It's November & Time to Plan

Your Thanksgiving Dinner! Our family (that would be my side of the family) is BIG on planning the next meal. When we are all together my mom is constantly planning the next food list. For example, we will be eating lunch & mom is already planning out the next day's lunch & dinner. When it comes to the Holiday meals, we start planning a month or more out. I have to admit for our Christmas meals we have been known to start make a list a year in advance (are we pathetic or what). This year we will be traveling to TN for Thanksgiving dinner with my sister, her husband & my nephew. My sister & I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner (without our master chef mom) on 2 or 3 other occasions. My mom will say that NO ONE cooks better than her, but we have done a pretty good job alone. The last time we did our own dinner was when Ellie was 4 months old (2 years ago). Don't tell our mom, but our stuffing (dressing to those in the south) was as good as hers.

Our base menu:
Turkey (the largest frozen Honeysuckle White we can find in the store i.e. 24 # or more)
Stuffing/ Dressing (made with toast & cornbread)
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Corn
Green Beans
Sweet Potatoes (topped with marshmallows)
Cole Slaw
Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie

Last year we had our meal in Gulf Shores. We were cooking in mom's condo & in my brother's condo. We ate at my brother's because he had more eating room (we need to spread out). My Aunt Jean & Uncle Woody also joined us. My brother wanted us to cook a Turducken (turkey, duck, chicken, and Cajun sausage). I didn't taste it because I couldn't get past what it looked like before it was cooked. Kevin tried it & did not like it. I think it was a bomb & won't appear on the menu again. Sometimes we cook a second turkey by deep frying it. Last year we did that at Christmas instead of Thanksgiving. One of the funniest things from last year's meal was my dad using a blow torch to brown the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. He wanted to be like Paula Deen!

I encourage you to plan something wonderful for Thanksgiving this year. Try something new! Most importantly spend time with your family & thank the Lord for all your blessings!