Thanksgiving!

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! Due to the kitchen renovation currently going on at Mom's house, we hosted the extended Thanksgiving celebration at the Bradshaw house this year. What fun! I had a great time decorating, cooking and enjoying the day!

Here's the menu:
Appetizers - I made a fun marinated goat cheese appetizer with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, basil, rosemary, and chopped black olives. We served it with a loaf of sliced, toasted french bread. To go along with it, I had a fruit tray of sliced ripe red pear and purple grapes. As a finishing touch, I served a bowl of salted mixed nuts and some split dates, stuffed with whipped cream cheese and a half a pecan.

Main course - After some deliberation, I decided to make the same turkey recipe that I made last year. (The only change - I omitted the white wine in the gravy. One in our party is with child, and I felt it was better to be safe than sorry!)

For sides, my sweet sister Laura brought all kinds of delicious stuff. She made my grandmother's classic dressing, and she also made another stuffing with sausage and apple (a delicious meal in itself). Then, she made tender roasted brussels sprouts with prosciutto and a balsamic glaze. She also brought baked sweet potato rounds, dressed with a bit of red onion and bacon. YUM!!

We also had the now-traditional homemade cranberry sauce and Sister Schubert rolls.

Dessert - Here's the crazy thing - we had strawberry cake and sweet potato pie, but dang it if I could eat ANY of it!! I had a piece of cake a couple of days later at mom's house, and hubs ate some of the pie in the ensuing days, but I don't think anyone even ate dessert on Thanksgiving Day! We were all too stuffed from dinner!

At any rate, I really enjoyed hosting! Hubs and I found a sweet little wooden table (and matching chairs) at Target, and we dressed it up as the kids' table. It worked perfectly!