Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast

Our 5th annual Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast was a huge success. Every year I get a little stressed out with planning and executing and feeling like I'm the only one who cares, and I wonder why I do this every year. Then people come and we have a great time, and I think everything is worth it.

This year, due partially to my growing experience in planning weekly menus and partially due to luck, I managed not only to make 10 recipes for an early dinner (for us, it was 4 this year instead of 6), but to keep the kitchen in pristine condition. That has never happened before.

Recipes Made for Today

Grilled Apple-Brined Turkey

Mango Cranberry Sauce

Bubbly Cranberry Punch

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Ginger-Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Lemonade Meringue Pie

Festive Cranberry Topped Cheesecake

Everything was done with plenty of time, except the turkey. It just always takes longer than I think it will, and we had a function that night, which was why we had dinner early, and we stuck it in right after church, which was done at noon, so it had as much time as we could give it. We carved the breast and stuck it back in the oven. After cleaning it all up, we realized that it actually probably didn't need the extra time. It had been marinating for a day and a half and was just super moist. So moist in fact, that we had no drippings for gravy. It just held on to every bit of moisture. Which is what made it so delicious. We didn't get to grill it, but we are planning on getting a grill, so maybe next year. This was worth not having any room in my fridge for two days.

The Pilgrim Hat Cookies were too cute and easy not to use for table decorations. We put them on the roll plate along with an autumn leaf we collected back in September. We pressed them in a book and wrote people's names on them for place cards. It was cute, but I need a thicker sharpie and note for next year, yellow leaves are easier to read than red. Though they made nice table decorations.

The cranberry punch was amazing. I think that got the most comments that were consistently good. And it was super easy. Those two things (the punch and the cookies) were just about the only things I had to make on Sunday. And I will probably be using these again and again as well.

As you can see the food spread was pretty amazing.

Everyone was so generous with their offerings, and between nice guests and my husband I think I only did 3 dishes.

Here's a close up:

This one has my pies in it.

I think the pumpkin pie I made might be the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. And the cheesecake was also amazing. I loved the cranberry topping and it was an extra creamy cheesecake because The Husband was doing the grocery run for me on Saturday when I was making all the pies, and I ran out of eggs before he got back, so I just let the Kitchenaid keep creaming until he got back. It was only 10 minutes or so, but it made a big difference. The lemonade meringue was a dismal failure, but the other two made up for it, I think. Plus, The Husband made his Banana Cream, so there was plenty of pie.

So in addition to the 7 recipes from the book, I also made my corn bread sausage stuffing, which I learned is a very Southern tradition. Everyone was impressed that I knew about corn bread stuffing, but thanks to the internet, I've been a fan for awhile. I'm glad I can pass off as Southern occasionally.

I also made sweet potatoes in the slow cooker, and my Grandma's fruit salad, which is the dish that holds the most Thanksgiving memories for me.

Well, we had the most people over that we've ever had. Next year we'll have to get more chairs. And everyone enjoyed themselves, including The Captain who got to have 2 cups of punch. Ask him if he's happy about that.