Thanksgiving Thinking

Thinking comes before planning. And I've been doing a lot of thinking. All the way back close to the 1st of November, I passed by a turkey made out of butter at the grocery store.

Butter speaks to me. It inspires me. I went right home and invited the whole family over for Thanksgiving.

Well that about sums up my Thanksgiving PLANS.

I haven't moved beyond that.

I'm thinking about Thanksgiving now though.

Hmmm....what kind of Thanksgiving do I want?

I'm not talking about the food! The menu is set in stone. It's "Americana" all the way. It's not "white trash" or "tacky." It's Americana!

We have the traditional TURKEY with MASHED POTATOES (cream & butter) and GRAVY with STUFFING.

Thanksgiving would not be Thanksgiving without GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE. I know it's made from cans. I know it's loaded with empty calories. That's why it's Thanksgiving food! And please, please, please just make it using the recipe off the can. Some people get fancy and try to add other stuff. NO! we want the recipe off the can!

We also have a "special" family recipe JELLO. This is one of the only times the whole year we even buy jello, much less make it. It's layered with raspberry jello, cream cheese and whipped cream.

And of course there is the RELISH TRAY and CRANBERRY SAUCE

We then start to vary the dishes depending who is coming -

Sweet Potatoes (Make em how ever you want - I'm NOT tasting them, but I will serve them). Broccoli Casserole (double up on the homemade bread cube topping!), Frozen Fruit Salad (It's a lot like a dessert but served with dinner), Green Salad (cuz we're all watching calories).

And of course - PUMPKIN, PECAN, CHOCOLATE CREAM and APPLE PIE with real whipped cream.

Enough about the menu. Like I said, it takes no thought. It's planned. it was planned at my very first Thanksgiving years ago.

The real question is -

Should I add a little Martha Stewart?

I remember the year that I carved out a little mini pumpkin for each place setting and set a tea light in it! I was soooo brilliant. I got out the DeWalt Drill and a large bit. Easy! Except that for some reason, I though the clean up would be easier if I did it in the basement. Hello - pumpkin guts spraying everywhere? What was wrong with doing this project OUTSIDE?

Then there was the year that I softened butter, rolled it flat, chilled it and cut out way cute leaf shapes. It only took hours to produce 40-50 leaf shaped butter pats. What was I thinking? It's that obsession with butter.

Then there was the year that I cut out some shape on 5 kinds of brown paper, hand drew a basket weave pattern and rolled them into mini cornucopias and stuffed them with candy and chocolate. Why?

Luckily, I've forgotten some of the other projects that seemed like such a good idea at the time - gold sprayed fall leaves, chocolate turkeys, and other assorted disasters. Oh and the time I went down to the basement for a SCRAP of wood and used the jigsaw to cut out a really cute turkey. I painted it with acrylic paint and drilled holes on the top of him so that I could have lollipops pocking out like feathers..........way cute - except that I cut up and painted a piece of OAK. Oops!

So yeah, I'm not planning anything YET. Just thinking!