I went grocery shopping today. For regular everyday needs? No. In preparation for the evenings dinner? No. For Thanksgiving dinner, not just Thanksgiving dinner but my very first to prepare everything myself, have it at my house and take on soul responsibility for the days events. HELP! For one, I am NOT, repeat NOT, a gourmet chef. I barely squeek by with my throw together dinners that my family puts up with. (Bless their forgiving hearts.) Anyhow, I figure with all the ingredients I could possibly need, advanced preparation, and recipes I've printed and read on numerous occasions, I can do this, right? I sure hope so. In fact I have been so focused on the Thanksgiving dinner and how perfect I want it to be, that I have disregarded the meals leading up to that day. My husband was like, uh did you buy any groceries that we could consume other than on Thanksgiving?? What? You're worried about any meal other than the sacred Thanksgiving dinner? My FIRST Thanksgiving dinner? Is he crazy? Clearly he has no idea how important this is. This is a friggin milestones here people! (I think he was just givin me hell because I told him not to touch the bacon, because it was for a recipe) Like I will let that man starve.... plus he acts like the cupboards have nothing but crumbs in them.... geez. So, I was planning on making pumpkin pie from scratch with actual pumpkin (which we have plenty of from Halloween) However, when I thought again, I think it would be better to just skip the pumpkin and go for canned puree. After all, could you imagine how epic a disaster that would be if a pumpkin exploaded in the dang oven because I cooked it wrong or something?? Well, i keep reliving it in my mind, so scratch that. This is no time for first time demonstration here.... Cooking my first turkey will be stressful enough! So, I have all my ingredients lined up according to recipe, with only the fresh produce needed that I will get from the store as Turkey day approaches. Ingredients never before graced my cupboards include: light and dark karo, and cider vinegar. These don't smell good, or look very tasty so I have already decided that I will blame those three for any unfortunate pallet experiences. Wish me luck.... I will need it!