All in all, on a scale of 1-10, our Thanksgiving meal was a 9...and I was very thankful for that! The only 2 negatives were that it could have been hotter (took time to serve a huge spread for 10 guests, plus opening blessing, plus carved turkey at the table so carver couldn't eat right away) and the turkey cooked 10 degrees too much due to faulty old cheap thermometer...it's on my Christmas list...but it was still moist and added gravy was good.
This year all my 20-something kids were home plus 2 boyfriends so I decided THEY were doing all the cooking and cleaning and I would supervise. On Thanksgiving Eve at 6pm they were all lazing around in the living room and nothing had been done. I cracked the whip and said, "Imagine the guests are all arriving at 9pm tonite so let's cook and clean as if it's happening in 3 hours (even though dinner was the next day at 2pm)...with the exception of last minute final cooking stages.
Boyfriend #1 (God love'em) - Immediately responded saying "I'll build the
fire in the fireplace and
sweep/mop/vacuum floors". He did a dynamite job!
And the rest of the kids were motivated by his enthusiam...
Daughter #1 - Prepared all items for her
Cornbread Stuffing and
Mashed Potatoes which turned out deelicious!
Oh, and preped for her
Roasted ButternutSquash/BrusselSprouts
Daughter #2 - Set a
gorgeous table setting...china, crystal, silver, fresh flowers, creative napkin rings, placecards, uncorked wine, etc and took an online tutorial of
Ina Garten's Turkey recipe in preparation for the next day (the lemon aromatic was nixed and replaced with apple). She also did some
Pre-Gravy by boiling extra turkey legs etc.
Daughter #3 -
Dusted, windex'ed, and made
Pumpkin Pies...yum!
Son - made
Cranberry Relish from organic berries. I laughed when he asked how much pickle-relish to put in the cranberries. (I guess I should have called it Cranberry Sauce). It won rave reviews (without the pickle relish)!
Me - I did my signature
Veggie side dish, corn, and I did the dessert table with batten-lace linen cloth, fresh sunflowers, coffee and tea set-up, dessert plates, silver, and 4 pies...
Pecan, Apple, Berry, and Pumpkin. Vanilla IceCream and Whipped Cream on the side.
Nana -
Mashed yams/orange/brownsugar in orange halves with roasted marshmallow on top
Thanksgiving Day was the most relaxing thanksgiving I've ever experienced because of all the help...and it was so much fun to watch the family working together