Friends:

My mom called me less than a week before Thanksgiving and asked me to host. Being the dutiful daughter and one who loves to cook and entertain, I agreed.

Preparation began a couple days before with all the shopping, cooking, cleaning and decorating. Fortunately, I had great help. My brother’s three little girls (Camrynn – 9, Ashlynn – 7, and Jasmynn – 6) plus my daughter, Eliana – 8, all helped with the cleaning and the cooking.

Here is Eliana cooking the stuffing for the mirlitons (chayote squash).

My little chef, Eliana, and I made a sweet potato eggnog pie.

This is what the pie looked like when it was done and it was yum! No, there isn’t a cookie cutter shape for a sweet potato so we used a pumpkin instead. In retrospect, I should have used a fall leaf so no one would mistake the pie for pumpkin!

Here is our wonderful Thanksgiving feast featuring Cajun fried turkey made by Clay, my cool stepdad. I had so much fun decorating the table. I just love throwing a party!

This is the other side of the table with the sides. We had 26 dishes in all. The main courses were Cajun fried turkey and rootbeer & Jack Daniels glazed ham. Appetizers included lumpia, a Filipino eggroll, stuffed roasted sweet peppers, ornamental turkey made of fruit & vegetables with ham, cheese & fruit skewers, and fruit dip. We had two soups – chicken & sausage gumbo and artichoke & spinach potato soup. Sides included boudin cornbread, balsamic vinegar & bacon brussel sprouts, black beans, cornbread stuffing, garlic cheese mashed potatoes, golden rice, green bean & artichoke casserole, macaroni & cheese, pineapple maple carrot souffle, roasted cauliflower, parsnips & mushrooms, stuffed mirlitons and sweet potato casserole with pecan crumble topping. As if that wasn’t enough, there were desserts – chocolate mousse cheesecake, Filipino fruit salad, strawberry jello cake, and sweet potato eggnog pie! Whew!

Here is the second table with more food…

This is a close-up of the fruit and veggie turkey Eliana and I made.

We had a houseful of people. Every year since I can remember, my mother has always invited single military men to dine with us. This year was no exception. We even had our Christmas tree up and ready, complete with presents underneath. My only disappointment was that there was hardly any turkey left over and we fried two birds!

We played games, told stories, and laughed late into the night. It was wonderful to share Thanksgiving with family and friends, both old and new. I love the holidays!

Until next time…

Warmly, Dianne

Tags: Cooking, Dianne de Las Casas, Thanksgiving

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 12:44 am and is filed under Cooking, Dianne de Las Casas, Thanksgiving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.