For our family, Thanksgiving 2000 was different than any other. We celebrated the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day with my father's family. This was a great idea because we were able to all be together without having to leave to see other relatives. We also did something new, which my aunt coordinated, each of us brought a dish or two to dinner. But it was not potluck the menu was predetermined and then the recipes were given out to each person or couple. The recipes were my aunt's favorites that she too had prepared before. Considering that we were fourteen people at the table the pre planning made the whole meal much easier for everyone. We are always that many or more for regular family dinner and holidays which makes the cooking quite a job for the host and leaves newer members of the family in awe that will never be able to prepare such meals in the future. Also, during dinner we were all exchanging stories and laughing about the problems we had preparing our dishes. My aunt had a special view because she was able to taste the recipes created by a different hand.

We did all the thanksgiving dishes, turkey with walnut, raisin, shitaki mushroom stuffing, cooked breast side down to keep the breast moist and tender. Homemade corn bread, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, steamed broccoli, sautéed oyster mushrooms, vermouth enhanced gravy and butternut squash soup as first course. Dessert was homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and of course pumpkin pie and roasted chestnuts. All these recipes and more can be found at http://www.dateable.com/simplydelicious/ many of which can be used for the up coming holidays.

As Hanukkah, Christmas, Kawanza, Boxing Day and New Years Day approach you may want to consider planning the meal and menu ahead of time. Everyone will enjoy participating and you won't end up with too many desserts that all have to be served to avoid offending the guest.  Although you may think that people do not want to be told what to bring to dinner, the opposite is really true. Put yourself in their shoes, overwhelmed with holiday responsibilities, not knowing what to bring to the host, wouldn't be easier to have one gift replaced by the delicious dish you will all enjoy together. If anyone does try out the dinner plan we would love to hear about it!

Happy Holidays
gourmet@dateable.com
 

©2000 - Roseanne Cantisani

About the author: Roseanne Cantisani is a freelance writer and editor of Dateable.com's Simply Delicious, a web site dedicated to simple, healthy cooking. You can find articles, recipes, kitchen and cooking products, and a forum for any cooking or entertaining questions. If you like this article please sign up for the simply delicious newsletter at http://dateable.com/simplydelicious/ or send an email to the gourmet@dateable.com