I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.

I was invited to a coworker's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice of her to invite me and it was a fun group of people to spend the afternoon with.

It was really funny to compare the dinner with my family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner. My mom spends two days cooking. Wednesday she starts with pies. Always 2 apple pies, 2 pumpkin pies, and 2 lemon meringue pies. Then probably some hors d'ouvres and anything else that can be done the day ahead, like rolls. On Thanksgiving a 25 lb turkey goes into the oven.

My family starts eating as soon as we get up. We believe in pie for breakfast, so we might start with some pie for breakfast. But then the hors d'ouvres come out. There is always a cheese ball with crackers, usually hummus, cheese, and some veggies, chips and salsa or guacamole, sometimes there is fruit. All morning long we walk back and forth past the kitchen table and eat and eat.

Then it is time for the actual dinner. Turkey, of course, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, stuffing, salad, raspberry jell-o salad. And now my oldest sister also contributes side dishes to the meal, usually veggies or salad. It is an enormous amount of food and a huge variety.

At my coworker's house, four single people gathered and we just brought a few things. My coworker cooked a 14 lb turkey, and had a can of gravy and a can of cranberry sauce. Her friend brought mashed potatoes, apple pie, and cornbread. I brought green beans, brussell sprouts, and pumpkin pie (gluten free). And the other friend brought rolls.

The funniest part to me was that after passing the food around one time they all sat back and said "Oh, I am so full!" And I thought, wait, we're supposed to pass the food around a couple more times.

I did make a gluten free pumpkin pie which I took. It was pretty easy to make, except that it was impossible to roll out. Because it wasn't done with regular flour it just wouldn't roll and just mushed and broke. So I wound up just pressing it into the pan. It got rave reviews. I was so proud of myself because everyone really enjoyed it.