"I'll bet the Canadians are plotzing that...

[Jenise]

...that they can't order this direct," said my friend Chris, totally tongue in cheek of course, when she sent me the link to this amazing solution to your holiday vegetable side dish worries: designer 'green bean casserole' from your friends at Neiman-Marcus.

No joke.

And it's only $70!

http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod36640139&cmCat=search&searchType=MAIN&parentId

Bill, you can have yours shipped to my house. David and Nadine, yours too!

Yes, that's Needless Markup at its best.

[Jenise]

Yes, that's Needless Markup at its best.

Come on, made-from-scratch mushroom sauce? Surely that's worth the extra 50 quid.

What a waste of money...

What does surprise me is that local markets, deli types are selling complete turkey dinners for under $50.00. I can't even buy the groceries for my turkey dinner for that price.

Ha!! We're just so jealous.

Actually, neither the green bean casserole or the sweet potato with marshmallow thing have ever really caught on here.

We were served the sweet potato casserole once at a Thanksgiving dinner and it was regarded with polite curiosity, but not much enthusiasm.

Sweet potato casserole is an abomination and a crime against the delicious sweet potato.

Hear, hear. We love sweet potatoes; we hate sweet potatoes with marshmallows. How in the hell did that ever get invented?

But I wonder if there's a quantity discount for the green bean casserole.

I received my N-M Christmas book last week and there was a 36 page Holiday Entertaining insert with all of these food items. What is strange to me is that they have a link at the bottom of this casserole page to ham for $68, less than the green beans (which do serve 10-12 people). There's also 24 1 oz. lobster or crab cakes for $72 and a mashed potato casserole for $65. I wonder how much of this stuff actually is ordered?

[Jenise]

There's also 24 1 oz. lobster or crab cakes for $72 and a mashed potato casserole for $65. I wonder how much of this stuff actually is ordered?

Apparently, quite a few, or they wouldn't offer the food, right? Say, maybe this year we should order the Neiman-Marcus food and then get a $50 drive-by holiday dinner-in-a-bag from Haggens that we don't even have to thaw out and compare the two. Since you have the catalog, I'll let you pick up the N-M stuff.

No need for catalogs!

NM Online

You don't need to leave the house & I'll just swing by Haggen on the way home.

[Jenise]

No need for catalogs!

NM Online

You don't need to leave the house & I'll just swing by Haggen on the way home.

You're a witch. Btw, put it on your calendar: next lunch is December 4th, post dentistry. Choose any restaurant you want as long as they have soft food.