Two weeks from tomorrow it will be Thanksgiving Day, so suffice it to say the countdown to Turkey Day has officially begun! To kick off my official preparation process, I am getting organized. As I may have mentioned in recent posts, I am going to be hosting my entire family for thanksgiving this year. While the idea of hosting Thanksgiving for nine people is definitely intimidating, I have devised a plan for how to go about preparing and executing what I think (hope) will be a fabulous turkey dinner. Leading up to the big day, I plan to walk you all through my preparation process to hopefully provide some guidance and ideas/inspiration for hosting your own Thanksgiving. Selfishly, I am also hoping that this blog project will also keep me from feeling overwhelmed during my own prep! In any event, here is what I am focusing on this week for "Operation: Turkey Day Prep!"

Decide on your Menu

Once you have your guest list set, you need to get your menu planned. The majority of prep work for hosting thanksgiving dinner is determined by the menu, so take some time to go through all of your recipes and figure out exactly what you want to serve. Here is a list of what I plan to serve for thanksgiving dinner, with links to recipes I have found online.

Cooks Illustrated Thanksgiving Recipes.JPG

Thanksgiving Turkey (*Turkey 101 will be up on the blog this Friday)
Fluffy Mashed Potatoes (found in this issue of Cook's Illustrated)
Gravy (Recipe on the Jar)
Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Pecans
Sausage, Chestnut and Wild Mushroom Stuffing
Mom's New England Creamed Onions
Steamed Green Peas
Cranberries with Apples and Brandy
Dinner Rolls (from a local bakery, purchased on Thanksgiving)
Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Swirl
Sea Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pecan Pie with Whiskey Butter Sauce
Dean & Deluca's Acorn Sugar Cookies (*Matches my Tablescape Theme)

Make a Master Grocery List

This sounds really nerdy, but oh how it has helped to make a master spreadsheet that details the exact ingredients (+ quantities) for every recipe on my menu. The beauty of creating a master spreadsheet is that you will have ability to see exactly how much of every ingredient is needed. Why is this a beautiful thing?

You can make a comprehensive grocery shopping list, which should mitigate the grocery store trips.
You can crosswalk your list with what you already have in your pantry and fridge, to avoid buying duplicate items.

Clean Out Your Fridge and Pantry

This brings me to my next point…right now is the perfect time to completely clean out both your refrigerator and your pantry. We all have those forgotten perishables that are still being stored in our kitchens and taking up valuable real estate. This is the time to get rid of them to make room for all of the food that is about to come into With everything I plan to serve for thanksgiving dinner, I need to make as much space available as possible.

Assess Your Inventory

In addition to organizing your menu, pantry list and grocery shopping, it is just as important to make sure you have all of the proper equipment needed for cooking and serving thanksgiving dinner. One trick I like to use for assessing my inventory is the good ole Post-it! Label each piece of cookware and serving dish with what they will be holding or cooking. This way you can see what goes where and identify any menu items that do not have a proper serving dish or if you are missing any necessary cookware. One thing that came to my attention while conducting this exercise, was that I was in need of a baking dish for the creamed onions. It is so much better to find out now what you are missing while you still have time to go out and purchase those necessary items. Below are the questions I ask myself when it comes to assessing my inventory:

Serving Pieces- Does every menu item have a designated serving dish and corresponding serving utensil?
Cookware- Based on my cooking timeline, does every menu item have the appropriate piece of cookware available for use when it's time to cook that particular dish?
Dinnerware- Do I have enough Stemware, Flatware, Glassware, Dinnerware and Linens for (insert # of guests) to properly dine?

Start the Cleaning Process Now

The one part of entertaining that usually puts me over the top with exhaustion is the cleaning. Not only do you have to plan a menu, set the table and cook the meal, but you also want to have a clean house to entertain your guests. I recommend getting those cleaning projects that are less frequent but still need to be done, out of the way now. For example, I am going to be polishing my silver, dusting my light fixture and cleaning my windows. These are tasks that are only in need of monthly cleanings, but still need to be kept up with because it's noticeable when they are not properly maintained.

Just writing about getting organized with my Thanksgiving preparations has already helped to calm my nerves. Personally, I feel like accomplishing this list will help to reassure me that I really CAN DO THIS! Regardless of your guest size, hosting Thanksgiving Dinner is no easy feat, so having an action plan can really help to get you on track for hosting a fabulous turkey dinner.

It is not a surprise that I love to both cook and bake. However, for a while I had been stuck in a rut and was consistently making the same series of recipes over and over again (so boring!). At the start of the summer I decided that I wanted to finally address this repeat cooking cycle issue and explore new culinary recipes, techniques and tools. Since then I have learned to make creme brûlée, ciabatta bread from scratch, create husband approved dishes that contained lentils and purchase new kitchen tools as an informed consumer. My culinary success over the summer can primarily be attributed to 3 resources: Cook's Illustrated, thekitchen.com and Sprouted Kitchen. Here is a little more detail on why I think these resources have been so inspirational and worthy of sharing with you all today.

Cook's Illustrated

Cook's Illustrated has been around for a while and is a staple resource for a lot of people. I have only recently come to the party and discovered the wonderful world of Cook's Illustrated. Better late than never! Cook's Illustrated can best be described as Myth Busters meets Consumer Reports meets The Joy of Cooking. This cookbook along with the monthly magazines are great resources for not only laying out the best way to, for example- butterfly a chicken or properly season hamburger meat, but Cook's also provides you with the reasoning/evidence for why a certain technique is preferred and the best cooking tools to use for specific tasks. The Cook's Illustrated cookbook contains a wealth of information for all of the most common recipes, so if you are looking for a resource that can help you to hone your culinary skills and provide you with a excellent knowledge base, I highly recommend checking out Cook's Illustrated Cookbook and Magazine Subscription.

The Kitchn

The famed website Apartment Therapy, which features unique and well decorated spaces all over the country, has a culinary spinoff site called The Kitchn. The Kitchn is a fabulous website filled with great recipes and all sorts of culinary information extras. In addition to the extensive database of delicious recipes, what really sets this website apart is the way in which they present each recipe. Not only does the Kitchn provide you with a detailed list of all of the ingredients and equipment you will need to successfully execute a given recipe, but they also include a gallery of images detailing what every step of the recipe should look like. Love that! I cannot tell you how many times I have gone through an entire recipe step by step and ended up with result that looked nothing like the picture (so frustrating!). When I decided to try my hand at making my own ciabatta bread from scratch, it was beyond helpful to have images presented of what each step (for example- making the biga) should look like. The Kitchn provides very detailed recipes that have really helped me to perfect the art of say, making creme brûlée or baking homemade biscuits from scratch. All in all, this is another exceptional resource that I highly recommend checking out. *Note- the Kitchn also has a cookbook available for purchase (see here).

The Sprouted Kitchen and Bowl + Spoon

I first learned about Sara Forte from Ina Garten. I had attended one of Ina's book tour events in DC at the Sixth and I Synagogue (if you are a DC local, I highly recommend signing up for their newsletter- they host a variety of great events). During the Q&A portion of the event, one audience member asked Ina who her favorite chefs were at the moment. Ina rattled off a few favorites including Sara Forte. That evening after the event I went home and immediately googled Sara. Lo and behold, I discovered the Sprouted Kitchen! Sara's recipes are the very definition of whole foods cooking. She has created a series of recipes (both vegetarian and non-vegetarian), which her husband has beautifully captured in photographs, that are delicious and filled with healthy ingredients. Her most recent book, Bowl + Spoon, certainly does not disappoint! More beautiful photos, delicious recipes and everything served in a bowl (love that!). If you are looking for a new and healthy repertoire of recipes, I highly recommend checking out Sara's website and her two cookbooks (The Sprouted Kitchen and Bowl + Spoon).