Thanksgiving 2010

For Thanksgiving this year, it was just our little family here in San Antonio.  I would have invited someone over if I wasn't so nervous about being in charge of the dinner.  I've always been with my family, traveling, or at a friend's house before.  

To my surprise, I wasn't stressed-out at all.  The most difficult part was grocery shopping.  I put Landon in charge of certain dishes and he was a huge help!

I also used my mini salt and pepper shakers and name tags that I got at our wedding along with our flatware.  I've been wanting to use those for a long time now.

Landon and I had heard that if you bake a turkey upside-down, it's much more moist, so I decided to try it.  I basted the turkey in olive oil, sprinkled some rosemary and thyme on it, and put it in the oven breast-side down.  I have to say that it does make the turkey moist and delicious, although not as beautiful.  The underside was a beautiful golden-brown, but since we prefer the white meat we flipped it back over after it was finished baking.

These were the items on the menu this year:

• turkey & gravy (of course!)
• Stove Top stuffing
• sour cream and chive mashed potatoes
• cranberry sauce (a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook that we LOVED!)
• sweet potato casserole a recipe that I got from Sarah's blog (LOVED IT!  Only change was I added pecans.)
• a raspberry spinach salad
• Dorie's blueberry pie (YUM)
• Dorie's sour cream pumpkin pie (also good, but I prefer the traditional pumpkin pie--the flavor was too mellow for me)
• a cranberry cheesecake with an Oreo crust--also from Sarah's blog (SOOO GOOOD!  It was my first time making a cheesecake, and it turned out well.  I was so excited.  The only changes I made was I used half sour cream and heavy cream instead of all sour cream and I baked it in a "bath.")
• Dorie's buttermilk biscuits
• Italian soda an idea I got from Anna--loved it!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, so I'm glad it turned out well.  We tried to watch "Desperate Crossing" which is something that we have done for the past couple of years, but we were so tired that we slept through most of it.  However, I will be ever thankful for those pilgrims who made such a sacrifice to come to this country for religious freedom.  Their story is amazing.

What a wonderful year it's been.  There is so much to be thankful for!