Cook Thanksgiving dinner

we’re loading up and traveling to Denver in the morning, G. Ruth will be going to my cousins. I just got back from the store. The menu is pretty traditional this year:

Stuffed Mushrooms
Green Beans w/ fried onions
Mashed Potatoes w/ gravy
Stuffing
Sweet Potatoes
Kabocha Squash
Crescent rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Stuffed Corn Bread
Smoked Ham
Cornish Game Hens
Cheese Cake, Pumpkin, Cherry and Apple Pie

a little differently than expected. Our brothers work on Wednesday night and Friday so they’re not wanting to make the 2 hour drive each way. Our friend Shad has to work on Thanksgiving too. My dad is going to be harvesting all day and no one is going to pick up my Grandma Ruth from the assisted living center where she lives. So I am conflicted. At first when I heard that shad and our brothers weren’t going to make it I was going to pack up half of the kitchen and drive up to Denver to make them dinner. But now since my G. Ruth isn’t going with other family I was thinking that maybe I should just pick her up but my cousin on the other side of the family is having thanksgiving at her house and I know she would be welcome over there and we could still go to Denver. Since I’ve been suffering from indecisiveness lately we probably won’t know what we’re doing until Wednesday night or even Thursday morning.

Early dinner to accommodate my uncle, who will get tired easily.

Today:

• Bring in firewood
• Eliminate rotten food from the fridge
• Shop

Thursday Morning:

• Tidy living room, front hall, dining room, and kitchen
• Complete initial sweep and wipe down of surfaces
• Deslime the front walk
• Make barley dressing
• Prep turkey
• Enlist girls to clean their bathroom, and the family room
• Tidy living room
• Set up living room for entertaining guests
• Prep roasted garden potatoes and sweet potatoes

2:00 set table, set aside dessert dishes for later use
2:30 set up coffee maker; make sure table has butter, salt and pepper
3:00 Turkey into the oven
3:45 Roasted potatoes in the oven, then shower
4:00 light candles in the living room, make the fire in the living room
4:30 Guests arrive; open red wine immediately upon arrival for breathing
5:00 Pull turkey out of the oven, tent, make mushrooms, make gravy, put barley dressing into the oven to heat up, along with any other dish brought in to heat up
5:20 turkey is carved
5:30 dinner is served

I will try this new recipe:

1 turkey, cut up
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp each of sage, rosemary, thyme
2 tsp salt
2 cups white wine divided
2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 celery stalk coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup sherry
3 tbsp cherry or raspberry or red current jelly

Have the butcher cut the turkey into 7 pieces: one whole breast (boned), thighs (boned), wings, legs.

Preheat oven to 400. In a bowl, coat turkey with oil and salt. Pour 1 cup wine into roasting pan. Add legs and wings. Roast 15 minutes, skin side down.

Turn over legs and wings, add thighs and breast to pan, skin side up. Add carrots, celery, and garlic. Pour in remaining wine. Add 1 and 1/2 tsps of the herb mixture. Roast 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until juices run clear.

Transfer meat to cutting board, tent with foil, strain pain juices into a sauce pan. Degrease.

Puree roasted carrot, celery, and garlic in a food processor. Put the pureed vegetables into the sauce pan with degreased juices. Add marsala, jelly, and remaining herbs. Boil for three minutes.

Carve thighs and breast meat into slices and arrange on a heated plate.

It’s so nice to look at previous year’s entries, and not have to write up a new plan for this year. I can just use last year’s. One difference – I plan to start the whole thing a half an hour earlier, so I need to move up the schedule.

Im still looking for a easy recipe I can cook without getting burned!

it’s my favorite holiday. We usually have our brothers and a couple of friends over. I cook a ridiculously large meal and we drink the newest micro-brews offerings and we watch movies, listen to music and play games and some years we even watch football.

I have already started planning the meal. I think we’re going to have Cornish game hens and pheasant. I already asked Fox and Shad they both said they’d be here :)I am So excited only 25 days until Thanksgiving!

I cooked a turkey breast in our crock pot, and we made the sides mainly from mixes, but everything came out great and we were so happy. :)

I did burn myself twice though!

I have the entry from two years ago about what I need to do, isn’t that so cool? I don’t have to think so hard about what needs to be on the list.

Here it is for this year:

Sunday (today):

• Clean out the fridge of anything unnecessary or old.
• Create shopping list.
• Shop – I won’t have time during the rest of the week
• Review state of housekeeping: front hall, kitchen, living room, dining room, guest bathroom
• Tidy these three public areas; sweep front walk.
• Bring in firewood
• Locate heirloom tablecloths, starch and press

• Set up living room for entertaining guests
• Do initial sweep and wipe down of surfaces
• Make: barley dressing

12:45 pre-heat oven, prep turkey
1:00 turkey in the oven
2:00 baste turkey, set table, set aside dessert dishes for later use
2:30 baste turkey, set up coffee maker; make sure table has butter, salt and pepper
3:00 baste turkey, prep mushrooms and set aside
3:30 baste turkey, prepare hors d’oeuvres and cover
4:00 baste turkey, prepare salad and refrigerate, make fire in fireplace, shower
4:30 baste turkey, light candles in living room
4:45 open red wine for breathing
5:00 guests arrive, serve hors d’oeuvres and white wine
5:30 turkey comes out of oven, make mushrooms, make gravy
5:50 turkey is carved
6:00 dinner is served!

and spending it with the family is always nice