Thanksgiving this year

[artemisdart]

Last year on Thanksgiving I was busily trying to complete Gingerpilot Week by posting a chapter every day. I had 7 chapters all planned out and half written when the week began, and then as it progressed I fell a bit behind, until at the end I missed my posting deadline by a day, twice (if I recall correctly).

I'm so pleased that this year, GPW is already over, so I can focus "just" on cooking and cleaning for tomorrow!

It will be the four of us, plus two friends. And my kids no longer care about Thanksgiving -- or Christmas, for that matter -- so I'll be cooking just to please the four middle aged people. My girlfriend will bring a couple of side dishes and has offered to whip real cream because last year she looked at me in horror when I brought out whipped cream in a can. I still have a ton of work to do but I love this holiday, so it's no hardship to me!

My planned menu is --

Appetizers:
✓ Cheese and charcuterie platter
✓ Crackers 
✓ Olives


Mains:
✓ Turkey - with fresh sage and thyme from my yard, unstuffed
✓ Mashed potatoes with heavy whipping cream and butter
✓ Stuffing - made with a mixture of cornbread, baguette, vegetarian sausage, vegetarian broth, mushrooms, onions, and herbs
✓ Turkey gravy
✓ Green beans, roasted until just crisp with garlic and olive oil (I hate the goopy traditional casserole with cream of mushroom soup)
Roasted root vegetables
✓ Cranberries from scratch
✓ Homemade crescent rolls (I always make a lot of these -- like, 5 or 6 dozen. They are always gone within 3 days) - Update: We made 108!

Drinks:
✓ Coffee
✓ Mulled cider with spices
✓ Sparkling wine from Napa Valley
✓ Martinelli's non-alcoholic apple cider

Desserts:
✓ Cranberry curd tart with real whipped cream
✓ Mango cheesecake cups 
✓ Apple & pear crisp