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How to Host a Friendsgiving Your BFFs Won’t Forget
When it comes to entertaining for Thanksgiving, I’m either one extreme or the other – it’s either Chinet paper plates and plastic tablecloths, or a full-on beautiful fall tablescape with formal place settings. When I’m helping my grandma host, we typically go for the former (because we’re usually feeding 30+!) But when I’m able to host a smaller gathering of family or friends, I am all about gorgeous table settings and beautiful centerpieces. Fall is such a fun time to doll-up your home decorations and truly wow your guests! This holiday season, Friendsgiving is great opportunity to try out new styles and make entertaining more fun and personal. One decor…
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Meal Planning through Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving week!! For those of us who love to cook and entertain, it’s like our Super Bowl! And at the same time – for those of us who like to operate with a meal plan, it can feel like we’re drowning without our structure and routine! Meal planning through the Thanksgiving holiday can certainly feel like the wheels have fallen off! Between travel, all that cooking for the big day, and then the mountains of leftovers, it’s easy to feel like you’re out of control of your dinnertime – but fear not! Here are a few tips to help get you (and me!) through this week! Plan to not…
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Green Bean Casserole (Gluten Free!)
Green bean casserole has always been one of my favorites on Thanksgiving. Fun fact – it was also the topic of my informative speech during public speaking class in college – how to make a green bean casserole – ha! But once I started getting funny about cream of whatever soups (trying to avoid MSG), I thought my relationship with green bean casserole was over. Until I found Alton Brown’s Best Ever Green Bean Casserole, that is. What I love most about his recipe is the homemade cream of mushroom sauce that makes the casserole. I’ve made this several times, first exactly as he wrote it, then I tweaked it…
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5 Simple Tips to Dominate Thanksgiving Dinner!
Hosting Thanksgiving is exciting for some, and stressful for others. I’ve found that the key to keeping it low-stress (regardless of the size of the gathering or how many dishes you’re preparing), is having a plan! Doing the things that can be done ahead of time prior to Thanksgiving day will go a long way towards lightening the load! Here are my 5 tips to help you dominate Thanksgiving dinner! Tip 1 – Decide What Kind of Gathering You’ll Host– Size: Small and intimate or large and feisty?– How Formal: Will you be eating on paper plates or the special China?– Who’s Cooking: Is it a pot-luck or are you…
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My Thanksgiving All-Stars
I typically spend my Thanksgivings alternating between my grandma’s house and Blake’s family. And so while I haven’t hosted turkey day at my home but once or twice,  I’m usually making half a dozen sides to contribute to the meal and so I’ve acquired my favs over the years. My office also has an annual Thanksgiving lunch, and so I get another opportunity to try new recipes and perfect the tried and true. Ever since I began eating cleaner and cutting out all the “cream of whatever” soups, I’ve been on a quest to find recipes that are just as flavorful, but truly made from scratch. So far so good. I’m…
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Road trip with my boys… all by myself
Part of being married means you’ve got to split holidays. So for Blake and me, it means we alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between Georgia and Florida. And this year, it’s was Thanksgiving in Florida. However, this year presented a small complication… Blake recently started a new job… and his new restaurant happens to be open for Thanksgiving… and Thanksgiving happens to be one of their busiest days. And so not wanting to miss the holiday with my family I decided I would brave the trip solo with the boys. Yes, you heard right. Despite all of the prior experiences that would point to this not being a good idea, I…
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Sweet Potato Casserole
This is my grandma’s sweet potato casserole. I’ve been eating it for as long as I can remember. It is by far, the best sweet potato dish I’ve ever eaten… and I recognize it’s hard to be objective about grandma’s recipes – but for real, this is great! I made this a couple of years ago for my Thanksgiving lunch at work and some of the ladies in my office adopted this as their go-to sweet potato recipe. And so now that I can’t make it (with my son’s tree nut allergy), I’m happy that they’ve got this recipe down and I can continue to enjoy one of my favorites.…
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Super Easy Pie Crust (and Pumpkin Pie)
When I found this recipe for pie crust on Pinterest, it seemed too good to be true. You mean to tell me that I can make a pie crust with four ingredients, without rolling it out, in the pie plate?? Why yes. Yes you can. When I first read that this crust was made with oil instead of butter, I was slightly put off. I put butter in everything! But I figured I’d give it a shot. To my pleasant surprise, this crust was good and flakey. To say I’m thrilled about this pie crust would be the understatement of the year. I stopped buying store-bought pie crusts a while…
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Squash Casserole
More of the Thanksgiving fare… squash casserole. I got this recipe from Blake’s Aunt June and first tried it at a family get-together. I was impressed by the flavor, the fact that it was not made with cream soup and how easy it is to throw together. It’s made it into my Thanksgiving all-star roster and I make it every year. Enjoy! Squash Casserole 2 1/2 lbs squash, sliced (see pic below) 1/2 medium onion, diced 1 egg 1 sleeve saltine crackers, crushed 1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1 stick of butter, melted Salt and pepper 1.) Steam squash and onion for about 10 to 12 minutes (or until…
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Broccoli and Blue Cheese Casserole
Next up on the Thanksgiving recipe line up… Broccoli Casserole. But this one has a little something special – blue cheese. I got this recipe from my aunt and have been making it for years. Even before I was a big blue cheese fan, I have loved this casserole! It’s a great from-scratch recipe with no cream soup but a whole lot of flavor. I served this at our office Thanksgiving lunch today and they ate it up! Broccoli and Blue Cheese Casserole 3 bunches of broccoli (about 9 stalks – see pic below) 4 tbsp butter 4 tbsp flour 1 tsp salt 8 ozs cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup…
