Wednesday, November 22, 2006

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! !

In the tradition of my Sunday Dinners, I thought I might share my menu for my Thanksgiving Dinner. And, if you will, you can share YOUR menu and traditions in my comments. I just asked Jason what his Mom is cooking and he mentioned baked beans. Now baked beans has never been a tradition at our Thanksgiving table, and that's not to say there's anything wrong with baked beans for Thanksgiving. It just made me think about how we all have our own family traditional foods we prepare for different holidays. So I'll share my menu and if you want to participate, please share yours in the comments.

I'm roasting a medium-sized turkey, about 15 lbs. I'm also making a huge pan of homemade cornbread dressing, using my Mama's family recipe. Not that I use a recipe, you understand, but I do make it just like she always did. I'll make giblet gravy and mashed potatoes, green peas and cranberry sauce. We always have raw celery sticks to go with it all, too. I'm also making sweet potato whip, which is a dreamy side dish made with marshmallow creme. I plan on making my homemade yeast rolls.

There's some of my yeast rolls I made a while back.


Then there's dessert. I'm making pumpkin pies, and possibly pecan pies. Jessica just made banana pudding. That's Jason's favorite dessert, followed closely by homemade cheesecake. I'll definitely be making cheesecakes for Christmas. Added to those will be anything anybody else brings and any last minute requests that I can accomodate.

Understand that my table seats 4 comfortably without the leaves in it, and I have 4
regular chairs for it. I'll put the leaves in it or it wouldn't even come close to holding all the food, much less allow us to put our plates on the table to eat. And we use throw away foam plates and plastic cutlery, plastic cups and paper napkins. None of that china and crystal for us. Not that I have any crystal anyway. I love the cooking, but that cleaning up is for the birds.

Your turn now. Share your menu and plans in my comments.
I am so thankful for so many things this holiday season.
I'm thankful for God's amazing grace and love for me most of all.
I'm thankful for my husband and his love for me.
I'm thankful for Jessica and Jason, my soon-t0-be new son.

I'm thankful for the blessing of a new grandbaby, expected in the Spring.
I'm thankful for my family. All of them.
I'm thankful for God meeting most of my needs, and a lot of my wants.
I'm thankful for the health I have. It's not the best, but I'm still better off than a lot of people.
I'm thankful for my church family. And they truly are family.
I'm thankful for my home. Very thankful.
I'm thankful for my precious friends.
And I'm thankful for YOU. God has blessed me with friends here in Bloggityville that I couldn't have even imagined existing last Thanksgiving. In January I will have been blogging a year. I have grown so close to some of you that it's hard to believe that I've only known some of you for such a short time. I am truly blessed by and truly thankful for your friendship.

My prayer for each of you this Thanksgiving season is that God will richly bless you with all you need and enough to share with someone less fortunate. Most of all, may you love and be loved, my friends.

I love you all,

16 comments:

Girl Raised in the South said...

I have missed coming here to read whats up with you. So its nice to be back :-) I am cooking!!! 21 lb turkey, cornbread dressing (bet yours is better), mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin cake - just for the two of us, seriously. Then I dont plan to cook for at least 3 days. Thanksgiving is my husband's absolute favorite meal of the year and I've been gone so much this past month I decided, even though its just us two to cook away. So are you saying you cant post a recipe for the cornbread dressing sometime. I'm completely convinced yours is going to be wonderful. And YOU are a blessing to all of us. xoxoox

Linda said...

Happy Thanksgiving dear Diane. This will be my last bit of blogging before the holiday is in full swing. Thursday and Friday will be filled with family and friends and Food!!
Our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner is Turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn , rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin cheese cake, and rhubarb pie. I am not, you understand, fixing all of this. We all pitch in. This year our friend Lydia (who - with her husband and son have become part of the family) is having all of us for dinner at her house. My job is desert this time - along with my Mom.
I love you list. We do indeed have much to be thankful for. I agree - this little thing called blogging has been such a blessing to me. I have made such wonderful friends - I count you as a special one. Have a blessed day!

Dawn said...

We are all having fun listing our blessings, and we have so many! I am thankful for your friendship and wish we could sit and visit someday.

We are going to my mom and dad's, just half a mile away. Dad does the turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. We will have green bean casserole, corn, my DIL is bringing sweet potatoes (most of what we call sweet potatoes in this country are really yams - the orange ones - sweet potatoes are whitish), I'm bringing my home made crescent rolls and an applie pie. We'll have a couple of other desserts, but we're trying to hold down on the sweets this year a bit, since none of us need them!

I think they'll be about 17 of us - including my newly widowed MIL, my SIL and her husband (DC's sister). Should be a fun day. Tomorrow night we hope the Broncos do a better job than last Sunday.

Talk to you later!

Patty said...

May your day be filled with love..Happy Thanksgiving

Susie said...

Hi Diane,
We're going to my brother's for dinner. They do a deep fried turkey as well as oven roasted. mashed potatoes and gravy, jalapeno cranberry sauce, stuffing, salad, green beans, rolls and all different deserts, including pecan tarts that my daughter makes.
Hope your day is wonderful and I know your food will be yummy!
xoxo

Big Mama said...

Well we're headed over to my Dad and step-mom's house where we'll be having a fried turkey, cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole, candied yams, fruit salad with real whipping cream and a choice of pecan pie or chocolate ice box pudding for dessert. I am drooling just thinking about it!

Hope y'all have a wonderful day! You are a blessing to the blog world.

Carole Burant said...

That's it, I'm crossing the border into the States so that I can celebrate Thanksgiving again!!!!! Your dinner sounds soooo yummy and now my tummy is growling! For our Thanksgiving, I usually make a turkey, Xmas Potatoes, Yams, carrots, corn, Ragout, Meatpie, Stuffing, Cranberries, Yeast Rolls and for dessert it's pumpkin pie and pecan fudge pie! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours dear friend!! xoxo

Mountain Mama said...

Hello Diane. God bless you richly on this Thanksgiving day.
Your dinner sounds lovely. My family will be having dinner at my second daughter's home. Kathy has the biggest house at the present and we are a big family. Twenty-Nine are expected for dinner. SIx can't come.
My girls always make the same dinner I did when I was doing it, with an occassional twist.
Roasted turkey with giblet stuffing, Ham, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, candied yams, buttered sweet corn, green bean casserole, a new brussels sprout recipe, creamy fruit salad, hot rolls, cranberry sauce, dill and sweet pickles, black olives and plenty of fresh coffee.
Deserts are pie-pie and more pie, because we usually all bring at least one. There will be pumpkin, apple, berry, cherry, Oreo cream, and i'm not sure what other kind. Also a big container of ice cream and lots of cookies for the kidlets.
I think I should bring a BIG bottle of Alka-Seltzer!
I am so glad I don't have to cook and bake it all any more.
God Bless my sweet children and grandchildren. They pretty much do it all.

Dick said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, too. I will be going to dinner at Pat's daughter's home where there are to be about 20 people. I think we are all taking something and I will meet and be met by a lot of her family & friends. It should be interesting.

kansasrose said...

I am grateful for your freindship D! God Bless you and all your family! We are going to my lil sis for dinner today....I have made my yummy veg casserole with ritz cracker and cheese topping...corn casserole...3 pumppkin pies, pecan pies, Hungarian Cake ( am family fav) and your HoneyBUn cake oh boy can't wait for others to try this hon! And some of my homemade wheat and cheese breads! I am hosting the Christmas dinner so i will be making the turkey and meat dishes and all the trimmings then...your dinner sounds lovely! Our Lord has blessed us well! xxxooo

Barb said...

Well, as you know we had Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Today we're going to Jan's house for Thanksgiving. Our Broncos play today so we'll be watching football.

The food I made was pretty traditional. Huge turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, twice baked potatoes, fruit salad, green salad, twice baked potatoes, green bean casserole and candied yams. Ridiculous, really. I have two refrigerators completely jam packed with all the leftovers!

Honestly, I'm thinking Burger King next year. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Diane. You are a blessing to all of us.

Alex said...

I'm always so hungry after visiting your page!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Granny said...

Oh my goodness!! My menu doesn't change much year to year except I had fewer people this year. Most of them will show up for leftovers today.

I've tried to cut back but each person has his/her favorite.

Turkey (20 lbs)
Ham (10 lb presliced)
Cornbread dressing of course
Mashed potatoes
Giblet gravy
Green bean casserole
Sweet potatoes (probably almost like yours)
Deviled eggs
cranberry sauce
rolls
I skipped the Harvard beets this year. Maybe at Christmas.

12 pies. 6 pumpkin and 4 Karo pecan (homemade) 1 dutch apple and 1 cherry courtesy of Sara Lee

Whipped cream naturally.

I cheat a little now that I'm older but not much. My Army son usually does the ham and mashed potatoes at his house but he won't be home until today so I went with instant potatoes this time. I know the difference but the kids don't care.

Sometimes I end up with 20 people or more and I cook accordingly. I'm grateful for my freezer. I may need it.

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday. Christmas is happy but with my own kids all grown, it's harder to all get together for a meal. They have their own families and lives and they're making traditions of their own.

Anonymous said...

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was happy and peaceful. Here in Boston my friends made a meal with just recipes from Colonial America.

Sandy said...

That sweet potato whip sounds delicious - maybe you could post the recipe!

TJ said...

Howdy from Kentucky...actually I am stuffed to the gills right now with all of the good food I've had this week!! I'll need to walk home to Ohio to burn off these calories...we had all of the Turkey day standby's plus all my southern favorites all week...fried catfish and white beans and fried potatoes...Yum!
Biscuits and gravy...double Yum!!
Ok...Ok I'll get my walkin' shoes on now ;-D