Thanksgiving is only a week away! Halloween seems like yesterday~
I just love pumpkins and I’ll keep them as long as I can~
What is your upcoming holiday plan?
I keep things simple this time of year, and try not to stress out before all the holiday cheer
Between the Halloween goblins and the Christmas elves,
Keep things to a minimum, we need to rest ourselves!
We’ve stocked the bar
and the menu is done~
Pretty soon we’ll start cooking, and that will be fun!
My son is going to brine the turkey with the recipe and instructions found here, on Big Green Joe a blog about cooking on a Big Green Egg ceramic cooker. Yep, that is the way we’re rolling this year, turkey cooked on the Big Green Egg. Before cooking he is going to stuff it with lemons, oranges, onions, garlic and thyme.
I just happen to have some lemons! A special friend just gave us a bushel full! Look at the size of them!
Did you know you can freeze lemons? For more lemon uses click here~
For the side dishes HHjr and I chose 2 recipes that we experimented with this fall, and 2 recipes from our favorite Food Network stars, Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri.
Green Beans Clementine [there’s lemon in this too!] is a light dish to balance out some of the heavier ones. It is also a cold or room temperature dish, which frees up precious room in your refrigerator and oven. You can also make this one day ahead! We are changing the pecans in this dish to almonds since the sweet potatoes have pecans in them.
The Squash Gratin is a yellow squash casserole that was adapted from the Blackberry Farms cookbook. It is made with grape tomatoes and Manchego Cheese…it might sound like a strange choice but it is sooooo good and it will balance so well with all the other dishes.
For the most important Stuffing or Dressing~what do you call it?~ we are relying on Food Network’s super star, Bobby Flay. We chose his Sourdough, Wild Mushroom and Bacon Dressing.
Whiskey Glazed Sweet Potatoes from Guy Fieri finish the list of sides, it’s your basic sweet potato casserole amped up a with a little flavor boost of whiskey
Dessert is actually being brought by my SIL so that will be something festive for sure~ and I don’t know what it will be so I put 2 of my recent fall desserts on the menu in case you need some last minute ideas in that category~
Mini Pecan Pies with Chocolate
I recently tried a little larger version of these and they were extra tasty because they could hold more chocolate and pecans!
I tried making them in my mini bundt/pumpkin pan just for fun
Large or small you can’t go wrong!
So, take a deep breath, the holidays have only just begun!
for a tutorial on making the Turkey Bottle Topper/Napkin ring click here
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I will be partying over at: