Given the recent Thanksgiving holiday, it feels right to talk about food and art. It’s probably not surprising to you that I spend a lot of time looking at the presentation of food, whether it’s at home, at restaurants and bakeries, parties, and especially at weddings (I can picture those dessert banquet tables now!).
Nor would you be surprised to learn that I’m one of those people who takes photos of their plates at restaurants, which is just one of many reasons why I have more than 85,000 pictures on my computer.
Over Thanksgiving, I photographed our own Chef Bonnie preparing a feast for the four of us that made my mouth water in anticipation. I felt like I was watching her play the starring role on a new Food Network Show show called Bonnie’s Thanksgiving Feast Challenge.
Instead of competing against others, she competes against herself, each year raising the bar higher and higher. Bonnie, who is a special education teacher by day, spent her “free” time last week planning 23 different recipes, far exceeding the number of recipes from previous years. She researched her recipes online (carefully avoiding mushrooms for Laura’s sake), printed them out, systematically made a grocery list, and did her own grocery shopping after work. (Bonnie was so organized that Jay only had to make one quick trip to the store.) Prep work began Tuesday night while cooking and baking began in earnest on Wednesday, extending through Thursday right up to showtime. 
I was mesmerized watching Bonnie calmly preparing her cornucopia of food, moving confidently from one dish to another. It was when I looked at this beautifully composed, picture-perfect root vegetable tray waiting to go into the oven that I realized I had been watching the other food artist in the family!
Here’s the rest of the team. Sometimes it takes a village just to keep up with all the pots and pans.
Bonnie’s final menu included 2 turkey recipes (she makes a wicked herbed turkey lemon recipe), with homemade cranberry sauce, her infamous popovers (nothing makes Bonnie happier than to see how them really “pop”!), her trademark stuffin’ muffins (gluten and non-gluten versions), and numerous side dishes (I lost count) from root vegetables, sweet potato casserole, spaghetti squash to wild rice with cranberries.
Here we are all dressed up and ready to get stuffed, especially Chef Bonnie, who looks amazingly fresh after all her hard work!
I decided to learn from previous years and pace myself by taking small portions of everything. (I’m getting hungry again just looking at my plate!)
We took a break before attacking the 5 desserts – including three delectable gluten-free selections. Needless to say, Bonnie sampled everything as you can see from her plate. (When people talk about Bonnie and desserts in the same breath, they are talking about the food!)
Thanksgiving is always a special family occasion since Jay, Bonnie, Laura and I are all together. (I’m thinking Tom Selleck and his family around the holiday table on Blue Bloods.) Laura makes the 10 hour trip (if she’s lucky) from Urbana, Illinois where she is working on her Ph.D. The four of us love every minute of eating one delicious dish after the other, each one more flavorful than the next. Even the cleanup is fun (well, most of the time…). Ellen Degeneres, we’re giving you a run for your money with this selfie!
So Bonnie, it’s official – you won! Congratulations on beating all previous Thanksgiving benchmarks – both in quantity and quality – and winning your Thanksgiving Feast Challenge! Maybe next year I’ll take some video to demonstrate your many talents for your show’s online debut… Just a thought. We are grateful to have a food artist in the house besides me – one that actually makes food instead of painting it!
I hope all of you enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as we did!
