The morning after

Sort of how I felt the morning after all that eating.

But it sure was good.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving; spent with family and friends.

Love,
M

Ubiquitous post about Thanksgiving meal prep

I thought I'd bore give you an enlightening post about my T-Day plans. Of which I have already started the prep for. Aren't I all proactive?

Things that have been chopped,

1. onions
2. peppers
3. green onions
4. garlic
5. olives (black and green)
6. bread (this is more cubed but who's quibbling)
7. celery
8. carrots

Things that are sort of done,

1. compound butter (I could live on this stuff)
2. herb cream cheese
3. cubed bread has been toasted

Things that will be done today,

1. Turkey drowning (soaking in brine)
2. dressing will be assembled
3. mushrooms will be prepped for stuffing with herb cream cheese listed above.
4. sweet potatoes will be cooked
5. eggs will be boiled
6. fresh sage picked and washed for gravy and dressing, some reserved for frying. 
7. all the rest of the veggies will be prepped.
8. lots of sauteing

Things we will be eating tomorrow,

Appetizers: 

• herb cream cheese stuffed mushrooms
• Greek style Deviled eggs
• roasted red pepper soup sniffers

Drinks:

• Blood orange sodatini (stopping at the liquor store on the way home for vanilla vodka per Be's suggestion. Not exactly sure how much I'll get done after that. There could possibly be some experimentation going on.) 
• wine

Dinner:

• Turkey (yes, I do a turkey for the family. Me? I've got my heart set on an amazing amount of carbs and Deviled eggs)
• cheesy garlic mashed potatoes with sage gravy
• spicy faux sausage dressing
• sweet potatoes (I'm thinking Jan's vanilla ones)
• green beans (not sure how fancy I'll get with these)
• asparagus (not sure how fancy I'll get with these either)

 Dessert:
Since we are not big dessert eaters I'm foregoing the pie and going with a fruit, nuts, cheese and dark chocolate plate. And, more wine.


Dr. Boy has to work at 4pm (health care workers rarely get time off for holidays) so we will be eating early. Say around 2pm. I plan for suspect that the carb coma and alcohol haze will set in around 4pm and last most of the evening hours.

There's the rundown. I think I've got all the basics covered. There are only 4 adults at our house this year hence the small menu and quantities of each menu item. We should enough for the best part of any huge meal...leftovers!

You all have a great holiday.
Love,
M

PS: for those wondering, everything is vegetarian with the exception of the turkey, of course. This blended family thing will promptly come to an end when Dr. Boy goes off to med school in the fall. JR will have to get his meat at restaurants from then on.

Happy Thanksgiving

May your bird be golden

May your dressing be moist

and your day be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving 

 Everyone!

Love,

M

Thanksgiving menu - holy crap I need a menu?

Jan posted her Thanksgiving menu on Friday and I have to say that I admire the hell out of her. She kept with a few of her traditional dishes for her children, reworked a few to fit her new lifestyle and add some new things that fit her perfectly. It was inspirational. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. I mean that in a "Damn! I've got to get myself together" kind of way because she works full time, has a teenager at home, and is creative and everything, so I should be much more together than I am. Then I look at the almost finished painting on my easel and think; "I'll get to food tomorrow".

About Thanksgiving......

I've got nothing. 

Zip. 

Zero. 

Nada.

I have tons ingredients and I know my family's preference so you would think that this would be a no brainer. I've been in charge of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the last 27 years. One year I hosted 57 people for gawds sakes. I should be able to do this with my eyes closed. Yay, uh, not going to happen but here's what I've got so far.

Candace likes green bean casserole.You know the kind. With cream of mushroom soup and those fried onion things. I would have said precised name  but I've never bought them in my entire life so I don't know if they come in a can, box, or jar. Anyway, I'm going to pull this one out old school. I have all the makings for mushroom soup. I have fresh green beans, and I have onions. I'm sure I'll be fine on this one.

JR just wants turkey. You would think that I never make meat. I do, just very rarely but I'm not totally adverse. So JR is getting turkey. A whole one. With legs, and wings, and all that icky stuff in the middle. I bought the turkey on Saturday; all 8.63 pounds of it. Hey, don't laugh. There are only three people eating it. I paid all of .50 cents for it. Not .50 cents a pound. .50 cents for all 8.63 pounds. I think there was a mistake. Anyway, I'll brine this baby overnight on Wednesday, stuff a mixture of olives and herbs de Provence between the meat and the skin, and roast it on a bed of onions, celery, carrots and broth. I've done this before and the guys liked it so I'll do a repeat performance.

The Boy likes himself some deviled eggs. Since, I can do eggs a thousand different ways this will be the easiest of the dishes. The hardest part will be making the mustard. I may even make the mayonnaise.

I'm a mashed potato kind of gal so these will be done with roasted garlic and herbed chevre cheese. I may as well spread them on my thighs now and get it over with.

We'll have mixed bread dressing. What I mean by this is that I've been saving bits of bread from various types of bread for the last couple of months in the freezer for just this occasion. I'll get them out a couple of days before to toast. I'll mix this up with some veggie chorizo, onion, celery, carrots, peppers, seasonings, butter, and an embarrassing amount of white wine. 

You can't have mashed potatoes, no matter how good, without gravy. I could go with simple sage gravy but really how fancy is that? No, I think I'll pull out all the stops. I plan (right, like I plan, HA!) to make a mushroom bourbon gravy.  I've made this before and it is a meal in itself.

I've got some rolls in the freezer that I'll bake with rosemary butter because JR is a meat, potato, and bread kind of guy. I blame his Irish heritage. Vince, feel free to call me on this one but his granddaddy came over from Ireland in the late 1800s and wouldn't sit down to dinner without bread.

I have some mixed nuts that I spiced the other day and froze that will make a wonderful pie. Think sort of pecan style. I'm not a big pie crust maker but will pull out my favorite pin just for the occasion.

There will be some other types of veggies and I may smoke some tofu for myself.

I think that is enough carnage for one day. I'll tell you all what worked and what didn't. I'd try all this ahead of time but I'm starting a new painting tomorrow that I'm really excited about and can't be bothered with food. 

Did I just type that I can't be bothered with food? 

What was I thinking? 

I must be pretty excited about this new painting. I even bought 2 new small round sable brushes. I'd show you the progress but it is a Christmas gift so progress pictures will be sent to the person who consigned it only. That sounds so professional. After Christmas, I'll post pictures, if it is okay with the owner. After Thanksgiving I'll post recipes.

Love,

M