Rachael Ray made the best of her Thanksgiving after a difficult year.
Ray took to Instagram Stories to share a photo of her "Covid safe Thanksgiving dinners," which could be seen packed up in plastic containers. "Wiped down and ready to go," the television host wrote.
All the Thanksgiving standards — including gravy, cranberry sauce, and veggies — looked to be part of the meal. And among those who enjoyed the food was Ray's dog Bella, who Ray wrote was "grateful for carrots."
"Bella continues to be grateful for carrots, but I need to cut them larger so she can hang on w her giant hooves – I mean paws
#thanksgiving," Ray captioned an image of her pooch curled up on a dog bed alongside a partially-chewed carrot.
The day before the holiday, Ray shared a series of photos of her pre-Thanksgiving meal on Instagram, which included twice-baked butternut squash with yogurt, a vegetable medley and what she called "devils slashed chicken:" bone-in chicken marinated in mustard, Worcestershire, hot sauce, and garlic and topped w chopped celery leaves, parsley, and scallions.
The cook and daytime host lost her Lake Luzerne, N.Y. home after a devastating fire broke out on Aug. 9. Ray and her husband, John Cusimano, have been living in their guest house, which is on the same property but was not damaged in the fire.
She describes the guest house as a miniature replica of her now-destroyed home. "Although we lost our home, this is strangely homey because it is literally a small version of our house," Ray said on her show. "Basically, I designed the house so you can see everything that's going on in the house from the kitchen."
She shared a photo of her Thanksgiving tablescape — complete with an oversized horse head sculpture, pine cones, and a variety of potted plants — earlier this week. In a caption, she wrote that the holiday would take place "on the back porch."
Ray, a lover of all holiday decorations, recently looked back on this year's challenges in the Rachael Ray In Season holiday issue.
“This year has been strange for us all,” Ray wrote. “But 2020 has also made me more mindful than ever of just how lucky I am.”
“I won’t be able to put up my nine Christmas trees this year. I won’t have the woodland creatures one, with ornaments I’d collected over decades, or the felt tree that children loved, with elves climbing its branches and a bright crocheted tree skirt," she continued. “I can’t say I’m not happy that 2020 is coming to an end. Maybe you feel a bit that way, too? What I can say is that I’m happy I’m here and that you are, too, and that 2021, I truly believe, could be our collective best year ever.”
Immediately following the fire in August, Ray thanked her fans on Twitter for their well wishes, and showed gratitude to the firefighters who helped extinguish the flames.
"Thank you to our local first responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home," she wrote at the time. "Grateful that my mom, my husband, my dog… we’re all okay."
She added: "These are the days we all have to be grateful for what we have, not what we’ve lost."
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