Hi, guys.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is only three days away. I don’t know how the heck that happened. I had a dream last night that the ocean was in our backyard, and that I was standing at the window, looking out at it. Above the water, the sky was overcast, thick with clouds. As I stood there watching, all of a sudden, one of the clouds shook loose and fell, just like that, dropping fast and heavy, straight out of the sky. It landed in the water with a huge, gorgeous splash, like Paul Bunyan doing a cannonball in the neighborhood swimming pool, like some exotic flower breaking into bloom. This year, Thanksgiving feels a little like that, I think. Like it fell out of the sky. It’s sudden, huge, gorgeous.

Tomorrow we fly to Oklahoma, and I can’t wait. I had wanted to give you a new recipe today, something fitting to the occasion, but here we are, and uh, I don’t have one. I do, however, have a manuscript that’s really coming along, and it has lots of recipes, and in only three weeks, it will be done. I hope that counts for something. To me, it feels like everything.

So I hope you’ll understand if I’m a little quieter than usual right now. You don’t need me, anyway. You’ve got lots of cooking and baking and eating to do. There are birds to be roasted and dishes to be filled. So hop to it.

But in case you need any last-minute nudges, any ideas in these last 72 hours, I’ve dredged up a few. What follows is a list of some of my cool-weather favorites. Any of them would be right at home on a holiday table, and some, come Thursday, will most certainly be on mine.

Breads
Sweet potato biscuits
Touch-of-Grace biscuits

Miscellaneous
Cheddar crisps
Cranberry chutney with crystallized ginger and dried cherries

Soups
Apple and butternut squash soup
Butternut squash soup with pear, cider, and vanilla bean
Puree of celery root soup

Sweets
Ginger-pear upside-down cake
Roasted pears
Tarte Tatin

Vegetables
Braised fennel
Braised green cabbage with onions and carrots
Braised red cabbage with apples and caraway seeds
Butternut puree with maple syrup
Cream-braised Brussels sprouts
Hashed Brussels sprouts with poppy seeds and lemon
Radicchio and radish salad with pear and parmesan
Vinegar-roasted shallots

Vegetarian main dishes
Braised winter greens with chickpeas, onion, and garlic
Dreamy white beans
Warm butternut and chickpea salad with tahini

Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you, and you, and you, for everything.