The Ultimate Make-Ahead Thanksgiving Plan!

I have been eating the same dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas my whole life:  Roast Turkey with sage dressing, whipped potatoes with giblet gravy, sauteed green beans, mashed sweet potatoes with mini-marshmallows sprinkled on top, and the inevitable canned cranberry circle of mush artfully arranged on top of a leaf of ice burg lettuce.  Now don't get me wrong -- I love a nice roasted turkey dinner and the holidays are the only time I seem to eat it but it's the SAME MEAL EVERY TIME!  Okay, every once in a while there's a ham with scalloped potatoes so let's say up to now I've had...um...about 81 turkey dinners, 15 ham dinners, and then there was the one Thanksgiving I baked trout.  Oh, yeah, and one time at Christmas I made Teriyaki chicken with sweet potato and black bean casserole.

So a couple weeks ago I was skimming through my Real Simple magazine when I stumbled upon  "The Ultimate Make-Ahead Thanksgiving with these crowd pleasing recipes that you can prep in advance - plus an easy-to-follow timeline - your table will be deliciously composed come November 24.  As will you." and I thought, well who could pass that up?  Not me!  I'm gonna make the whole turkey dinner featured in this magazine!  Well everything except for two of the cranberry dishes because really -- do you need cranberry jelly, cranberry relish, AND cranberry compote?  They supply a list of ingredients that they assume I may already have (which was amazingly accurate) and a list of things I'll need to buy, but the most exciting list for me is the "Get-It-Done-Early Thanksgiving Timeline".  Wait -- did you hear that?  Every time I say "Get-It-Done-Early Thanksgiving Timeline" I swear a hear a choir of angels sing.

What's the menu?  Thought you'd never ask!

Cider-Glazed Turkey

Bourbon Gravy

Sausage and Apple Stuffing

Scalloped Potatoes

Brown Sugar-Glazed Carrots with Rosemary and Pecans

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Poppy Seeds

Jellied Cranberry-Ginger Sauce

No-Knead Onion Rolls

Sweet Potato Pie with Candied Nut Cream

So today I shop for ingredients.  Tomorrow I pick up my turkey (an organic free-range turkey bought at the Tacoma Food Co-Op!), and I have three things to prepare.  Tuesday will be a busy day:  six sides to prep, a pie to bake, and I have my piano lesson at 5:30!  Luckily for me I only have one thing to make on Wednesday since that's the day I volunteer at the Food Co-Op.

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about this dinner.