks for sharing your story and hope you continue to feel better! I included a link of a pig that would not walk on the dirt unless they put it boots on it. It even has pictures. Thought you might enjoy it. Joyce Here is a link that might be useful: Pig in Boots

Thanksgiving is the only day we eat turkey. The rest of the time, give me a roast capon or a duck prepared almost any way at all. DH and I are just not turkey lovers. My niece makes a very fine brined and roasted turkey, but once a year is enough for us. We're sauce and gravy people. Stews, braises, casseroles - we love them. I do a fair amount of cooking and a lot of dining out, and we hold that a fine sauce is a work of art. Even though we eat a lot of steaks and roasts, a great sauce is always to be admired. There are too many bad ones around to not acknowledge when something is done correctly. One of our favorite restaurants does a great poached monkfish. This is the fish known as "the poor man's lobster" for both its taste and texture. It's a great little fish, with wonderful flavor. But nap it with Amoricaine sauce, and it rises to a whole 'nother level. This is a Bretonnese classic, and for good reason. Red wine and marrow Bordelaise on a rib-eye? Absolutely! Black truffle cream sauce on a filet? Yum! Mop that goodness up with a well made starch - roasted fingerling potatoes, barley risotto, fresh pasta, freshly baked bread rolls. Gravy and sauce was the way to extend meat to feed a lot of people. Most of the world still loves sauced dishes as treasured childhood memories. Like soup, they are warmth and comfort, soothing and homey. Chicken strips that are velveted and steamed with lop cheong sausage (classic Chinese technique) are stunningly tender, almost as soft as sous vide but we like the flavor and texture better. Perfect with a roasted garlic-oyster sauce gravy over lots of rice! Far better than stir-frying or roasting. As Charles Phan of The Slanted Door restaurant in SF points out in today's WSJournal, steaming is considered the ultimate test of a professional chef in Asia. Getting back to the NY Times' and Pepin's suggestions for steaming, one of the greatest dishes in Chinese cuisine is steamed sliced chicken breast with thin slices of Hunan ham. My mother introduced me to this dish (she took classes from one of the leading Chinese restaurateurs in San Francisco) and it still ranks with DH and me as one of the three finest poultry dishes we've had in our 45 yrs of dining. A glaze should always be light. Heavy-handedness is the mark of a bad cook. Peking Duck would not be the same without the glaze applied, for example.

Happy Thanksgiving to you too Geri. I was going to try to stay away from my computer today, but my husband and both my kids are staring at theirs so what the heck. I'm hoping my turkey will turn out ok! Jen

I live in an urban area so we don't see many deer. But I also sometimes drive between LA and Vancouver where there are lots of woods. I try very hard not to be on the road at dusk or around daybreak and if I have to, I want someone in the car with me spotting the sides of the road while I look straight ahead. Even so, I've had to do it alone at night. It's the most stressful kind of driving I can think of. But maybe when you've survived a collision or two it gets easier. I suspect I'd be completely traumatized even if the car and the deer survived! Glad your sister walked away from it!