The Host With The Most! or Holiday Hosting Without Doing the Most!
For our family, Thanksgiving 2000 was different than any other. We
celebrated the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day with my father's family. This
was a great idea because we were able to all be together without having to
leave to see other relatives. We also did something new, which my aunt
coordinated, each of us brought a dish or two to dinner. But it was not
potluck the menu was predetermined and then the recipes were given out to
each person or couple. The recipes were my aunt's favorites that she too
had prepared before. Considering that we were fourteen people at the table
the pre planning made the whole meal much easier for everyone. We are
always that many or more for regular family dinner and holidays which makes
the cooking quite a job for the host and leaves newer members of the family
in awe that will never be able to prepare such meals in the future. Also,
during dinner we were all exchanging stories and laughing about the
problems we had preparing our dishes. My aunt had a special view because
she was able to taste the recipes created by a different hand.
We did all the thanksgiving dishes, turkey with walnut, raisin, shitaki
mushroom stuffing, cooked breast side down to keep the breast moist and
tender. Homemade corn bread, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet
potato casserole, steamed broccoli, saut+ed oyster mushrooms, vermouth
enhanced gravy and butternut squash soup as first course. Dessert was
homemade apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and of course pumpkin pie and
roasted chestnuts. All these recipes and more can be found at
http://www.dateable.com/simplydelicious/ many of which can be used for the
up coming holidays.
As Hanukkah, Christmas, Kawanza, Boxing Day and New Years Day approach you
may want to consider planning the meal and menu ahead of time. Everyone
will enjoy participating and you won't end up with too many desserts that
all have to be served to avoid offending the guest. Although you may think
that people do not want to be told what to bring to dinner, the opposite is
really true. Put yourself in their shoes, overwhelmed with holiday
responsibilities, not knowing what to bring to the host, wouldn't be easier
to have one gift replaced by the delicious dish you will all enjoy
together. If anyone does try out the dinner plan we would love to hear
about it!
Happy Holidays
gourmet@...
