Mystery centerpiece brightens our meal

Image by Flower Factor via Flickr
Instead of pumpkins, our centerpiece has a single candle.

I overcooked the French-cut green beans, but the turkey came out perfect, and we enjoyed our Thanksgiving meal sitting around a beautiful flower centerpiece that was a gift from I know not who.


The centerpiece, which includes a single candle, was delivered while we were out on Tuesday. I left it on the dining room table after our meal Thursday.


My mother-in-law said a man, who she believes is Asian, came to the front door and said the centerpiece was for me, using my last name. I'm at a complete loss.  There was no card or note with it.


My mother-in-law, wife and son enjoyed turkey, ham, sweet potatoes and green beans, plus turkey gravy and a cranberry salsa with honey and fresh, chopped cilantro. 


I prepared a Korean-style soft-tofu stew with shrimp, kimchi and Enoki mushrooms for myself. I had some of the sweet potatoes and beans as a second course, and drank wine and sparkling white-grape juice.


Modifying a recipe from The New York Times, we assembled six layers of skin-on, thinly sliced sweet potato discs and two layers of scattered dried plum and apricot pieces, adding salt and pepper, and brushing the layers with extra-virgin olive oil.


The turkey was finished earlier than expected, so the brown rice I had soaking in a rice cooker wasn't ready in time. We had lots of leftovers, meaning I'll be nagging my family to eat turkey and ham through the weekend.


I'll eat some brown rice topped with a fried duck egg, sunny side up, for breakfast this morning and with leftover tofu stew for dinner tonight.


We didn't light the candle during our Thanksgiving meal. My 14-year-old son, who has a vivid imagination, said he was afraid the centerpiece was booby trapped.


Still, my thanks goes out to the anonymous gift giver. Hope you had a great holiday.