Every year some friends and I cook a Thanksgiving dinner and meed up. Everyone brings something, generally home made. This year there were only 4 of us, since one of our peeps abandoned us for California, and another got himself married. So it was Alice, Patria, Michelle, and I. Of course we overcooked. Alice made the best turkey I ever had. Shr brined it for several hours before baking. OMG, awesome. Also, Cornbread stuffing (YES!) and crack... I mean deep chocolate truffles. Michelle brought over an entire fest, the best part being these made goat cheese tarts in phylo dough.... HOLY SHIT these were fucking amazing. Also chilled asparagus, and green beans in a creamy mushroom sauce topped with fried onions. All with massive amounts of garlic. Patria made salad and bought a cake from the dude that made Oprah's birthday cake. Although I didn't find the keys to a new car under my chair, it was rich and decadent and just fantastic. I brought a porterhouse, which I grilled right before serving. We ate and ate until we were totally full, then went for seconds. Michelle brought her DVD of Home for the Holidays, which was a movie I was diggin' until the turkey nap kicked in. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Scuzzi's homemade truffles, dusted with bitter cocoa 1/3 cup and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream 1/2 tablespoon of unsalted butter 2 cups of milk chocolate chips 1/3 cup of powdered cocoa bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan. add butter and stir til melted. add chocolate chips and stir til smooth and melted. remove from heat and pour into a shallow bowl. cool, cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours. roll into 1" balls, coat with cocoa powder. makes about 30 truffles.

This picture shows the train roundin' the bend. On top of the cars are refrigerated AC units. In June the low elevation was hot and the high elevation was cool, but with a light jacket inside the train was comfortable. Also the stair wells on either side and both ends of each passenger car are covered by a platform and a half door is closed. This allows for great pictures of the sceenary and if you are careful you can lean out of the car a little, just watch out for the brush and tunnels / bridges. Hold on, the train rocks from side to side and lurches back and forth some, so pictures are problematic. Also the forground brush really causes a problem when you want a picture of the background seen -- the forground seems to move a lot faster and will get in the way if your digital camera takes a second to "click" the picture.