Heeeelllllp!!!!

This is my first holiday post op. My family is from New Orleans so we start cooking the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

My daughter lives in Peoria, IL in the area hit by last week's tornado. The family is traveling to her to support her, her fiance and their 1 year old daughter. They were not hurt physically and did not suffer any damage to their home but the work at the local news station and have been under a lot of emotional stress.

I am nervous because all my life the only way my family has celebrated the good times, and shown strength thru the bad times is by eating. My family actually is insulted when one does not partake with large bowls of gumbo and plates of turducken, etc. etc. I have stopped testing the food as i cook it but what do I do when it is time to sit down and pass the plate?

it was hard but this is what I ate: the tur part of turducken, honey baked ham, sweet potatoes, homemade mac n cheese, green beans, gumbo and some of nephew Darren's peach crack [i mean cobbler].

Actually, I think I manged to get one bite of each item for Thanksgiving dinner and the other bite for Black Friday lunch.