Thanksgiving planning and menu 2010

24 Wednesday Nov 2010

Posted by Karen B. in Dessert, Entertaining, Food, Party Planning

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Cayley and I met the other night and went over our menu ideas for Thanksgiving Day. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve cooked together on this holiday in years past with great success. Cayley has saved the menu that I usually print on fall paper each year so we used the 2009 menu as a guide.

I like the fresh produce mixed with flowers for a fall table---bountiful!

We will both prepare an appetizer—to be determined. Additionally, Cayley will buy some mixed nuts for munching. I lean towards an appetizer that isn’t too filing for obvious reasons.

I appreciate the mix of silver and pewter and the black furniture piece make the vignette pop.

We’ll salt the turkey per the Los Angeles Times Food feature of November 19, 2008. This, for scientific reasons I don’t fully understand, works better than brining, see recipe HERE. We tried the method in 2009 and the bird was moist and delicious. I’ll be responsible for make-ahead Creamy Mashed Potatoes and I’ll use Pioneer Woman’s recipe HERE. I’ll also prepare Maple-Roasted Sweet Potatoes (recipe HERE). We’ll buy Costco’s pre-made gravy—don’t judge, it just keeps stress out of the kitchen on a food/recipe intensive day! I’ll also prepare a recipe for Gulliver’s Cream Corn (I promise to post this recipe before Christmas because it’s a favorite and pretty easy).

I'm loving the white with natural accents, its great that pumpkins come in so many colors!

{the above picture via Slim Paley’s recent post, “Forget the Turkey, What about the Table?” HERE}

Dessert will consist of pecan pie (thanks to Cayley) and *pumpkin pie and Dreamy Apple Pie, recipe HERE with Hard Sauce from Pioneer Woman HERE.

Another great example of a fall table setting sans orange.

{the above image via French Kissed. There are lots of ideas for setting a beautiful Thanksgiving table in her post, “Imperfect Perfection”

*I use the Libby pumpkin pie recipe off the can—family traditions die hard. I found the recipe at All Recipes.com HERE.

Pumpkin soup, anyone?

Cayley is preparing (in addition to her appetizer) the turkey, stuffing, green salad, green beans, cranberries and pecan pie…oh, AND all the other work and shopping involved in having a dinner for 10-12 guests! I’m sure she will share the recipes with me and I’ll post links as I find them.