The Menu

This will be my second year  cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I am much better prepared this go around and am so looking forward to entertaining thirteen people. Being a child that grew up completely averse to cooking anything it still amazes me that this is something I enjoy doing.

On the menu:

Breakfast
Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls

Pre-dinner snacks
Smitten Kitchen Sweet Potato Coins (sans pecans for my Pops and Sir Luke)
Our classic family Stuffed Mushrooms

Dinner at three
Martha's Winter Squash and Apple Soup
Pioneer Woman's Creamy Mashed Potatoes (with a heart attack on the side)
BBQ U's Maple Red Eye Gravy
Martha's Gingerbread
Classic family Sweet Potatoes
Martha's Roasted Maple Pumpkin Salad (with bib lettuce instead of arugula for Sir Luke)
Pioneer Woman's Cornbread Dressing
America's Test Kitchen's Green Beans Almondine
Melissa Boswell's Tasty Rolls (I don't even have to make them!)

For the Turkey
Pioneer Woman's Brine
BBQ U's Rub
Smoked with Hickory for twelve hours

Dessert
Stay family classic Pumpkin Chiffon
Costco's Pecan Pie
Betty Crocker's Lemon Meringue Pie

So looking forward to so much family coming to town! You'll get the low-down on the hits and misses post Thanksgiving. We've got a picky bunch getting together...so it could get interesting.

Thanksgiving

This year there have been a lot of crazy things that have happened in our lives. But one of the biggest and most exciting has been the purchase of our first home. We LOVE it!

I decided I wanted to host Thanksgiving here to inaugurate the house with the biggest cooking day of the year. I invited pretty much everyone we could but in the end the only people that came were my parents. In hindsight it may have been better considering I have never cooked a Thanksgiving meal from start to finish. I got super overwhelmed a couple times but thanks to my mom I made it through.

My mom also made an AMAZING quilt/tablecloth that's reversible. I can celebrate Fall/Thanksgiving on one side and Christmas on the other. It's gorgeous and I love it.

 

I loved using our good dishes we got for our wedding along with the sleek silverware. At first I regretted my choice but seeing them with this tablecloth. Perfection!

I'm not going to lie. The food was REALLY good. All thanks to America's Test Kitchen and Martha Stewart. Without further adieu I give you, the goods.

We started with a butternut squash and apple soup and pumpkin maple salad while the turkey was finishing in the smoker.

 

I had made a ginger bread early in the day which served as another quasi appetizer. The recipe called for a half cup of minced ginger which was a little bit of a pain to get together, but it turned out delicious. The cranberry/pear sauce was unbelievable. I ate it on toast for breakfast the next day. I'll be making that again at Christmas, although I recommend cutting up the pears into smaller pieces than the recipe calls for.