Thanksgiving Eve

I just love Thanksgiving.  I've been preparing Thanksgiving at my house for over 20 years so I have it down to a science.  Some years we have a large group, maybe 20 people.  This year we have only four.  We always have exactly the same menu every year and I'm not allowed to deviate much from it.  Last year I added oranges to the cranberries and caught a lot of flack.  We are very traditional.  First, we always have a turkey.  The past several years I've purchased a fresh one and it makes such a difference not having to worry about if the turkey is thawed.  Plus, I think it tastes better.  This year my daughter, Elsie, won a $15 coupon towards a Butterball turkey.  Along with another store coupon, this covered half the cost.  Woohoo! as my grandson would say. 

We always have cornbread stuffing.  I make a pan of cornbread and roughly cube it.  Then I toast a loaf of bread in the oven and cube it.  This is the basis of our stuffing.  I think my husband would like some other kind one year, but my Dad liked cornbread stuffing since he was born in the South, and that's what my mother always made and so do I.  I really miss my mom on stuffing prep day.  She was very particular about the stuffing and would come over the day before and bake the cornbread, toast the bread and cut up all the onions and celery.  For many years she would also come over early on Thanksgiving day, make the stuffing up and stuff the turkey, put it in the oven, and then go home after giving me exacting instructions on basting.  I finally got to the point she would let me assemble it Thanksgiving morning, but she still came over the day before to prep everything.

While she worked on the stuffing, I made the pies.  We always have pumpkin and apple.  Some years if a lot of people are coming, we'll have a third choice.  Maybe a sour cream raisin or a lemon pie.  We always do the crust from scratch.  It just tastes so much better.

Along with our turkey we have mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes or squash, fruit salad, rolls, and cranberries.  We always make everything from scratch.  My son-in-law had never heard of people making their own cranberry sauce.  He thought cranberries came in a can.  Tomorrow we'll probably have some vegies, but usually I skip them.  No one eats them with all the other good stuff.

Elsie and her husband and my grandson are coming for breakfast since they are going to the in-laws for dinner.  I'm making pumpkin cinnamon rolls and breakfast cassarole.  I hope everything turns out well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Jane