Thanksgiving Is Coming

My favorite holiday of the year is Thanksgiving.  For one thing I have a ton to be thankful for and for another my children have a break from school so I get to spend more time with them. 

 

The other big reason I love Thanksgiving is because I love to cook and bake so this holiday was tailor made for me!   

I love everything about it!  Sharing our blessings and what we are thankful for while we roast a big bird, bake pies and dinner rolls, play games and put a puzzle together.  I took inventory the other day and discovered I have everything I need on hand already to prepare our feast.  Wow!  That is pretty exciting when you think about it. 

We have our turkey in the freezer, shrink wrapped and vacuum sealed, leftover from a promotional buy at the grocery store last year so I definitely will be cooking that bad boy up.  How I do it will be a challenge if I don’t get my oven fixed soon!  I’ll figure it out though. 

I have potatoes and cornstarch for mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots, celery and onions in cold storage plus a large assortment of frozen veggies, pumpkin puree in the freezer left from last year and my Mom just blessed me with three more pumpkins from her garden yesterday, all the ingredients to make pie crusts and rolls are in my refrigerator and pantry, plus olives and pickles for a relish dish.  If we quit giving our bread scraps to the chickens we would have bread cubes for stuffing but we discussed it and decided to forego stuffing this year.  Can you imagine? 

All I can think I might need to pick up is a bottle of wine and sparkling cider for the girls.   

Then I get to think about all the things I’ll be creating out of all those leftovers.  Thanksgiving dinner really is the gift that keeps on giving, after all.  Turkey and dumplings – yum!  Turkey sandwiches – yum!  Pumpkin pie for breakfast – double yum! 

I always make a big pot of broth from the carcass and freeze in containers to use later down the road in other recipes.  And so we don’t burn out on turkey I like to put some of it in the freezer to eat later too. 

Do you have big plans yet for the holiday?  What things do you like to prepare for this special meal?