Faux Thanksgiving

Last week Lisa asked me to help come up with a bit of a meal plan for the week, so as I was sitting in the hospital waiting for blood and doctors to happen I came up with a few ideas for the week. One of them was to make a full on Thanksgiving styled dinner. One of the reasons was that I will probably be having chemo the week that overlaps Thanksgiving, so I might feel like eating, I might not, I might feel like seeing people, I might not. (If I am plugged into my bag still I probably won't want to see people.) Either way, my health might be rocky, but we never really know if we'll get invites either, and generally when invited to someone's house we don't take home many leftovers. Thus* I came to the conclusion that if we want to have a Thanksgiving like WE like, that we should just do it ourselves. (Not that we don't like other types, or experiencing other kinds, it's just that sometimes you miss the way something is done.)

I put together a menu that consisted of Turkey and Gravy, Apple/Onion/Bacon Stuffing, A Loaf of Roasted Garlic/ Rosemary Bread, Cranberry Sauce, Brussels Sprouts, Green Bean Casserole, Spinach/Strawberry/Goat Cheese Salad, and Pecan Pie (with Ice Cream).

It was pretty crazy. I cooked the turkey the day before, prepped the bread in the morning, and then I wrote out a time schedule for everything. Lisa made the pie (of course) and put together the stuffing. I put most of the rest of it together.

Lisa then invited another couple over to enjoy our feast and we had a great time eating and talking. So in the end we had fun prepping the food and fun eating it with friends. And honestly that's what we look for in a Thanksgiving, the interactions we have with other people. Which is why we like cooking as much as we do. We feel like good food helps.

*I like "thus" a lot better than "so", it reads more intelligently, but I'm essentially saying the same thing.


Here are a couple of pictures, snapped with my iffy camera phone: (click on any picture to get the full size)

Bread, pre cooking. (In the dutch oven, ready to go)

Lisa prepping pie dough.

The Roasted Garlic and Rosemary loaf.

Lots of green beans!

Lisa showing off her uncooked Pecan Pie

Menu, with time frame on the side.

Finished Pie!

The sprouts, before their bath of heavy cream.

Turkey heating, stuffing and green beens cooking.

The first slice off the bread.

Some of the food on the side-board.

Prepping the all important cranberry sauce. 

The Prepared Table.

Thanks a lot team!


~B.
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