Diabetes and Thanksgiving and a Recipe!!

In the United States, November is American Diabetes Month aka National Diabetes Month or National Diabetes Awareness Month. November is also when we celebrate Thanksgiving in the U.S. Kind of incongruous, to focus on diabetes in a month when many of us throw caution to the wind for a one-day binge of excess eating. Or more than one day, in my case, because the leftovers are so damn good. The only thing better than stuffing with gravy on Thanksgiving Day is stuffing with gravy on the day after Thanksgiving. Yummmmmmm.

I have been diabetic for over 30 years. It's just part of who I am, so much so that I hardly think about it sometimes. It just is. I watch my carb intake, but not super-closely. I try to eat right most of the time, with occasional splurges on pie or cheesecake. My A1Cs have never, ever exceeded 7.0, so my doctor feels I am doing a good job. My insulin needs have increased, however, even though my weight and carb intake have been fairly steady. My doctor thinks I am experiencing insulin resistance, which is generally associated with Type II diabetes (which runs in my family also). Apparently, you can have kind of a hybrid diabetes. I mean, a Type I is always a Type I, short of islet transplantation so that one's own body will produce insulin itself. But you can have Type II insulin resistance on top of that, where your body resists the effects of insulin, natural or synthetic. Interesting. Of course the way to fight that is losing weight, watching my diet, and exercising more. Yippee!

Our Thanksgiving will be pretty traditional. While the turkey cooks, we'll nibble on cheese and fruit, including pickled watermelon rind - a family tradition. We usually have a baked round of brie and an assortment of hard cheeses. There will also be crudite - carrots, celery, green onions. The main meal will consist of a whole turkey, sage stuffing cooked in the bird and sage stuffing cooked outside the bird, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy using pan drippings and stock made from cooking the giblets (but we don't actually eat the giblets), shoepeg corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, crescent rolls and yeast rolls served with cranberry butter, cranberry relish, and whatever else Mom makes or my sister and I show up with. Dessert is pie, of course, pumpkin, lemon meringue, and a pie to be named later (often rhubarb, pumpkin/pecan, or mincemeat). I make all the pies. Homemade crust, homemade filling. Everything we have is homemade. No store-bought gravy or Stove-Top stuffing, no canned cranberry sauce, nada. Well, the crescent rolls are Pillsbury - we cheat there. But the hot yeast rolls are homemade.

The wine choice is always complicated for Thanksgiving. So many people think a white should be served because the main dish is poultry. But because of the intense savory flavors of the day, a red is really more appropriate. I like a Shiraz/Syrah, myself. My mother is inclined to serve a Pinot Noir. We'll see. And we always serve a white for the Philistines too, usually an inoffensive Chardonnay. And we always have sparkling white grape juice for the kids. They like that.

Bunny's Cranberry Butter

3/4 cup fresh cranberries, rinsed and dried
6 T powdered sugar
1T freshly grated orange or lemon peel
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)

Process cranberries, powdered sugar and citrus peel in food processor until coarsely chopped. Cut butter into smaller pieces and place in food processor. Process until combined.

Serve with hot rolls or . . .

Place 1 tsp cranberry butter in center of an unrolled, unbaked Pillsbury crescent roll (the kind that comes in a tube). Roll as usual. Repeat until entire canister of crescent rolls is rolled. Bake as per package directions. YUM!! These are good cold too.

What are y'all having?