in just a week...

...I will be in the kitchen making stuffing. How about you?

How in the heck did it get to be Thanksgiving so soon? It is even later in the month this year, and I am still not quite ready to wrap my brain around the idea of it.

So I read in Wolfgang Puck's article this morning (I love the Food section in our Thursday paper) that it is only called stuffing if you cook it in the bird, if you cook it alongside the bird you must call it dressing. Okay, I am making dressing.

Since there will just be the three of us, I am doing a turkey breast. None of us like dark meat, so why do the whole bird? Last year I brined it, and it was lovely and moist and flavorful. So I plan to do that again this year, with a recipe I found of Sheila Lukin's. I have many of her cookbooks (she of Silver Palate fame) so I trust that it will be delicious, along with her gravy recipe. Here is the rest of the menu:

Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes (Susan Branch) yes, they are completely fattening.
Mashed Sweet Potatoes (with fresh orange juice and maple syrup...)
Green Beans with Mushrooms and Shallots (Ellie Krieger)
Cranberry/Pear Sauce (made with red wine)
Sausage & Apple Dressing

Did I tell you there will just be three of us? Lots of leftovers!

The dessert dilema was solved when my guys requested Pumpkin Bars rather than pie, so that is easy, and also yields several extra servings. I can bring them in to ACES the next day and make our employees happy.

We will spend the morning in our jammies, I am going to do an apple oven pancake to hold us until dinner. The boys have to help with some of the prep, as it gets lonely in my tiny kitchen. We will have dinner mid-afternoon, then will snuggle in to watch movies together. This year I have The Spiderwick Chronicles and Time Bandits. We will probably need a brisk walk in between showings, then it will be time for a bite of leftovers.

Thanksgiving used to be joining the throngs on the highway and heading up north, to share the long weekend with both of our families in Bemidji. But since opening our store at the MOA it isn't possible (what with having to open at 6 am the day after!) so now we spend the day with our own little family, and reconnect before our crazy busy season starts. Although this year, with building the sims and everything else going on, we are already feeling quite disconnected, so it will be grand to have one day to get back to just us.

What are YOU doing for the holidays?