Thanksgiving. I love to cook and I love to plan so, for me, Thanksgiving provides the best of all worlds. I decided to share my holiday menu and some photos too. I always try at least one new item each year and this year I tried two new things, the stuffing and the salad. I usually buy Bon Appetit’s Thanksgiving issue and have kept many of them from years past. They are in a pile in my closet upstairs and they’re getting a bit too heavy to carry down each year so that I can sit in my lazy boy and peruse to my heart’s content all the recipes contained therein (I love using that word!).
Here is the menu for this year
Turkey
Chestnut, mushroom, green onion stuffing(Bon Appetit 11/99, p244)
Green beans with shiitake mushrooms(Bon Appetit 11/01, p213)
Escarole salad (Food & Wine 11/13, p187)
Cranberry cherry relish (the one I always make, came from Parade newspaper insert I believe)
Mashed yukon gold potatoes and gravy
Sweet potato casserole(BH&G 10/97)
Pie ala johnnyo(hubby always makes the pie): Decadent Chocolate Pecan Pie
The first photo is of one of my shopping trips for food:
Since this is a once in a lifetime occurrence, I couldn’t help but share a photo of the first night of Hanukah, the night before Thanksgiving. Because of the Jewish calendar the next time Hanukah and Thanksgiving will coincide will be 2070. Happy Thansgivukah!
We usually get started early in our meal preparation and this year was no different. Because hubby insisted on a chestnut stuffing we “had to” roast fresh chestnuts. Always a chore but it is oh, so worth it! Here are the various stages of our chestnut adventure the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Click on any photo to see them larger.
Hubby making pie dough:
The finished product and I must say it was delicious!!
The cranberry cherry relish was made Tuesday:
A gallery of what went on in prep for the meal on Thanksgiving:
A special treat for you is a photo by my hubby. He saw me taking photos so he joined in and I really like this shot of the shiitake mushrooms that went into the green beans:
As a testament to the chaos that ensues when the turkey comes out of the oven (ie, getting the potatoes cooked and mashed, making green beans, bread and gravy), I have no photos of the cooked turkey! I do have a photo of my plate and of our table after we started eating:
And just look at these boys with eyes wide(“please, can I have some turkey?”):
The cats did get some bites and everyone ate well. Tomorrow we make turkey tetrazzini! Yum.
travels with toby 
Mmmm, everything looked great!! Glad the boys got some of your delicious dinner too!
he he, yes they did. They were so darn cute I had to take their photo! Moments later they moved. Hope you enjoyed your feast!
You really torture me with the wonderful recipes and food you display! Here in Zimbabwe, of course there is no Thanksgiving and no meal even CLOSE to what we do in the US for Thanksgiving. I wish you could ship me some!! :-)
I wish I could ship you some too. There’s no way we’re going to eat all those leftovers! ‘course the pie is almost gone ;) Nice to hear from you. I was beginning to wonder where you were.
Happy Thanksgiving
thanks!
The cats cracked me up!
Aaaaah, all that lovely food… seriously salivating here…
they cracked me up too! :)
It looks like you really go all out for the holiday, Toby. That chestnut stuffing and cranberry sauce both have my mouth watering! :-)
I do go all out – I love Thanksgiving! the cranberry dish is quite the hit even for people who don’t care so much for cranberries. the dried cherries really make it sing! the chestnut stuffing was just okay. I think if the chestnuts were smaller I might have enjoyed it more? but anyway, thanks for stopping by!
I am craving deviled eggs now. It all looks great. I hope you had a great Thanksgivingakuh
they were delish! as usual. thanks it was nice. I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving too.
thank you for the recipe – but you really made me smile by your two staring cats!
thanks! yes, they are adorable if I do say so myself ;)
Delicious post :) Thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome! thanks for visiting :-)
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Hi Steve!
:-)