Family & Friends Thanksgiving Dinner 2010
Nov. 26th, 2010 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wwcitizenOur Thanksgiving was really fun. We invited over Matt's cousins, aunt, and friends to dinner and they brought the desserts. On Wednesday, Matt started cooking around 4:00 and finished around 2:00 with clean up. He also prepped things that needed to cook on Thursday. I set up the entire house, the coffee/utensil area, the dessert/hors d'oeuvres area, and the bar, as well as the dining room and seating area, making sure that the bathrooms were clean and well-stocked with toilet paper, tissues, hand napkins (for drying hands), and breath mints.
Dining Room
Dessert Table
Living Room for hors d'oeuvres
Centerpiece of dining room table
On Thursday, we got up a little late, but everything worked out well. Matt was slowly becoming a tempered "Holiday Mom" because of the time limitations, but we kept to our tasks, and everything went off without a hitch!
Our menu
Hors d'oeuvres: two fruited cheeses & crackers, chicken lollipops, stuffed mushrooms, antipasto, and nuts.
1st Course: Poached D'Anjou pears with cranberry/almond stuffing (pictured below)
2nd Course: Escarole & appricot meatball soup (pictured below)
3rd Course: De-boned turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, carrots, roasted corn, green bean casserole (my recipe - Matt executed), heirloom sweet potatoes (pictured below), gravy, homemade (I made them!) and canned (jellied) cranberry sauce (yes, with the ridges!), pumpkin biscuits, and yeast rolls.
Dessert Course: Pumpkin pie, apple/cranberry pie, toasted coconut cake, pumpkin cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing. (all pictured above on the dessert table)
For the first time I think in all the dinners we've hosted over the years, someone brought us a fruit basket! I don't believe anyone's ever brought a fruit basket till this year. Some people don't like them because they are the "last minute" thoughts, but, frankly, I think they can be pretty and I like fruit. We don't have a problem with them, but I've heard others finding them lack luster. This basket given to us yesterday was very pretty and I'm very happy for the basket - in the shape of a turkey! Thing is, there were no bananas, although the little tag said there were supposed to be. AND, just out of curiosity, since the bananas were missing, I weighed the grapes, which were supposed to be a pound. They were 1 ounce under a pound! So, I guess the moral of the fruit basket is, it's best to make your own as a gift rather than rely on the pre-packaged ones; you won't always get what you expect!
Our Thanksgiving was a success, it was fun, and we're full!! I don't think we'll want anymore food for a while. Except for tonight when we have a stuffed pepper at Bellmonte's in Asbury Park!! Looking forward to that! And a bowl of soup.
Have a great weekend, everyone! We're going to be at Santa Saturday, again - traditional party after Thanksgiving for 10+ years now!
Dessert Table
Living Room for hors d'oeuvres
Centerpiece of dining room table
On Thursday, we got up a little late, but everything worked out well. Matt was slowly becoming a tempered "Holiday Mom" because of the time limitations, but we kept to our tasks, and everything went off without a hitch!
Our menu
Hors d'oeuvres: two fruited cheeses & crackers, chicken lollipops, stuffed mushrooms, antipasto, and nuts.
1st Course: Poached D'Anjou pears with cranberry/almond stuffing (pictured below)
2nd Course: Escarole & appricot meatball soup (pictured below)
3rd Course: De-boned turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, carrots, roasted corn, green bean casserole (my recipe - Matt executed), heirloom sweet potatoes (pictured below), gravy, homemade (I made them!) and canned (jellied) cranberry sauce (yes, with the ridges!), pumpkin biscuits, and yeast rolls.
Dessert Course: Pumpkin pie, apple/cranberry pie, toasted coconut cake, pumpkin cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing. (all pictured above on the dessert table)
For the first time I think in all the dinners we've hosted over the years, someone brought us a fruit basket! I don't believe anyone's ever brought a fruit basket till this year. Some people don't like them because they are the "last minute" thoughts, but, frankly, I think they can be pretty and I like fruit. We don't have a problem with them, but I've heard others finding them lack luster. This basket given to us yesterday was very pretty and I'm very happy for the basket - in the shape of a turkey! Thing is, there were no bananas, although the little tag said there were supposed to be. AND, just out of curiosity, since the bananas were missing, I weighed the grapes, which were supposed to be a pound. They were 1 ounce under a pound! So, I guess the moral of the fruit basket is, it's best to make your own as a gift rather than rely on the pre-packaged ones; you won't always get what you expect!
Our Thanksgiving was a success, it was fun, and we're full!! I don't think we'll want anymore food for a while. Except for tonight when we have a stuffed pepper at Bellmonte's in Asbury Park!! Looking forward to that! And a bowl of soup.
Have a great weekend, everyone! We're going to be at Santa Saturday, again - traditional party after Thanksgiving for 10+ years now!
