The menu here is one of the projects in the HP thing I mentioned in my last post. Very easy and nice, if you have a decent color printer to use. You just type in your menu on the .pdf file, and print. I like!
So let’s go over the menu, one item at a time. Most of the items are already online, so I won’t need to type them out. I will just send you to the appropriate sites for the recipes. My next posts will cover my own timetable for preparing everything, some it it can be done ahead.
The Old Sturbridge Village Gourd Soup is made with butternut squash. You can certainly use any winter squash, but when I first had this at the Village, it was made with butternut squash and beef broth, that’s the way I love it, and that’s the way I will always want it. ‘Nuff said.
The beer we are serving is from Brewery Ommegang, which we first discovered in Cooperstown, NY, The Place Where Baseball Lives. It’s their flagship beer, their Abbey Ale. You can read more about it HERE. We’ve been having it with Thanksgiving dinner almost every years since we first discovered it. Luckily, they’ve expanded distribution beyond upstate New York, and you may well be able to find it at a well-stocked liquor/beer store. Here in New England, many Kappy’s locations carry it, that is where we get it when we can’t make it to Cooperstown!
Good Eats Roast Turkey is the best I have ever tried. I was thinking of doing a Martha Stewart recipe this year, but I decided to go back to Alton Brown’s tried & true. Do it right, follow the instructions, and you WILL NOT FAIL. Trust me.
However, I did like the sound of Martha’s recipe in Everyday Food for the Bourbon Gravy. You can see it as part of the entire menu HERE.
For the past several years, I made mashed potatoes with sour cream, butter and cream cheese. Very tasty, but I was ready for somewhat of a change. I saw a yummie looking recipe for this cheesey mashed potato casserole, on a show called The Holiday Table. CreateTV on PBS was running a Thanksgiving cooking marathon all day and night on Saturday, and I caught several episodes of this excellent program. I was a bit turned off by the idea of putting salami into this, so I am going to leave it out. But I love the idea of lots of butter, milk, and two cheeses, as well as the ability to prepare this ahead of time and bake it later.
The Stuffing Muffins was another idea from The Holiday Table show. I don’t like to stuff the turkey, but I love the taste of stuffing. I also don’t like traditional recipes that make WAY too much. This recipe will be PERFECT for us! Once again, it can be made ahead, and baked off after the turkey is out of the oven and resting. This is such a cool idea that I’d not heard of before!
Yet another recipe from this same program (not the same episode, though), is this one for Brussels Sprouts with Sweet & Sour Bacon Dressing. This follows the same basic steps that Julia Child gives, and which I posted HERE. Blanch the sprouts first, and then further cook them later. You can certainly do the blanching part ahead of time, cooling and storing as Julia suggested. When it’s close to dinnertime, just have the sprouts out at room temp, and finish the recipe. No more overcooked, nasty Brussels sprouts!
The Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie is from The Joy of Cooking (1997 version, don’t know if it’s in any others, this is the only version I have). Recipe will be posted soonly! You can either use your favorite pie crust recipe (single crust), or buy a pre-made frozen one.
Finally, unless you live in or near Maine, you won’t be able to enjoy the Roughshod Blueberry Wine with Oregon Grape Brandy dessert wine. The Blacksmiths Winery, who makes this, only sells in Maine. We picked some up when we were in Portland a few weeks ago. All I can say is that if you are ever in Maine, or near it, take the time to seek this out. They make many other tasty wines, too!
Coming next will be any recipes that I didn’t link to here, plus a timeline. Enjoy! 
