Saturday, November 13, 2010

Weekend Whimsy: Are you ready for your annual dose of tryptophan?

Image via here.

I know I am!! :)  So it's that time of year... time to start planning and prepping for Thanksgiving dinner!  For the last eight years, we have hosted dinner at our house and cooked most every dish.  And we love doing it.  We divide the duties between the two of us and now that we finally have it perfected, I think we are going to skip it this year and let someone else do all the cooking. :) 

My dear husband Brian cooks the bird -- don't ask me how... it involves a bag or foil (both work well), butter under the skin and some combo of fresh herbs.  It's delicious!  And we cook up the following menu:

Cranberry-Orange Chex Mix  (our go-to snack throughout the day)
Parker House Rolls
Cornbread with Honey Butter (take one stick of butter at room temp and stir in 3-4 big spoonfuls of honey to taste!)
Green Bean Casserole (the secret to taking to a new level?  Fresh green beans and we make homemade french fried onions.... so super delicious!)
Candied Yams using real yams of course (and we won't talk about the year I carmelized the marshmallows, added a second batch to the top and then burned them campfire style!)
Cranberry Sauce
Classic Stuffing (I make it as dressing - we've had it with and without the cherries and pecans, both ways are yummy!)
Mashed Garlic Potatoes
Gravy (made from the cooking of the turkey of course!)
Brian's Turkey

So if you aren't stuffed from all that and imbibed from some white wine to chase it with.... we have a long running dessert bar.  For real.  You will be in a food coma on my couch listening to us play yahtzee or scrabble.  Promise. :)  And, fair warning, you are lucky if we come into the dessert portion of the feast with only 4 or 5 choices since we can never agree on one or two options!   So we usually end up with the following desserts made by the following chefs, all depending on who will be attending:

Pumpkin Pie (Me) with homemade whipped cream (my husband) -- this makes the list every single year!
Chocolate Pie (the husband)
Lemon Pie (again, the husband) with homemade graham cracker crust (my husband)
Dutch Apple Pie (Me) - I substitute a crumb streusel topping in place of the top crust
Chocolate Wafer Ice Box Cake (the dessert loving husband of course!)
Lindy's New York Style Cheesecake (Me) - this is the *best* cheesecake recipe EVER!  It takes practice and multiple takes to get used to it - worth all the hassle.  I don't ever make any other cheesecakes now!

In honor of the impending holiday, I think I'll be going for a run this morning.  And every morning until turkey day is upon us!

So what do you make?  Or buy?  Which dessert would you want on the menu if you came to our house for Thanksgiving?! :)

5 comments:

  1. Amanda...we have to stop this....both of our Brian's like the SAME pies...and so do ME AND YOU!! LOL :):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

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  2. What time is dinner? I'll be there! LOL!
    Being in Canada we of course already celebrated Thanksgiving but with that menu I think I could be talked into doing it again!!!

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  3. FABULOUS whimsy!!! makes me hungry already!!!

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  4. Sounds fabulous! I've spent the last 8 years with my husband's family for TG, which is nice because MIL is an excellent cook and I get to take the day off from all chores. However, I do miss my family and the foods from my childhood that I associate with TG.

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  5. I am giggling like crazy over the little cartoon you picked! Now that I've read your menu I am HUNGRY. I want to come eat at your house!

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