Thanksgiving

Of course I am still behind in my posts.
This Thanksgiving we had George's parents with us. I have to say it was the best Thanksgiving meal I have ever made. My philosophy this year was to keep it simple. Sure you hear that saying all the time, but do you really ever try to live it? I had a few friends buy the prepared dinner from Wegmans or Whole Foods. That was definitely the simplest approach and I may try that some year. I did run around like a crazy person the week prior to Thanksgiving. Shopping at 4 different grocery stores, cleaning every room in the house and preparing the menu for the 4 days we would have guests. However, this year my "simple" was a pared down menu with some really good dishes. The preparation for the dinner was an all day event. But, isn't it supposed to be? My usual problem is trying to do too many dishes that were too complex. This year my menu was:

Rosemary Roasted Organic Turkey 13lbs
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans and Shallots
Cranberry Citrus Sauce
Carrot and Chestnut Soup
Rosemary Bread
Apple Pie w/ whipped cream
Mint Pie

To make things stress free Jakob, George and I made a few dishes before hand and really had a good time measuring and cooking together. I used a few Schwan items to cut down on preparation time and I only made one vegetable and one potato. George's mom made the apple pie. Dinner was planned for 2 PM and everything was on the table by 2:15 PM. All the items were hot and the turkey was moist and delicious. My favorite dish was the carrot soup. I have made it 3 times now and we love it. The bread was wonderful too and Jakob loved that everything was homemade. He was in awe. He said, "It must be an important holiday. Mommy is cooking from scratch. She never does that." In my defense, most of our dinners are from scratch. They are usually things like spaghetti or chicken and veggies. I think he was most impressed with the bread. I rarely make fresh bread and he got to help a lot.
It was a wonderful meal with lots of family time. We played many games and shared many stories. Jakob is starting to understand and appreciate traditions. We checked a book out of the library about pilgrims and have had a wonderful time learning about the pilgrim children and the significance of celebrating Thanksgiving.