Thanksgiving Meal

Last Thanksgiving, my husband and I hosted in our home for my parents, sister, and a gaggle of college students since we were close to where my sister attended college. I had a lot of fun planning the menu of yummy veggies and side dishes and my husband did his part by smoking the turkey in the home-made smoker. Looking back at the pictures, we never got a shot of the whole turkey, but did capture part of the spread.

In the photo, counter-clockwise from top is the Smoked Turkey, Pear-Cranberry Sauce, Salad, Herbed Oatmeal Bread, Braised Carrots, Blue mashed Potatoes, Green Beans with Browned Butter, & Stuffing.

When everyone arrived, our starters included: Baked Brie with mango chutney, Grafton Cheese, and cream cheese with Raspberry pepper jelly all served with crackers. These were quickly devoured.

Our dinner included began with Tunisian Pumpkin Soup from the Moosewood Daily Special Cookbook. It's a favorite recipe of ours. My husband smoked a lovely fresh turkey that turned out wonderful.

Our vegetables were blue mashed potatoes, braised carrots, and green beans with hazelnuts and browned butter (no green bean casserole for me!). I'd planned in advance and bought 5 or more pounds of blue potatoes in October to save for this meal. I wanted to excitement of the colorful potatoes. We also had a salad with pears, craisins and pecans. My husband's family is from the south and turkey is always accompanied by cornbread dressing so I made that for the first time. However, I couldn't let go of stuffing, so I also made a Bacon-Apple stuffing. I also made a favorite from my family, Oatmeal-Herbed Rolls. I couldn't make just plain cranberry sauce, and instead ended up with a Pear-Cranberry Sauce.

For dessert we had homemade pumpkin and apple pies.

I get hungry thinking about it all. This year I don't have to plan the menu, we're going to my parents and my husband's immediate family is joining us too. We said we'd bring the cornbread dressing and the Grafton Cheese. When we get there, I'm sure we'll have a hand in the cooking as well. I can't wait!