Thanksgiving has come and gone...

um...it's going to be December on Wednesday!! Is it me or is that just nuts? I feel like I just came to terms with putting my flip flops away for the season and have gotten used to my pasty toned legs and the fact that I need to wear pantyhose and going without is no longer an option.

Thanksgiving at the Allan house went without a hitch. I'm declaring it a success. I was uber organized...would we expect anything less? I only freaked out over herbed butter and gizzards and it was only for 5 minutes.

Here's how the schedule went down....I was going to have a massive bake-a-thon and cook-a-thon on Wednesday night. As I sat there on Tuesday, I thought, might be a good idea to get a leg up on things. Tuesday night I made Grandma Ople's Apple Pie (recipe here) and Pumpkin Mascarpone Pie (recipe here). I didn't make the whipped cream for the pumpkin pie since it takes two minutes. Both were fine and tasted great on Thursday! Mr. Allan and I also chopped all veggies that we needed and put them in ziploc bags.

Wednesday..i worked until 2pm then braved the crowds at Whole Foods to pick up my bird. I ordered a pre-brined fresh turkey. My turkey ended up being 18.5 lbs. I was nervous we didn't have enough with 9 people...but we're drowning in turkey right now.

I got home and started on my cranberry sauce....so good and so easy I'm wondering why people suffer through the canned nonsense jelly crap. Take 1 bag fresh cranberries. In a small saucepan I dissolved 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup light brown sugar in 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of OJ. I added a pinch of cinnamon (maybe 1/4 tsp) and you let it stir and simmer until it's thick...about 20 minutes. One of my favorite dishes!

I also roasted carrots, made the stuffing, and made a lemon meringue pie. We took my inlaws to dinner and when I got home, I buttered up the turkey with a fabulous herb butter and got it ready in the roaster so all i had to do was pop that baby in the oven the next morning. Like I said...the only freak out..getting the gizzards out of the turkey and asking Mr. Allan for help and someone was immersed in a game of Gin Rummy.

Thanksgiving morning, the turkey started roasting, the table was set and my mom showed up with turnip, squash and a fabulous sweet potato casserole.

Other notable favorite recipes....the turkey. Lucky for me, i was lazy last Saturday and skipped Turbo Kick class and stayed home to do laundry and watch the Food Network. I saw Secrets of a Restaurant Chef and her turkey looked sooo good. Hard to believe that less than a week before Thanksgiving and I hadn't settled on what I was going to do with the turkey yet. Here's the recipe. I bought my turkey pre-brined, but the gravy and process of having the turkey uncovered the night before worked out perfectly! I loved the gravy and the meat was pretty damn good if I do say so myself! (Herbed Brined Turkey Recipe)

My only regret was making my stuffing the day before. It turned out the tiniest bit dry and I think it was the whole microwaving it the next day. It's a recipe I used before that I've had great success with.

i only have one picture to share. After lots of house cleaning, cooking up a storm, baking like there's no tomorrow, trying to make sure the cats didn't bite people (thank you to Whole Food's Rescue Remedy Pet stress relief drops!), and making sure our house guests felt welcome and had everything they needed....Mr. Allan and I were dead tired! I'm still recovering and it's Monday afternoon.

The day after..aka Black Friday...I decided not to wake up at the crack of dawn and sleep in. We took the family to a little quaint town in RI called Wickford. Here's a tired Allan family portrait.

My sister is our family photographer as we are required to frequently stop in our tracks, stop what we're doing, and put our chin down and smile for her. So, hopefully some pictures our of beautiful dinner will be up soon. Now it's time to figure out what the hell we're doing for Christmas!