Thanksgiving Dinner: Side Dishes

Tomorrow (I guess techinically today as it's 1 am) I cook my first ever Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm so ready. I'm approaching this like it's the most important thing I'll do this year.

I've figured out how I'm flavouring the turkey and the necessary items have been purchased.

Desert is decided.

The side dishes required a lot of thought and I wasn't sure I'd be able to narrow it down.

Traditionally, my mom makes mashed potatoes, turnips, stuffing, and peas.

All of which I load greedily onto my plate and drown in gracy.

 

I have this need to impress my parents so I wanted to make some sides that were variations on the classics.

 

These are the choices I narrowed it down to.

Only 2 of the 3 made the cut for tomorrow. The other side is going to be steamed asparagus, because there really should be some kind of green vegetable on that table.

 

 

1. Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

 

*I looked everywhere in the grocery store today and could not for the life of me find cornmeal. So I'm substituting in sourdough bread. Fingers crossed it works as well!

2. Carrot Spoon Bread

 

*This was the poor recipe that didn't make the cut. I didn't want to load everyone up on stuffing AND spoon bread, on top of all of the potatoes.

3. Turnip and Sweet Potato Gratin

 

*Turnips with a twist.

Trying to locate a turnip led to a discussion about the difference (if any) between turnips and rutabagas. Result of a google search: rutabagas are a cross between turnip and cabbage.

I bought a rutabaga. Here's hoping it doesn't taste wildly different than a turnip.

 

 

Fingers crossed I don't ruin any part of dinner tomorrow.

We've got a ton of wines to pair with things including a desert wine from Stoney Ridge that I've been dying to open.

 

Pictures to follow!

I bought a new camera so that I could take pics of my food again.

 

Thanksgiving: Some decor ideas

Not one to let myself only be all-consummed with finding suitable recipes for turkey and side dishes, I've also decided that for my thanksgiving dinner I will create some cute turkey place holders.

I'm torn between two but think I'm leaning more towards the first, depending on how much time I have.

First up: Turkey Trivia

Using this template you fill out trivia questions (samples found here  - U.S. based questions though) on the turkey's tail feathers.

This works so well for my trivia-crazy family. My dad used to always read us the trivia questions from the Toronto Star's Sunday paper and it would be a race to see who could answer the most correctly.

Second option is for a less interactive but more eye-appealing turkey.

You'll need a supply of crafts and this template that will leave you with a pile that resembles this.

Following these instructions, you should hopefully end up with something that looks like this!

(All photos from marthastewart.com)

Upon closer inspection of the length of time it will take to make these and the fact that the trivia option is way more fun, I'm going with the first idea!

Let's hope it actually pans out.

Kitchen Adventure: Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner

This year, for a number of reasons, I have decided to host my families thanksgiving dinner.

We go to John's grandfather's every year for a family dinner one night then to my parents' for the other night. It's a great excuse to eat a lot of turkey and sides.

 

I've always wanted to take on the lengthy task of preparing thanksgiving dinner, as I've never cooked an entire turkey before.

It also works out to be a great idea this year because my parents are still in the process of having their kitchen renovated, so they are currently sans oven.

 

So!

One week from today I will be hosting my first ever Thanksgiving dinner!

 

Which brings me to my first of many Thanksgiving related posts this week:

 

How should I make the turkey?

 

I've narrowed it down to 3 options.

Feel free to leave meyour opinions in the comments!

All recipes and photos (minus the text that I added) are courtesy of Martha Stewart.

 

1. Cranberry Glazed Turkey

 

 

2. Molasses Glazed Tukey

 

 

 

3. Roast Turkey with Brown Sugar and Mustard Glaze

 

 

Let me know which one you would pick!