Thanksgiving Menu

This marked our first year since moving to Ohio that we were responsible for hosting Thanksgiving. It was a low-pressure, low-key affair with only our household and three guests. We started prep on Tuesday night, making the cranberry sauce and pumpkin puree for cheesecake. Wednesday we made the bread and dip, brined and dried the turkey overnight, and picked up dinner rolls and pie from AJ at Sassafras Bakery. Everything else was done at a leisurely pace Thursday morning. Our 12-lb turkey actually took less than three hours to cook. Wherever possible, we used local ingredients, many from our Wayward Farms CSA.

Considering the alternative was hours of driving on I-71 in traffic and bad weather, hosting Thanksgiving dinner is a no-brainer. The hardest part on Thursday was resisting the urge to concoct more dishes to fill the time. I look forward to doing it again.

The Menu:

Mark Bittman's feta cheese dip from How to Cook Everything and no-knead bread

Roast Turkey and Gravy (using Mark Bittman's method from How to Cook Everything)

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Not Pictured:

• Mark Bittman's basic stuffing from How to Cook Everything, with pork sausage in place of some butter
• Mashed Root Vegatables (potatoes, turnips and daikon radish)
• Turnip Gratin
• Green Beans in Vinaigrette
• dinner rolls and dutch apple pie from Sassafras Bakery

Tomorrow I'll post about some of our experiments in using up leftovers.