For our family, Thanksgiving 2000 was different than any other.
We celebrated the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day with my father's
family. This was a great idea because we were able to all be
together without having to leave to see other relatives. We also
did something new, which my aunt coordinated, each of us brought
a dish or two to dinner. But it was not potluck the menu was
predetermined and then the recipes were given out to each person
or couple. The recipes were my aunt's favorites that she too had
prepared before. Considering that we were fourteen people at the
table the pre planning made the whole meal much easier for
everyone. We are always that many or more for regular family
dinner and holidays which makes the cooking quite a job for the
host and leaves newer members of the family in awe that will
never be able to prepare such meals in the future. Also, during
dinner we were all exchanging stories and laughing about the
problems we had preparing our dishes. My aunt had a special view
because she was able to taste the recipes created by a different
hand.
We did all the thanksgiving dishes, turkey with walnut, raisin,
shitaki mushroom stuffing, cooked breast side down to keep the
breast moist and tender. Homemade corn bread, cranberry sauce,
garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, steamed broccoli,
saut+ed oyster mushrooms, vermouth enhanced gravy and butternut
squash soup as first course. Dessert was homemade apple crisp
with vanilla ice cream and of course pumpkin pie and roasted
chestnuts. All these recipes and more can be found at
http://www.dateable.com/simplydelicious/ many of which can be
used for the up coming holidays.
As Hanukkah, Christmas, Kawanza, Boxing Day and News Years Day
approach you may want to consider planning the meal and menu
ahead of time. Everyone will enjoy participating and you won't
end up with too many desserts that all have to be served to avoid
offending the guest. Although you may think that people do not
want to be told what to bring to dinner, the opposite is really
true. Put yourself in their shoes, overwhelmed with holiday
responsibilities, not knowing what to bring to the host, wouldn't
be easier to have one gift replaced by the delicious dish you
will all enjoy together. If anyone does try out the dinner plan
we would love to hear about it!
Happy Holidays
gourmet@...