A Thanksgiving Feast

I was fortunate to enjoy an epic Thanksgiving feast yesterday at my mother's home! Honestly, I think it was the tastiest meal I can recall having in a very long time, if ever! She handled most of the heavy lifting including the turkey (a 22 pounder stuffed with a bouquet of fresh herbs and citrus and hand massaged with softened butter ), her traditional stuffing, some fabulous mashed sweet potatoes from a recipe she found in one of her favorite Kennedy family cookbooks, our pot of Baltimore pork and sauerkraut and a new fabulous addition, bourbon cranberry sauce. My brother contributed the slow simmered southern green beans with bacon (my favorite) and I brought along this years dressing recipe of choice, chorizo corn bread, buttermilk mashed potatoes and a hot spinach dip hors d'oeuvre.

Thaw frozen spinach and sqeeze out all excess water, set aside. In a sauce pan, saute onions, red pepper flake and garlic in a little olive oil. Add spinach and stir to combine. Place spinach mixture in a strainer to drain excess liquid. In same pan heat milk and melt in cream cheese. Add spinach back to the pan, turn off heat and add half of grated Gruyere, Worcestershire and salt and pepper. Stir well to combine and place in a small baking dish. Cover with remaining Gruyere cheese and sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes until hot and bubbly.