Happy Almost Thanksgiving!  My favorite holiday is just around the corner and I can’t wait.  Yes, it will be different this year but that doesn’t mean we can’t still celebrate.  We were not scheduled to travel for Thanksgiving this year so our plans were not interrupted.  We were going to be at home anyway; our gathering will just be smaller than usual.  But I’m still super excited.  I’ve been getting ready all week.

Tuesday I bought as many groceries as I could buy early: Turkey, cranberries, beer, apples, Brussels sprouts, butter, chicken stock… you get the idea.

Wednesday I made pie crusts.  I even rolled one out, put it in the pie plate and froze it that way.  It will make everything so much easier next week!  I also made shortbread cookies because it is really all the same ingredients as pie crust, just different ratios and butter temperatures.  Those are also in the freezer.  I can pull them out Thursday morning and they will be thawed by the time we are ready to eat dessert. Oh, and last week I made spice cake mini cupcakes and a 6″ cake… yes, also in the freezer.  My spice cake recipe (also in the cookbook)  divides perfectly into 24 mini cupcakes and a single layer 6″ round.  I don’t know that I will pull them out for Thanksgiving because we don’t really need 3 desserts… but I just might.

Thursday I cleaned annoying things.  I hit the self clean button on the oven and scrubbed all the racks with Brillo pads.  The house stunk from self cleaning and my hands hurt because I stupidly didn’t use gloves while scrubbing with steel wool but my oven is so pretty.  I just keep opening the door and looking at the beautiful, spotless blue interior.  Plus, I think food tastes better from a clean oven.  I also cleaned out the fridge.  That box of black bean soup that no one is going to eat, bye!  The four lemons I have cut and then save in four different ziplock bags for another use… see ya!  Maybe if I always kept them in the same place I wouldn’t have FOUR of them.  So stupid and wasteful.  All those little crumbs in the fridge drawer are wiped away.  Ahhhh

Today I put the frozen turkey in the fridge so it will (should) have plenty of time to thaw.  I’m also going to do another grocery run: white bread for me to cut into cubes for stuffing, fresh parsley because if you clean it and roll in paper towels it lasts forever in the fridge, any dried herbs I may need to stock up on, potatoes…

Early next week I will move on to setting the table and the final grocery run.  Then, its go time!

What are you doing this year for Thanksgiving?  I know of several people who are celebrating with their household only which I think is very special (not to mention the safest course of action).  Rarely is Thanksgiving celebrated with just the people you live with so make it whatever you want.  I know people that are ordering pizza and I think that is AWESOME!   When we were kids we lived in Houston for a time.  There were a couple years we didn’t come home for Christmas.  One Christmas Eve we ordered Dominos Pizza for dinner and I will never forget it!  We thought it was the best thing that ever happened to us.  So, I want to hear what everyone is doing this year but I especially want to know if it is way outside of the box.

However you celebrate, wishing you a safe and very Happy Thanksgiving!
And don’t forget to

MANGIA! MANGIA!