Tomorrow John & I are hosting our first Thanksgiving. Back story: about a month ago my parents told me they would be out of town for Thanksgiving, so John & I decided to find other Thanksgiving-less people & invite them over.
Y'all, it's been Thanksgiving crazy up in here. But in a good way. I bought the November issue of all the magazines & started a
. While I starting bookmarking recipes, John MADE A LEAF FOR OUR DINING ROOM TABLE. Now that we had a menu taking shape & a place for everyone to sit, it was time to bring in the big guns: Delaney.
Delaney is my own personal, in the flesh, Julia Child. Aside from the fact that she hosts Thanksgiving every year, her brain is wired for organization in the same way mine is. So I asked her to meet me for lunch & talk me through Thanksgiving. We met at Arnolds, natch. And I took notes, so many notes, notes covered in hot sauce & dried banana pudding. And then! The coup de grace, Delaney emailed me her Thanksgiving spreadsheet. Y'all. I can't even.
While I doubt Thanksgiving is what Hilary was referring to, it definitely has taken a village to get this whole dang deal off the ground. Aside from Delaney's spreadsheet & Alton Brown YouTube videos, I'm using all of my mom's turkey tools, Heidi's roasting pan & rack, as well as her mom's stuffing recipe. I'm also leaning on my dinner guests to fill in some of the gaps with the menu & server-ware. Because everything I registered for when I got married is completely useless.
I'm running the Boulevard Bolt in the morning, so I'm making almost everything today. I'm making Delaney's 7-layer salad, Heidi's mom's stuffing, my granny's pumpkin pies, pecan pie bars & browning the butter for tomorrow's Smitten Kitchen brown butter mashed potatoes. The only thing I'll have to do tomorrow is make the mashed potatoes, warm the rolls & keep John on turkey-track.
Yay, Thanksgiving!