Thanksgiving 2010

We had another successful Thanksgiving meal :) The key is in the prep. I started food prep on Tuesday and thanks to all the planning, everything turned out delicious, especially the pumpkin cheesecake (everyone loved it). We also had organic turkey this year and I tackled the cornbread and sweet potato casserole for the first time. I tried to replicate Boston Market's and my brother said I made it better than them :) Yay for another great Thanksgiving meal!

I cooked the food, and transported it to my brother's place. His gf took care of the turkey ham, mashed potato & gravy, pies, and veggies. The photos here were taken with my phone, so sorry for them not being as great as the photos I took at home with the D-SLR...

The Menu:

MEATS
Pomegranate Glazed Organic Heirloom Turkey
Turkey Ham (not picured)

SIDES
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Sweet Potato topped with Oats Casserole
Cornbread
Cranberry Sauce
Corn
Green Beans
7 Cheeses Mac & Cheese

DESSERT
Apple Pie ala Mode
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Mochi

The table:

(the covered dish is a crab plate my aunt made. It's covered because we had a seafood allergic person in the family)

Carving the turkey:


My first plate of food:

Food prep schedule:
Tuesday night I started by making the turkey brine and began grating 3 kinds of cheeses. Wednesday I made the pumpkin cheesecake, continued grating more cheeses, and made the cranberry sauce. Before hitting the bed on Wednesday night, I dropped the turkey into the brine in the fridge overnight. Thursday morning, I rinsed the turkey from the brine, made the sweet potato casserole, mac & cheese, cornbread, and of course roasted the turkey. Yay for planning!