thanksgiving.

Hello. It's Black Friday--truly the blackest day of the year. I loathe it, down to the deepest reaches of my soul. I hate that I actually contribute to it, working in the retail industry, even if my contribution is rather miniscule.

But the phenomenon of Black Friday that has exploded over the past couple of years has meant work, work, work all through this holiday week. I'm bound to my job and can't travel anywhere. No tragedy there, tough, as I find Thanksgiving to be barbaric and ridiculous. Hundreds of millions of turkeys are slaughtered. People settle back on their couches in food comas to watch large men in helmets pummel each other. And they pay exorbitant amounts of money to experience the hell of flying on the worst days of the year.

Combine it all with that horror that is Black Friday--and you can just count me out.

Isabel and Alfred. Alfred Coffee, that is.

But that all doesn't mean I can't kick back, relax, enjoy the day and give thanks in a way that's meaningful to me, so I'd like to show you how I did that this year.

First off, I went a little out of the way to pick up coffee at Alfred on Melrose Place. Gerry and I go there on Sunday after the Farmer's Market. Alfred serves Stumptown and is the perfect place to people watch, dog watch and write the Great American Screenplay.

Next, I finally started 1Q84, which my mom, my brother and I all gave to each other last Christmas. I am 40 pages in, and I am hooked! I hope I stay that way, because I have about 860 pages to go.

Then it was time to make my own little feast. It turned out to be a big one. It was nice to just spend an afternoon in the kitchen and not have to worry about anything else. The menu I decided on was:

Beet and Apple Soup

Wild Rice with Purple Kale and Radicchio

Roasted Cauliflower and Chick Peas with Harissa

Homemade Apple, Cranberry and Ginger Soda

The soda and the wild rice dish were my own recipes. Being from Minnesota, I'm a big fan of wild rice, and I love breaking it out when fall rolls around. The Beet and Apple Soup recipe I found at Epicurious and the Cauliflower and Chick Peas was from the delightful blog, familystyle food. I was excited to try harissa, and discovered that's not the easiest thing to find, especially the day before Thanksgiving. Bristol Farms and Whole Foods were both a no-go, so at the last minute (8 p.m. on Wednesday night), I called Monsieur Marcel in the Farmer's Market.

"Oh, we have it--five different kinds, in fact," Monsieur informed me. So yes, I did get in my car and drive to the Grove just to get my first taste of harissa, thank you very much.

Here are all the finished dishes--they all came out pretty well. Of course, I have beets splattered all over my kitchen, but that's the price you pay when...you cook with beets.

After dinner, we took a hike in the Hills. We made it back just before night fell.

Then we queued up a movie I really wanted to see when it was in the theaters, The Conjuring. You have no idea how excited I get to see a horror movie that's light on gore and big on a story. The Conjuring was just that, and it was both scary and satisfying. I can't remember being so riveted by a horror movie since I watched The Descent.

It featured some of my favorite actors--Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Lili Taylor--who killed it in the exorcism scene. I was surprise to discover this film was directed by James Wan, who wrote Saw, because it was nothing like that. No torture porn in sight, just a good old-fashioned ghost/Salem witch/exorcism story.

And so, filled with vegetables, fresh fall air and Lili Taylor's spinning head, I went to bed very satisfied and thankful for this day.

And this morning I woke to the colossal shitstorm that is Black Friday.

Thanks for reading..see you again soon!