Thinking Thanksgiving: Menu

I thought I broke the cranberry sauce.

When cooking, I don't usually work from memory or make things up as I go along. And certainly not when there is a holiday meal at stake. I wanted to make the cranberry sauce today and I couldn't find the magazine with the idea I had read. So I risked spoiling the sauce and struck out on my own, using the recipe on the bag of cranberries as a guide.

To the bag of Ocean Spray cranberries, I added 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water, per the directions. But then I wanted to add 2 cups of frozen mixed berries I had. And I felt like the sauce needed orange juice and cinnamon. So in went 1/2 cup OJ and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon. I set it to boiling on the stove. It looked like a lot of really runny liquid. I worried for many minutes and tried to calm my fears with the mantra "It'll cook down. It'll cook down."

It cooked down. When I poured it out into a bowl to cool, my husband tasted it and pronounced it good. Whew!

So it is chilling in the fridge, it's flavors melding, for tomorrow when I host my mother for Thanksgiving dinner.

Tonight, before I leave for Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws', I want to share with you my menu for tomorrow and some accompanying recipes.

Roast Turkey
Traditional Bread Dressing with Herbs
Mashed potatoes (locally grown Yukon Golds and Kennebecs)
Gravy
Sweet potatoes with pecan streusel (my mom's bringing this)
Brussels sprouts with cranberries and bacon
The aforementioned mixed-berry cranberry sauce
Rolls with WV Fruit & Berry pumpkin butter and my Aunt Louie's elderberry jelly
Libby's pumpkin pie
My mom's from-scratch butterscotch pie, which won me a blue ribbon three years ago

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Comments

Dave said…
Wow I think I will be coming to your place for Thanksgiving!
November 23, 2011 at 10:14 PM
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