First Thanksgiving is done!

 Hey I survived my first Thanksgiving of 2021.  Feel good about that.  It turned out pretty good.  Dan gave it a 9 out of 10 (overall).  The chicken dropped it down but more on that in a bit.  First of all, Smidge wanted to say hello.  

That is her royal face.  She is saying "Good Morning".  I am awake so you should be petting me instead of trying to get a picture of me MOM!"  Don't feel too bad for her.  She got her petting in PLUS I put my sweater around her a bit and I think that the neighbors might have even heard her purring after that.

So for Thanksgiving with Dan I let him chose the time and he chose 3.  Of course that meant he actually got here at 2 and, of course, that meant that dinner wasn't ready yet.  That is ok.  It gave him time to open up his birthday present from me.  His birthday is the day after Thanksgiving so I made sure he got his present in time.  He will be travelling to Tennessee on his birthday and meeting up with friends.  3 of his friends all have birthdays within a day of each other so that gather together and merge.  

See the crackers sticking up from the bag?  I made him five dips and gave him crackers.  The brown box has the real present in it.

https://www.ltdcommodities.com/Kitchen---Dining/Dinnerware---Serveware/Sets-of-2-Stoneware-Soup---Side-Bowls//prod1171340.jmp?fm=search

The sour cream container is filled with leftovers for him to take home.  No meat was left over (even though it was low man on the totem pole for points) but he did manage to take home leftover:  stuffing and gravy, some but not all of the mashed potatoes, a scoop of  mixed vegetables, some yam casserole, and fig bars.  He passed on taking any of the lava fudge brownies home (and forgot the ice cream in the freezer) because he knew that he wouldn't be able to handle both the brownies and the fig bars.  Smart man!

My timing for the meal wasn't too bad.  I mixed up the dips and made the fudge brownies the day before (cooked the brownies in the crock pot so all I had to do was keep it warm) and then on Monday morning, I pulled out my double folding table so I could get everything organized on it.

I think that is the best I've done so far.  The table is wide enough that I could line up the ingredients for each recipe and have them all out and ready.  Then at 3 p.m. we were all ready to eat and for the next 1 1/2 hours that is what we did.

We like to keep the table simple so this year this is what it looked like.  That is corn bread with honey butter on the table with us as well as the cup (literally) of gravy  for whatever.

Do those blocks in the background look familiar?  LOL.  I use my ironing board like a table so it held the dressing, the sweet potato casserole, the mashed potatoes (made with sour cram, garlic, and cream cheese) and the mix veggies.

On my dresser is where I put the fig bars and the entrée.  It was a new recipe, cranberry chicken.  Dan gave me the chicken thighs and asked if I could use them to cook "somehow" for Thanksgiving.  So I made that.  Never made it before and it was "ok" but after talking to him about it while we were eating, we both thought it was too many steps for what the end result was.

The cranberries (which also had carmelizing onions, brown sugar, white wine, and spices was too thin.  Since he showed up early, I didn't cook it down any more.  What we thought was a bit strange was that you didn't put the cranberries gravy (that is what it was meant to be) OVER the chicken.  It went into the bottom of the container first.  I think it would have been simpler and easier if you made cranberry relish or cranberry orange relish and put it on top of the chicken to bake into.  I might tray that sometime.  Also you zested an orange and used orange juice but only at the end of the baking time and then you mixed it into the cranberries.  I think that I would just put drizzle orange juice (it only called for 2 tablespoons) at the end over the chicken and then put the zest on at the last minute.  Or put orange marmalade on.  We'll see.

Still it was good to hear him groan and moan while he ate.  Every cook likes to know her cooking was appreciated.  Since we liked this challenge he has already invited himself to New Years Eve (whenever we decide to celebrate it) and he has some chicken leg and thigh quarters that I get to cook.  It has to have cheese in the recipe too.  LOL.  He will be here for Christmas Eve dinner which, so far, will be ham. 

Today I put the house back together and did the dishes.  I will probably do laundry tomorrow.  It's time to relax and pull out some of my own dip and crackers since I'm still full from yesterday.  Of course I might also pull out the mashed potatoes which I love so much and just eat them.  We'll see.

Here is a picture of my fig bars.  They truly are fig bars since they like to stick to the plate.  If I make them again, I think I will make sure there is wax or parchment paper on the plate first.  Still it didn't affect the taste.  They certain are "figgy" since the recipe calls for 2 cups of chopped figs!

Every have a great day/evening and enjoy life.