Today, after a day of cooking, I produced my very first family Thanksgiving dinner. Hey, after all, I’m a married woman now, with a baby, a husband, and a houseful of visiting relatives (one mother, two parents-in-law, and additional brother, cousin and aunt in law).
After a long day of preparing and cooking, I produced the following meal:
– Baked mashed yams with honey & lime
– Butternut squash grits with sage and cheese
– Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes
– Glazed carrots
– Green peas
– Green bean casserole (using low fat cream of celery soup)
– Cranberry sauce (canned, of course)
– Buttermilk biscuits
– Cornbread stuffing (made with real cornbread, not a boxed mix)
and of course:
– A sixteen pound turkey, with from-scratch thyme-infused gravy.
While I was cooking, I even managed to set out appetizers, including:
– Low-fat hot spinach dip
– Cut up vegetables on a tri-level serving dish (it’s secondhand plates glued to wineglasses)
– Cheese and crackers
And I even baked pies from sort of scratch! I bought organic graham cracker crusts and made:
– two pumpkin pies
– one apple pie
– real whipped cream
It was a LOT of work, but I had help from everyone that made it a lot easier. Paul’s aunt cut up the carrots and potatoes for me. My mom helped me with the turkey. Paul’s mom helped me with stirring pots and keeping things under control during the super complicated part near the end, where I was trying to finish all the dishes and get them served so nothing got cold. And the whole family pitched in to do dishes and clean up afterwards, so my kitchen is now back to its previously clean state. I was able to sit down and rest after dinner, which was good, because I was too exhausted to do anything else.
I’m proud of myself now, because I DID accomplish a Big Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner. Also, I served the whole thing on my good wedding china. I feel a little more grown up now.
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