Thanksgiving Ramp UP

Here I am once again preparing for Thanksgiving.  Fortunately, this year promises much less stress and confusion.  First off, we are not traveling....one less headache to deal with on top of the meal and personalities.  The thought of actually celebrating in our home is, well, homey!  Second, this year we are hosting one other couple for the day.  It sounds so relaxing to have such a small intimate group.

Of course, hosting in never 100% relaxing.  My guests are bring several of the dishes, which is a huge relief.  However, I was determined that we would have all the dishes represented that each of us need to make it a REAL Thanksgiving.  There will be four of us at the table with food to feed forty.  A new twist for this year is that one of my guests keeps kosher.  I have kept kosher before so I certainly have the knowledge and skill sets to pull this off.  It required an extra trip to the kosher grocery store to buy the turkey.  The biggest complication is how to adapt some of my recipes to be non-dairy.  Well, that and trying to figure out how to cook black-eyed peas and collard greens without using bacon or ham hocks.  Somethings are just going to have be what they are....no way to do the pie without condensed milk.

So far, things are going smoothly.  I cooked up the black-eyed peas on Sunday.  Last night I backed a praline-pumpkin pie (thanks for the recipe Aunt Jean!).  I got up early this morning to go into hyper mode.  The turkey is in the sink to make sure it is completely thawed.  I need to get the placed straightened up then start prepping for each dish.  The turkey goes into the oven at 1pm.  I will testing the Electrolux "perfect turkey" mode.  At that point, it will be 3 hours of non-stop cooking and coordination of dishes until dinner at 5pm.

Fortunately, the bargain in our home is that I cook and Rob cleans.  Good luck dear....this mess will be epic.

Wish me luck!