Where I cooked my portion of Thanksgiving dinner this year...

We traveled to my parents home for Thanksgiving this year and since we had the longest drive, we did far less cooking this year than years past. I made Ina Garten's Pan Roasted Vegetables and the cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. So you might be wondering what the heck an outdoor grill has to do with Thanksgiving.

Why yes, that is cranberry sauce cooking alfresco...

Well, due to an unfortunate Harry Potter-esque points system (you know, "minus twenty points to Gryffyndor for not washing dishes" and "plus fifty points to Ravenclaw for setting the table" - for realz) devised by a certain sibling who shall not be named, I ended up being squeezed out of the kitchen during that last minute crunch time and I (adaptation is my middle name) cooked my food on my parents' outdoor grill. Thankfully, the weather was unseasonably warm this year and this grill has a gazillion BTUs. And yes, the cranberry sauce was pretty darn good. As were the pan roasted vegetables.

Note to self: staying home for Thanksgiving next year.