Thanksgiving is what you would call a strictly North American holiday. Now, before we get into any philosophical debates about the origins of the upcoming version here in the United States, let me just say this. Yes. Yes. I agree. No. Yes. There, that should take care of that.

Moving on, I want to talk about food. More specifically, I want to talk about which women I would love to have in my kitchen helping to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends. I chose to limit myself to real-life chefs, rather than including some of my favorite fictional ones. I have no reason for that, really, except that I can only think of two fictional chefs I'd really love to have over to cook dinner. One isn't even a woman. He's a Swedish Muppet. The other once wooed my favorite fictional tennis player.

I love to cook. At times, I even consider myself to be rather good at it. My better half seems to enjoy the experiments I put on the table in front of her, or at least that's what she tells me. I tend to use recipes as "suggestions" rather than mandates. Such a cooking style has resulted in several happy accidents, as well as a few disasters. But the process is always fun. So, now that my status as a wannabe Iron Chef has been revealed, here are the real ladies I'd love to have slaving over my hot stove. … continue reading