Turkey Day Preparations

Each year we travel to Ohio to celebrate Thanksgiving with my husband's family. As such, I need only prepare a few dishes, rather than an entire feast.

Ah, it is a beautiful, cold morning.

Time to get busy. Last evening I played sous chef for my daughter, who made Outrageous Brownies. This morning it was time to cut them and put them in a container for traveling.

Then it's on to the Broccoli, Bacon and Dried Cranberry Salad. I clean and chop broccoli, celery and red onion. Cooked bacon is chopped and added to the salad. Dried cranberries are tossed in. Mayonnaise, white vinegar and sugar are mixed to taste. The dressing is stirred into the salad. Two dishes down.

Being such a nice mom, I chopped some green onion and beef for my daughter, who will later be making the cheese ball.

After making the cheese ball, she worked on breakfast for tomorrow. The dear daughter made a double batch of pie dough and rolled it out. A bit of milk is spread out and sugar and cinnamon are generously sprinkled on top. She then carefully rolled the dough up along one long side before cutting the roll into 1/2 to 1-inch pieces. The rolls were placed, cut side up, in a greased baking dish and baked at 375 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. These rolls will never really brown, so watch carefully and pull them out of the oven when the dough has cooked through.

And here are the cinnamon rolls as well as our three dishes that will travel with us tomorrow.

And now, on to dinner. I still have a few pomegranate arils left over from earlier this month and decided that I would used these in a vinaigrette for my salad. Here I have black pepper, salt, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and the pomegranate arils.

First I push the arils through a sieve to extract the juice. The remaining pulp and seeds are discarded.

I then whisk in the olive oil and season with a bit of black pepper and salt. A splash of white wine vinegar is added to the mix.




After tasting, I decide to add a bit of honey.

Very nice. And this is just enough for one salad. My family is so relieved.

Well, dinner is finished, the kitchen has been cleaned and we are ready for our trip tomorrow.






And now I wish you all a very happy and safe Thanksgiving Day.

Happy Turkey Day!