what's cooking?

On the day this column gets posted, it will be Halloween. And then it’s November!

Where did this year go? What amazes me the most is that in less than 3 weeks, I will celebrate yet another birthday. I don’t really mind getting older, with each year something new happens and I enjoy finding out what exacting is coming next.

Since January I’ve seen some pretty major life-changing events happen. A second grandchild arrived, my son-in-law became a juvenile corrections officer, grandson #1 not only started walking, but talking-in full sentences, my husband got a promotion, so did my son, our son became engaged, I started working as a paid freelance writer, I became a moderator for a magazine, lost my day job and began a very cheerleader type campaign to work full time as a writer.

So now the holidays are coming up. Right after I turn 51, Thanksgiving will be upon us.

Since we now have even more in-laws, our annual Thanksgiving dinner will be somewhere between 25-35 people.

That’s a whole lot of mashed potatoes I’ll be making this year. If only I had known that my recipe would become such an integral part of all family celebrations-I probably would have thought twice about how badly my kids needed to eat more than potatoes as a vegetable and created a much less labor intensive dish.

Anyone who’d like to serve this dish, which has been in even Family Circle magazine, the OC Register, on Woman’s Day website and is a favorite on BetterRecipes.com, I will put the recipe into a column before the big day. It really isn’t that hard or time consuming, but when you have to triple and quadruple the amounts-well, that is an awful lot of spuds to peel and mash!

Speaking of food-a cyber friend and I were talking about the upcoming potluck season and she had mentioned she was trying to find something to put a dish into that wouldn’t be missed if forgotten at the hostess’ home.

I told her about how I’ve remedied this sticky situation and we both agreed this might be a great tip to talk about here.

In our family, we do a lot of potluck events. Group birthday parties for the deluge in April and May, July 4th , Thanksgiving, Hanukah and sometimes Christmas and Passover (my husband and I try to get away during those two times, so while the party goes on, we aren’t part of the festivities), plus little get-togethers at other times.

These little handy tips come to mind. One I particularly love is but I can’t take credit for came from one of the guys I used to work!

First mine-I hit the dollar stores or BigLots and buy disposable foil and plastic containers. I even hunt the clearance aisles at TJMaxx or the markets for all different sizes and shapes and oven capabilities. Depending on the food, I just use these and leave them at host family’s home. Same with serving pieces-sometimes the dollar stores will have nice big serving spoons and forks. I don’t have to make that trip back to wherever we were to pick up something I’m going to be needing.

My former co-worker does something even better-he goes to thrift stores and buys up nice looking platters, cake covers, single dinner size china plates and leaves them with the host as a gift. He has said the only caveat is that you need to really be vigilant about checking out all the used pieces first. The best part, the proceeds go to a worthwhile charity-so by buying them and giving a nice gift, you are also doing something nice for someone who could really use a little kindness.

And since the holidays are coming up-what more could we all ask for given what has been happening across the country?