Hello Kirsti: menus

Hey at least it's slightly less than a month after the fact, and Thanksgiving dinnering totally applies to Christmas dinner too!
I was head chef this year which was tons of fun with my sous chef Momma
The Menu:

Wild rice & Corn Soufflé (A holiday staple, see Easter post for directions)

Stuffing (Box beefed up)

I semi-homemade'd the boxed stuffing by sautéing diced onion in the butter and added dried cranberries, I also made it with double butter, because it's Thanksgiving and you go with it)

Red Mashed potatoes

I mashed them on the stove over low heat in the pot with Mom's immersion blender, which worked really well, except they sorta turned to runny glue... so then we Pyrex'd them and baked them in the toaster oven for a few more hours which cooked off a bunch of the water in them and turned them into twice baked like yummy amazing-ness.

Bread - Dad rocked the bread machine with his yummy sourdough

Turkey Breast from Wegmans, it was sooo good. (There were 6 of us for dinner so it was the perfect amount).

Steam in Bag Peas (keeping it real here)
Cranberry sauce (can, keeping it real real)

Gravy =)

Dessert - Dreamy Apple Pie

We even tried to give Grandma a feather but her hair is too short =(
Yes my dad is a pro feather-er, tehehe.

Remember these folks?
Well the folks who's house this is...

Post Flood Moving Crew

Well they had this adorable little boy, Ethan Matthew

(Photo Credit Lindsay Gross)

The new little family is at an extended stay hotel while the bottom half of their house gets rebuilt.

And of course me being me, I HAD to feed them. It’s what I do.

The Menu

Whole Grain French loaf with compound herb butters
Hearts of romaine with carrot, cucumber, tomato, and fresh parmesan
Jennie-O Turkey Tenderloin (Sam’s Club)

Tequila Lime
Garlic Herb

Garlic Roasted New Potatoes – Pioneer Woman (Detailed Post coming)
Caramelized Vidalia onions
French Green Beans (Trader Joes’s)
Sugar Cookie Bars - Love & Olive Oil (Detailed post coming)

Décor

I set the table with my black and white theme, which works so well with my white dishes, paired with glass and white serving ware. (Can you tell I’m a matchy person yet?)

Andrew of course was in charge of tunes starting Ethan off with a love of jazz from the start. We had a slideshow of Ethan’s newborn portraits going as well on the TV.

Since I have a long narrow kitchen, I tossed some lemons in a pitcher to help prevent the inevitable kitchen bottle neck. Plus it looked pretty.

So I was a total failure at taking a picture of us at the table, or Ethan with his parents, so here’s a pic of Andrew with his godson.

A true sorority girl I went with a themed dinner, settling on Italian since I was cooking for 12 for the first time, pasta sounded like a good intro. Cooking details to come for some of the items,I was a little too busy to photo document as much as I usually do, but for now the items with recipes are linked. Andrew gets lots of best boyfriend ever points for making his famous sangria and Alfredo and all his help in the kitchen.

Antipasta

Fresh Breads

Compound Herb Butters

(Alton Brown, Food Network, Ask Aida)

Romaine Salad

Assortment of Dressings

Cena

Alfredo de Andrew

Marinara Sauce de Pioneer Woman

Fettuccine

Chicken

Meatballs