Thanksgiving Prep

On Thursday, we were expecting Richard's family and my dad for Thanksgiving.

I started making things for Thanksgiving on Tuesday evening. The goals were the laborious potato dishes: mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes.

I apologize for not taking photos of the sweet potatoes, but they looked just like any other pureed potato (they did taste heavenly though). Both tasted amazing at that point, and I crossed my fingers that they reheated to provide the same pleasure.

Wednesday was completion day. In the AM, I prepared pie crust for my Apple Pie and Pecan Pie. We had to pick up Richard's grandmother from the airport, so I didn't have time to prep anything else until much later in the evening.

We had chili and cornbread for dinner, and the leftover cornbread was used to made the stuffing.

After bedtime, we made pies.

I modified my Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe, and made a Gingersnap crust instead of Graham Crackers. I crumbled Gingersnaps on the top after it had set. I cannot express how amazing this was.

I made an Apple Pie with the apples from the orchard trip. Instead of just cutting straight strips of dough for the top crust, I rolled out and made leaves. The outcome was beautiful, and this pie was devoured as well.

I decided to try something new for the Pecan Pie - no more reading the recipe from the Karo Syrup for me! Here is the before....

and the after....

The stuffing was prepared, and green beans were blanched for a Green Bean Casserole that I have had tucked away for YEARS.

Richard made the Jello Salad for me.....which turned out amazingly too.

Then, last but not least, I decided to take the plunge with fresh cranberry sauce. I had my recipe in hand. The cranberries popped and the sauce looked and smelled amazing. The goggles were necessary to save my eyes (the popping was really out of control.)

The sauce did not TASTE amazing though, and we had to make several modifications to the recipe. Overall, we were satisfied with the product on the big day.

And with many dishes (made and washed), we went to bed exhausted and ready for Turkey Day!