Monday, December 5, 2011

Our First Thanksgiving

Andy and I hosted our first Thanksgiving this year. We celebrated Thanksgiving Day at his aunt's house and hosted my family on Friday. It was such a great time. I hope that we get to host again someday.


I was so proud of us for pulling off our first big meal. Neither of us had ever made a turkey before, but it came out without a hitch thanks to a melding recipes from the Betty Crocker and America's Test Kitchen cookbooks.


I am a total stuffing-with-sausage convert. I can't believe I had never eaten it that way before. We had all of the fixin's and my family's traditional holiday dishes: Polish sausage with sauerkraut, homemade finger dumplings, and lazy man's pierogi (our's is minus the sausage).


I always get so distracted when guests arrive and forget to put out food. I finally wised up and hung a menu and "To Do" list to manage my giant task list and all of the different cooking times and temperatures. This was BRILLIANT and I can't believe that I've never done this before. I saw Andy checking the list and crossing stuff off all afternoon. I'm doing this for every party. It's so much easier than using my phone.


For the table, I used a table runner that I got on clearance at Crate & Barrel a few seasons ago. And because I am nothing, if not predictable, I whipped up some place cards using leaf patterns that I downloaded and cut with the Silhouette SD.

 
 
 

2 comments:

Linda said...

What a great job! I'm always impressed with your place settings!

MegsyWegsDesign said...

I might have to make these Thanksgiving place cards for my family this year. My parents still host the holidays since they're basement is big enough to hold our huge family. My sisters and I take care of the decorations including table decor.

This blog is great Tina :)