Hosting my 1st Thanksgiving
About two months ago, my family booked tickets to spend Thanksgiving in NYC. That meant I needed to bond with my inner domestic goddess, whip out my Anthropologie apron and get to planning the ultimate 2009 feast. Now that it’s all over, I can say it was not as hard as I thought it would be, but let’s rewind a bit.
For the past two months, I’ve studied every home care magazine that has crossed my desk, read each Dining Out section from The New York Times and discussed topics such as brining and bread cubes with my teammate and seasoned cook, Corrie.
Once I finalized my menu, I printed it out and read it through many, many times. After basically memorizing it, I rehearsed the seven dish prep with my right-hand man, Andrew, who listened to me talk about everything from place settings to the location of our turkey’s innards.
The week of Thanksgiving came and I was ready to perform. Wednesday afternoon, I baked my pies a maple pumpkin and chocolate graham cracker. Then I began the search for those innards I previously mentioned so the turkey could begin its 24-hour swim in the brine. After 30 minutes of peeking around the turkey’s cavity, I decided ours came without these.
On Thursday morning, I made sausage and apple stuffing, chili pepper sweet potato rounds and goat cheese salad. Noon rolled around and I received a text from The Crooks saying they had landed. Timing could not have been more perfect. They walked in the door and we were 15 minutes away from DONE.
We kicked off the meal by discussing what we were thankful for
My dad: celebrating in NYC
My mom: a normal life with no worries
My brother: his upcoming tour at Yankee stadium
Myself: we’d still be at the table
Lilly: more people to laugh with
And I think Andrew said it best when he said he was thankful that the turkey came out ok. Although Thanksgiving isn’t the same without those fall-infused sides, we all know that the turkey is the leading lady on this holiday.
P.S. We found the innards after eating on Thursday. Until next year
