Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011.

This past Thanksgiving was great! It took me all of 20 minutes to pick the recipes; 1 hour of grocery shopping (not including the 3 additional trips to the market on Thanksgiving day); 2 days or prepping (making stock, porchini butter, cheese cake, and cranberry sauce); and cooking for 6 straight hours in Thanksgiving day. We had a few close calls by a kitchen novice who burned his fingers and cut his thumb (not me :), which luckily did not lead us to the emergency room (this time).

Here are links to the recipes I used for our Thanksgiving dinner and my own recipe for 'Sweet Potato Gratin with Marshmallows' which was probably my most favorite dish of the year! Every single dish came together beautifully and the flavors complemented each other.

• Porcini Mushroom Turkey with Mushroom Gravy (Bon Appétit November 2007) - make butter 2 days ahead
• Home-made Chicken Stock (or turkey stock, but chicken will work just fine) - make 2 days ahead
• Spinach, Fennel, and Sausage Stuffing with Toasted Brioche (Bon Appétit November 2011) - make sausage mixture 1 day ahead
• Cranberry Tangerine Conserve (Gourmet November 2008)  - make 2 days ahead
• Green Beans, sauteed with Almond slivers
• Sweet Potato Gratin - my own recipe
• Pumpkin-orange cheesecake with chocolate crust and salted caramel (Sunset Nov 2011) - make 1 day ahead

Pumpkin-orange cheesecake with chocolate crust and salted caramel.

Porcini-butter Turkey