Great Thanksgiving appetizer: Smoked salmon

We're headed to the Bay Area to enjoy Thanksgiving in a vacation rental with my mom and daughter Caryn. No cooking planned while on this vacation-- we're having Andronico's gourmet grocery cater our holiday supper. Quite a departure, but I'm feeling lazy so am very much looking forward to it.

Thought I'd offer up one holiday tip before we go, for others who may not be cooking but want to take along something easy and pretty to share with your hosts at Thanksgiving dinner. Went to a party last night and took a tray of smoked salmon (only $9.99 at Sam's Club for a 16-ounce package of "Premium Nova" variety.) I spread salmon slices on a bed of parsley, sprinkled on some fresh dill, capers, lemon juice, then served with crackers and cream cheese. Elegant and economical.

Blog tag, I'm it

At the invitation of my friend, Lori, I'll play along with a blog tag game making the rounds. There is actually mention of something related to cooking in the random facts about myself here.

Here are the rules of the game:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write 6 random things about yourself.
Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are six random facts about me:

1) I feel like everyone I know already knows everything about me.

2) I love every kind of food except beets and cream of mushroom soup. I will never use cream of mushroom soup in any recipe.

3) My brain is not wired to fathom the rules to pinochle. And when we visit any of my husband's relatives, they all want to sit down to pinochle as soon as we get our coats off.

4) My most commonly recurring dream is that it is the end of the semester and I have to take a math exam in a class I forgot to ever attend.

5) When I was a teenager, I drove a 1963 Triumph Spitfire. My father had bought it when he was a young father of four, to ensure that my mother with the station wagon would have to shoulder all family transportation responsibilities. My brother totaled the Triumph before we got out of high school.

6) At a party in D.C. some years back, Art Buchwald intimated to me that he couldn't stand Sally Quinn. I had found a kindred spirit.

I tag:

Dave
Maria
Lori B.
Richard
Katie