Confession time: It's only November 3, and I've already poured through the latest issues of Food Network Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Everyday With Rachael Ray and Better Homes and Gardens, not to mention a few cookbooks in search of the best Thanksgiving recipes.
Yes, I absolutely adore making Thanksgiving dinner...every single course of it. Really, it's like the Super Bowl of meals for the home cook, and I look forward to (and start planning) for the big day several weeks in advance.
Hence all those magazine articles...
Now I'll admit, if I had to cook for a whole army of people (usually, we have 2 or 3 guests aside from Will and I), I might not feel the same way. But because there's just a few of us, I love the challenge of trying to get everything done in time in our very tiny, apartment-sized kitchen.
This year, I cheated a little and ordered a smoked turkey (Will has always extolled the many virtues of a smoked turkey, so I surprised him by ordering the one from East Texas that Oprah likes), so that will definitely make things easier cooking-wise since the turkey tends to take the longest (and ours already comes all ready to go). But if you're making your own, I highly recommend Sunny Anderson's recipe for turkey with peach rosemary glaze. I made this last year, and it was delicious.
So without having to do all the roasting myself this year, that will leave more time for the my favorite part of the meal—the sides!!
While it's definitely not rocket science by any means (although I definitely add my own touches from the original recipe), Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without green bean casserole. So I will make that, along with garlic red mashed potatoes and gravy (a once-a-year indulgence), homemade cheddar buttermilk biscuits, homemade sausage and cranberry stuffing and, of course, I'll serve all that with Barefoot Contessa's old-fashioned cranberry sauce. I love this stuff sooo much that I wrote a review of it on Crate and Barrel's website, the only place where you can get it. Trust me, it's way better than the stuff with the can imprint still on it.
As far as dessert goes, I'm still deciding what I want to do. I'll definitely make something pumpkin-y, but maybe I'll offer something else, too (an apple tart, perhaps?), so I'm still brainstorming that. Thankfully, I've still got, oh, 23 days left, but it's never too early to start, right?
So now that I've revealed mine, what are your must-haves for Thanksgiving dinner and why? Also, any good dessert recipes I must try pronto?