First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been reading and sharing the blog. I really appreciate your support and all of your kind words! I apologize for letting those Thanksgiving followers down at “T minus 3” but as we got closer, I had to pick either sleeping or blogging, and sleeping won out!

Just to summarize, here is what the two days before Thanksgiving looked like:

T minus 2…Tuesday was an early day! I got up at 5am to shred my Mississippi Roast that cooked overnight. The house smelled wonderful when I woke up and yes, I had a taste before showering and heading to Maryann’s for a hair cut and color at 7:30am. Headed to work after that for a full day of meetings. After work, I picked up my turkey and the last few grocery items that I had missed from my previous trips. We heated up the leftover Chicken Parm from the weekend, I wrote out my to do list for Wednesday, washed all of my crystal and barware, then headed to bed!

T minus 1…Wednesday was my big prep day! I was up by 6:30am and started by washing every fruit and vegetable that I bought over my 4 trips to different grocery stores! Next on the docket was Apple Bourbon cake. I’m not a baker, so following the recipe exactly was a bit of a challenge for me. It wasn’t hard, but there were a lot of steps. The outcome was delicious and it made my house smell great all day. This cake was time consuming, but totally worth it! Next was the pie dough. I have to say that traditionally, I make the best apple pie. This year, things didn’t quite work for me. I made 3 pie doughs and they all failed. After the third fail at 7pm, I abandoned the apple pie idea and made an apple crisp instead.

The herb butter for the turkey came next. I love this herb butter but it is definitely a commitment! I then prepped and baked 12 potatoes for my Auntie Pat potato recipe and headed out to pick up the Thanksgiving flowers and get a manicure. My hands deserved a manicure after the last 4 days of washing dishes, glasses, and fruits and vegetables! Once I got home, I started baking my sweet potatoes for my Sweet Potatoes with Hot Honey recipe (had to sub Serrano peppers for Fresno since I couldn’t find them), put my ice cream base in the ice cream maker, made Mississippi Roast sandwiches with shredded Provolone cheese for dinner, swept and washed the floor, setup my tables and chairs, put out fresh candles, filled my vases with candle oil, and then finally headed to bed!

Thanksgiving Day!!!

After a week of prep, it finally arrived! I was up by 7am, made coffee, and got started on setting the tables. I prepared my antipasto, defrosted the meatballs and gravy, put my turkey stock on the stove to warm, washed my mushrooms, chopped some pancetta for the gravy, prepped my turkey breasts, and got all of the white wine, Pelligrino, and soda chilling. My husband, and faithful assistant, vacuumed the house, got the Green Egg going, and roasted some red peppers for me! We topped things off with a Champagne toast with the boys, then all went to shower and get ready for our family.

The day went awesome! Had one blip with the turkey (cooked too fast and was way ahead of schedule for serving), but otherwise, things came together nicely. I got my turkey gravy done and delegated my cousin Bill to make the mushrooms (they were awesome by the way!). I thought the food was delicious and my family seemed to agree. The gravy made up for the slightly dry turkey. Wine was flowing all night with a couple of spills and a broken glass or two, but everyone had fun.

We ended the night with a full sweet table - apple crisp, apple bourbon cake, chocolate ganache cake, swiss roll with carmel, apple, and cream cheese filling, cannolis, lemon knots, and snickerdoodles. Thanks to my sister Lia, my mom Geri, Auntie Pat, and my cousins Bill and Ann for bringing all for the delicious desserts!

I was so happy to have all of my family together for Thanksgiving! The night ended up a few too many drinks, my bad DJ skills, and some dancing. I don’t think I ever laughed so hard! It will be hard to erase the memory of my brother-in-law Miguel doing the “wash yourself” dance or the Soul Train line that we formed. Thanks to my wonderful family for making this Thanksgiving memorable. I am grateful for all of you…Tony, Anthony, Michael, Mom, Lia, Miguel, Diego, Lili, Auntie Pat, Bill, Ann, Lindsay, and Kelly. I am looking forward to many more Thanksgiving celebrations with all of you!

Thanks for indulging me on my Thanksgiving recap! Recipes that I didn’t include links to in this post will follow, so keep scrolling! Happy Thanksgiving every one!