The Final Menu

After a very busy 24 hours, Thanksgiving is officially over and went off without a hitch! I really can't complain about how anything turned out. Family arrived and departed safely, all the dishes were warm and yummy, and everyone had a great time. That's about all you can ask for when running a feast like this.

The menu changed slightly on the day of, but not too drastically. This was the final run-down of our dishes (linked to recipes where I have them) -

Appetizers: Hot mulled cider, freshly baked wheat bread, parmigian red-pepper twists, carrots & broccoli, bean dip, spinach feta dip, and maple-cheddar cheese paprika spiced popcorn.

Main Course: Locally bought, brined turkey

Sides: Garlic mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes stuffed in oranges, maple glazed carrots, mixed greens salad with pears, pomegranite seeds, and freshly made croutons, baked spinach, homemade cranberry sauce, an assortment of rolls, stuffing, and corn.

Whipped Butters (so good, they deserve their own category): Plain, thyme & garlic, cranberry orange, and honey cinnamon.

Desserts: Pumpkin pie, chocolate pecan pie, and apple pie/gallette.

Hope your Thanksgiving was as delicious and heartwarming as mine!

- Cait

43 hours and counting

We're now less than 48 hours from Thanksgiving dinner being served. I feel ridiculously behind, though I think most rational people would contest where I placed the word 'ridiculous' in that sentence. I think I may be getting a poor example from the food bloggers that I follow, because they're prepared almost to the minute for this single meal.

I now have an hourly schedule, and I bought a white board for my fridge to keep me on-schedule during the actual day. I have a grocery list that will be completed when I go to the store in an hour. I'm making cranberry sauce tonight, finishing the polishing, and trying to organize my ingredients in a reasonable way.

Two days ago my husband and I worked on setting up the dining room. This included adding the two leaves to the table, moving a bench in to serve as seating, and double-checking all of our serving bowls and platters. While I knew what I wanted my menu to look like, I hadn't checked if I actually had dishes to serve all of the courses in.

This was my dining room table decked out with basically every bowl and platter I could find in my cupboards. It's already quite a lot (though my cacti are in the middle there), but I found out I was one or two servers shot, especially for appetizers. Otherwise, things broke down like this -

Yes indeed, I did label my photograph of serving bowls, because otherwise there's about a 95% chance I would forget half of what I planned and have a few panicked moments before dinner.

As it is, I feel very nicely prepared to serve the meal. Now all I have to do is cook it!

- Cait

Polishing Silver

When my mother-in-law visited in September, she brought her mother's wedding silver to us, because we had upcoming events where we might use it (hello, Thanksgiving). I was really blown away by this, and told her I'd do what I could to take care of the set. It hadn't seen much use recently, and could use a good polish, so I set about finding out how best to do this on the cheap.

The silver wasn't in bad shape at all. Probably more dirty than tarnished, but the set does have some patterning that would be hard to get at, and so washing wouldn't be good enough. I needed something that would really polish the pieces.

I knew of two methods immediately. One involved using cloths like these, which I've had on hand for my bassoon keys for many years. I ordered four, and they arrived within a few weeks. I gotta say though, they are tough to use, and take more hand strength than I seem to possess (after going through a few pieces, anyway). The way they work is that the white side is more abrasive, and will remove dirt, grime, and tarnish; the black side is a soft polishing cloth that you use after the white side.

The biggest problem so far is that the cloths have gotten dirty faster than I had expected. I still had well over half the set to go, and I had used 3 of my 4 cloths up.

So, on a recent trip to walmart, I picked this up to try as well -

I used it last night on the remaining butter knives, and I have to say it was much easier than the cloths. And lining them up next to each other, I couldn't tell the difference between the cloth and the cream polished knives. Given the time crunch to Thursday, I'll probably keep going with the cream, and use the black sides of the cloths to give each piece a finishing touch. And, because I'm hyper-compulsive like this, when I place the silverware on the table for the official meal, I'll be using the black cloths so I don't leave any fingerprints.

Overall, these two things together work really well. Not professionally well or anything, but absolutely passable for a family meal. It's hard to see, but this picture shows you the before and after of polishing. The before is on the bottom, and the after is on top. Look how shiny it was with some polishing, I could barely photograph it!

I probably should have done more research ahead of time, but life's been pretty busy recently, and while I wanted the silver to look spectacular for Thanksgiving it wasn't a top priority. One thing I wish I'd found earlier was this article here, from the Society of American Silversmiths. I have an especial fondness for this piece of silver guidance because it comes from a museum conservator, a group that I admire and greatly respect. The author recommended for basic polishing needs that washing the set frequently was the best way to avoid tarnish, and to otherwise use one of these creams: 3M's Tarni-Shield Silver Polish, Twinkle Silver Polish, Blitz Silver Care Polish, and Weiman Silver Polish. Sounds like they should be available at most commercial hardware stores, and I clearly found the Weiman at Walmart. I feel lucky that it comes highly recommended afterall!

My total cost to care for the silver set? $12.93. To try two different methods, this wasn't a bad price to pay. And I think the silver is going to be a really outstanding addition to the table. Thanks again to my mother-in-law for bringing it!

- Cait

Six days to go

As you already know, Thanksgiving has been at the forefront of my domesticated mind the past few weeks. Even with getting furniture into our sparser rooms, the goal has been to make guests as comfortable as possible. That's meant pulling the guest bedroom together, trying to find chairs that will match the living room, etc. We haven't been entirely successful so far (especially in the chair department), but I'll be making another stop at the Habitat for Humanity store before Thursday.

In the meantime, Thanksgiving prep is all about food, as it should be. I've done some reading into how other cooks have prepped their Thanksgiving meal, and the advice was pretty much the same across the board -

1) Clean your kitchen and fridge well in advance.

2) Make a menu and a full grocery list, and buy things in advance if you can.

3) Make sure you have the dishes and platters to actually serve the dishes you've selected.

4) Set a schedule for the week leading up to the big day, and know what you can prep in advance (pie dough, vegetable chopping, etc).

5) Do a dry run of setting up your table to double check whether you have enough dishes, silverware, and space on your table.

Despite my planning and reading, I have to admit I haven't done a great job with this list so far. I've bought some things in advance, and I have a menu and grocery list, but I haven't set my schedule or checked my dishes. Cleaning the kitchen will happen this afternoon, and I've been plowing through the dishes every day. I've also been polishing the silver set we just inherited from my husband's grandmother, and bought extra plates and bowls where I knew I needed them.

Once I have things that are more photogenic (like setting up my table), I'll be sure to post pictures. I'll also include my schedule, once I've written it down!

What are your Thanksgiving plans? Are you cooking the whole thing, cooking parts, or blessedly being cooked for? Being a bit of a Thanksgiving nerd, I'd love to hear about your plans!

- Cait

Craigslist and Restore Magic

In my constant preparation for Thanksgiving (in less than 3 weeks! Ack!), I'm constantly scouring craigslist for deals on the pieces of furniture I still need. This week I got lucky, and found a simple wooden hutch for $35, with a $10 delivery charge. It was in my dining room half an hour after clicking the craigslist link.

It's not fancy. And it's a little short, actually. But overall, it's exactly what we needed. I've filled it up with a few things to just get them out of the way in other cabinets, and you can see what it would look like filled. Designed it is another matter though.


Instead, I've been trying to make up little designs in other areas of the house. Like on the mantle, where I've started a collection of blue glass and fake flowers. I think it looks cute in this close-up, but the mantle is reeeeaaaallly long, so it actually ends up looking a little empty. But I can pretend that the picture is the way it looks in real life, right?

Right.

- Cait