Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  I love having everyone gather in my home.  This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for a home full of well-fed, content people that appreciate my food and friendship.  I take so much joy from cooking and preparing holiday meals.  My efforts begin weeks prior, with menu planning, shopping, baking, stock making, and prep cooking.

I love waking up Thanksgiving morning, making a fire in the woodstove and watching the Macys Parade while I work.  As a little girl, my father would take me to the Thanksgiving Day parade, I would sit on his shoulders amongst a sea of people and watch the floats and the marching bands go by.  However, Thanksgiving in New York  is traditionally cold – around the 30-40 degree range. Standing out side for hours in the cold, fighting to see what's going on was a challenge.  So, when I became to big to sit on his shoulders, we stopped going and stuck to watching it on TV.

This year, I had my cousins and a friend from work come for dinner, and my neighbors joined us for dessert.  We began eating around 3pm and continued eating until about 8pm – taking a time out between courses J

We began with hot taddies made from mulled apple cider that I put up and kept on top of my wood stove all day.  I also set out the homemade cranberry sauce and a bowl of green olives stuffed with garlic, peppers and provolone cheese.

I chose a multitude of wines to serve at dinner.  However,  we only made it through two bottles:

The first was a Riesling from Alsace

The second was a Premiere Cru Burgundy

First Course:

• Cold pear ginger soup with sparkling pear cider topped with mint leaves and pomegranate seeds>>

Second Course:

• Mesculun salad with homemade honey LACE w:st="on">DijonLACE> dressing, pecan pralines and sliced tangerine>>

Third Course:

• Butternut squash soup with cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with cream, pistachio nuts and sage>>

Main Meal:

• Brined, Roasted Turkey
• Pan Gravy
• Steamed Asparagus with sliced garlic and truffle oil
• Oven roasted potato wedges with lemon zest, rosemary and sea salt
• a delicious sweet potato casserole that my cousin Michele brought>
• Stuffing made from multigrain farm bread, wild rice, bacon, chestnuts, dried cranberries
  

Finale :

• Apricot Soufflés (Recipe I learned in LACE w:st="on">FranceLACE>>>
• Lemon berry tarts>>

• Pumpkin Pie with Calvados whipped cream>>
• Triple layer Pumpkin Spice Cake with hazelnut buttercream frosting

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