Happy Thanksgiving!

I have celebrated the American Thanksgiving ever since I got married and moved down to the US. Most of our menu is made up of the dishes I ate at home for Canadian Thanksgiving (the second Monday in October) for years and years. For the most part, the only thing that changes from year to year is dessert. On this list of musts:

-roasted turkey (using Alton Brown's recipe for Good Eats Roast Turkey, it's the best!)
-gravy (using the pan drippings, wine, and the technique taught to me by my Mom)
-garlic rosemary focaccia (using the recipe from Gourmet Magazine)
-sausage chestnut stuffing (using a recipe from my Mom)
-mashed potatoes (with lumps since that's how Max likes to make it)
-holiday sweet potatoes (using a recipe from a former co-worker)
-wine

Instead of cranberry sauce, we're having fresh cranberry orange relish this year. Dessert is pecan pie. I'll be using a recipe from my Mom. In the past I've also made pumpkin pie and caramel-cranberry nut tart.

Every year, as I gather all the recipes and start making the grocery list, I always have to develop a game plan on how I'm going to get everything done, figure out what is going in the oven when. Every year I say to Max, I should create a booklet, you should help me map the process. But then every year, when Thanksgiving is over, I'm too tired to do any of that. Maybe this year will be the year. Ha. I think we'll be too busy playing Zelda on the Nintendo Wii.

Happy Thanksgiving!

p.s. Happy Birthday Justin