For a man who has very little actual family in the area, I am thankful that I feel like I am part of four families: my immediate family, my extended family, my work family, and the family of friends that I have met while doing the Cuisine section.

Moving to the Oregon Coast is easily the second best decision I have ever made. The best decision was 17 years ago, asking my wife to marry me.

We were both working at a racetrack in Orange County at the time. After six months of dating, I had the woman who ran the electronic message board in the infield put up the message “Autumn, will you marry me Ron.”

She wouldn’t tell me the answer, she wrote it down on a slip of paper and gave it to the  woman running the message board. I — and several thousand people in attendance that night — had to wait an entire race before finding out the answer.

“Oakey, dokey!”

I’m still thankful every day.

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A couple weeks ago, I sent out e-mails to many of the people who have corresponded with me via e-mail during the last year and a half of doing the Cuisine section. The idea was to have a community Thanksgiving and I was inviting people from all walks of life to contribute to this section.

Among those that have contributed are friends, family members,  journalists, business owners, fishermen, retirees and some of the best chefs this area has to offer.

I would like to thank them all from the bottom of my heart for their family recipes. I know people are busy, especially around the holidays, and for them to take the time to help out is very much appreciated.

Coos Bay resident Keith Stewart has been a regular with Cuisine since its inception. He shared one of his crab recipes with us and he and his wife, Caroline, invited us into their home for a cover photo in one of our first localized editions in early 2006. Last week, he e-mailed me the recipe for his Smoked Salmon Dip appetizer (Page C5), and then 45 minutes later showed up in The World’s lobby with a sample of the dip and some Ritz crackers.

This was way beyond what he needed to do, but that’s one of the things I love about this area.

Thank you, my friend. And the dip was wonderful.

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I hope that you enjoy all our guests’ “family” recipes as much as I have had collecting them. I can already see a few of them ending up on our table for Thanksgiving. You could literally put together an entire holiday menu from these offerings.

And thank you for reading Cuisine. I appreciate all the feedback and support that you have given me. I hope that in the future we can feature even more of your recipes. I’m already cooking up the idea for the Christmas edition.

If you want to be part of that, e-mail me a recipe with your name, city of residence and a phone number in case I have any questions. The e-mail address is new: food@theworldlink.com, or you can still get me at the old standby: rjackimowicz@theworldlinik.com.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

This year I may eat dessert first, I never seem to have room if I wait until the end of dinner.