Planning for the feast
This Thanksgiving my brave parents are driving over the mountains with a turkey, pies, a rocking chair, and some tools and paint brushes. In addition to helping us celebrate the holiday, they're going to help me paint the downstairs bathroom, which is currently painted with flat white paint, the kind that comes off the wall if you try to wipe away a smudge.
We're also hosting two Philosophy grad students who won't be heading home till the winter break, and this leaves me cooking a dinner for six. Six is not that many when you consider that the menu will consist of the following:
roast turkey
mashed potatoes and gravy
sweet potatoes with pecan topping
stuffing
cranberries (in sauce and sorbet forms)
green beans
rolls
at least two kinds of pie
I'm also hoping to get a bottle or two of Beaujolais Nouveau, which my parents have never tried but would like, and to make some spiced cider.
Driving home with from the grocery story yesterday I couldn't help but feel a bit like we'd looted a small country, so I'm not afraid of running out of food, just a bit nervous that in order for everything that needs to be warm to be served warm I must concoct a cooking strategy of great tactical precision.
Our living room has been completely de-boxed and rearranged, however, and after I (finally!) hang a couple of pictures, do a bit of dusting, and go over the floor with some good old Murphy's oil soap it will look not only like home, but like clean home.
We're also hosting two Philosophy grad students who won't be heading home till the winter break, and this leaves me cooking a dinner for six. Six is not that many when you consider that the menu will consist of the following:
roast turkey
mashed potatoes and gravy
sweet potatoes with pecan topping
stuffing
cranberries (in sauce and sorbet forms)
green beans
rolls
at least two kinds of pie
I'm also hoping to get a bottle or two of Beaujolais Nouveau, which my parents have never tried but would like, and to make some spiced cider.
Driving home with from the grocery story yesterday I couldn't help but feel a bit like we'd looted a small country, so I'm not afraid of running out of food, just a bit nervous that in order for everything that needs to be warm to be served warm I must concoct a cooking strategy of great tactical precision.
Our living room has been completely de-boxed and rearranged, however, and after I (finally!) hang a couple of pictures, do a bit of dusting, and go over the floor with some good old Murphy's oil soap it will look not only like home, but like clean home.