Thanksgiving Success

Well, Thanksgiving was a success - sort of...

Appetizers were out just as the guests arrived and my in-laws brought a delightful selection of wine.  Dinner went on the table only 20 minutes after I intended and it was still warm.  The turkey looked gorgeous, there was plenty of food (and leftovers) and we had a great conversation.  A friend joined the party for dessert and we had a blast!  I managed to keep the mess to a minimum while cooking and our dinner guests graciously helped us with dishes after the meal so there was basically nothing to do but relax and have fun after dinner and dessert.

For my first Thanksgiving hosting, I only had a couple of breakdowns and none were on the day of dinner... this was a major accomplishment for me (see Rule #3 in my Rules to Baking).  I had planned out a schedule and finished everything without any major rushing or panicking.  Honestly, this was one of my best parties ever.

So why did I add a "sort of" on to my success?  Well as I baked in the days leading up to the meal, I was able to take pictures and lots of notes.  The day of the meal... not so much.  Not a big deal - unless you blog about cooking.  I didn't even get a picture of the turkey, something that made me cry later in the evening.  It really was pretty and even my father-in-law, the official turkey carver, commented on how nice it looked.

So let's recap... 

As a chef, baker and party thrower - success

As a cooking blogger - epic fail

I'm going to try to get up some of the recipes I made with the limited pictures I have over the next month, but I can't promise too much... Christmas cookie season is upon us.

Happy cooking!!!

Progress and The Most Disgusting Thing I've Ever Tasted

Before I get started for the day, I thought I'd let everyone know how it's going.  I didn't get nearly what I wanted to get done yesterday.  I did manage to make the appetizer dips and salad dressings.  Today I'm starting the day with making the cheesecake... mostly because I know it is the hardest thing I'll be making (other than the turkey of course).

I also wanted to share a huge mistake I made yesterday.  I was making Light Blue Cheese Dressing and the recipe called for Low-Fat Plain Yogurt.  We usually keep a large container in the fridge for smoothies, so when it was time, I grabbed it and started mixing.  I took a little taste before I mixed in the blue cheese and it tasted off.  I figured the blue cheese had to finish it off.  I mixed in the Blue cheese and gave it a taste.

It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever tasted... EVER!

It was so sour that I immediately thought I had something that had expired or gone bad.  I started picking up cartons and containers checking dates and smelling the food.  Nope.  Then I spun the yogurt around and looked at the label.

My husband had bought Vanilla yogurt.   

The sweet against the lemon and blue cheese created a curdled taste in the dip.  I've vomited before and had a better taste in my mouth.  It was horrifying and I drank a glass of water and chewed a piece of gum to stop the offensive breath that was sure to form.  I tried to figure out a way to salvage the dressing, but it wasn't going to happen.  Mostly because I wasn't willing to taste it again to see if it was getting any better.

Thank all that is holy that I bought extra blue cheese and still had a gigantic tub of Greek yogurt left over.  I started again and this time, the dressing turned out SUPERB.  I even thought about cooking up some buffalo chicken so I could eat it right then.  

I'm going to also throw out there that I'm glad I made the mistake.  I had never tried Greek yogurt before now (I know - what was I thinking) and was totally unaware of how creamy and rich this low-fat yogurt was.  The regular low-fat yogurt was downright watery compared to it.  The remake with the Greek yogurt was creamy and delicious.

Hope your holiday plans are coming together!

Things Are Coming Along Nicely

What a crazy week it has been!

I'm an esthetician and I was the make-up artist for a very large bridal party.  I love sharing in someone's special day, but I kept thinking about what I had to do to get my house Thanksgiving ready.  Of course, by the time I was done, there was NO WAY I was going to be doing any cleaning.  Then, my crazy chihuahua got tape worm causing the entire pug and chihuahua army to go through the deworming process.  While getting the dogs checked out, we found a lump on our pug we've had since we've been married.  Luckily it isn't anything serious, but emotions have run high throwing my cleaning/cooking schedule off kilter.  I'm kind of back on track  now and the cooking process was supposed to have started, but I've gotten sucked into 16 and Pregnant marathon, so I thought I'd update you on my process to keep me from screaming at the television.

And the Thanksgiving Planning Begins

If you haven't already heard from my Facebook page, I found out that I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner for about 10 people.  Although I've had large dinner parties before, none of them have been the scale of a traditional holiday meal.  Oh, I've never made a turkey before either.

YIKES!!!!!

So I’ve nailed down my Thanksgiving menu and ordered my turkey (a 16-18 pounder since I want plenty left over for casseroles, sandwiches and soups).  The preparations start tomorrow with a trip to the store for all the non-produce items needed for dinner.  Of course, we’ve determined that our eat-in kitchen won’t seat all 10 people (or really give enough room for us to put the leaves in our dining room table) so there’s going to be a lot of furniture re-arranging to turn our living room into a dining room while keeping it functional for people to relax before and after dinner.

And I don’t want to talk about the cleaning.  I’ve already assigned bathroom detail to my husband.

I have to admit that I’m a little frightened about making the turkey.  I’ve gotten a lot of advice on how to do it, but a lot of it conflicts with each other.  For example, some people say to cook it upside down, some say to brine it, some say to not baste it… my head is spinning!!!  What I decided to do is pick a recipe that closely follows the advice of the Butterball experts so if I get caught in a pickle, I can call them for help.  Just in case, I’m thinking about making sure I have a ton of chicken just in case I need to whip up a meal quickly. 

Here is the menu: