Another (two) Thanksgiving dinner(s) that couldn’t be beat

Al & Emma hosted on real Thanksgiving at their new house. I made a green bean casserole, caramel pumpkin pie, and spicy sweet potatoes. The caramel pie is from Food & Wine – it’s a keeper. I didn’t do candied pepitas on top, I made pie crust cutouts instead. Emma made chocolate cream pie that tasted great with the caramel pumpkin.

For Friday, for apps, I made Chex mix and pickled carrots and beets and eggs. I put out some hard squash hummus I’d made and some red pepper hummus that Rach bought last visit, and crackers & cheese and olives. And some peppered salami that was pretty darn hot.

We had the usual chestnut stuffing and turkey – a 17-lb. one from Matt Smith, that was kind of a long skinny guy. Good gravy and mashed potatoes this year. I tried Rach’s favorite recipe for roasted mixed vegetables, that has pecans and fresh ginger and maple syrup. I made it with Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, cauliflower, and Romanesco cauliflower. I’ve had bad luck with adding sweet stuff to the roasted vegetables – they burn – but these worked a charm. I also tried a King Arthur sweet potato spoon bread using some mild poblanos I got in my CSA box last summer – another keeper. Then there was a kale gratin – I over browned it but it was still good – cream, the kale, lots of garlic, Gruyere cheese. A big bowl of plain cranberry sauce that I almost forgot to put out.

Desserts were apple, pear, and dried cherry crumble, the turkey shaped spice thins and pumpkin slab pie.

Now time to make my cookie list and then off to Woodmans’s and the co-op in the rain to finish purchasing the ingredients. Sometime today must send the save the date for the party.