Thanksgiving Cooking

Christmas may be the most wonderful time of the year, but Thanksgiving is the best holiday in my book. Good food, no stress about presents, decorating and which service person do I tip. Plus, its a guaranteed three day work week (or two in my case this year).

I'm doing some cooking every day so I don't have to spend all day Thursday in my sister-in-law's kitchen.

Rolls
Yesterday I made Park House Rolls, which always give me a little smile since my friends Kieran and Sarah got married at the The Omni Parker House in Boston.

I started first with this recipe from Food Network magazine, mainly because I liked the step by step pictures. Turns out my 11-cup Cuisinart wasn't a good enough substitute for a mixer. I stopped when the liquid draining from the processor made its way across the counter and the base unit started smoking.

After a trip to the mall and Target, I started over with Bobby Flay's recipe, which is the actual recipe from the Parker House. I improvised by mixed the dough in my largest bowl with the hand mixer. Delicious! I made a double batch, baked 'em and now there are 78 dinner rolls in my freezer (had to sample, obviously). The picture is from the Pioneer Woman, who posted a recipe I have not tried today.

Stuffing
I'm making two kinds of stuffing this year. My mom's traditional recipe with bread, onions, celery, poultry seasoning, etc. In addition, for the non-onion lovers, I'm adapting the Pioneer Woman's recipe, which has lots of delicious herbs + a mixture of corn bread and French bread.

Other stuff
No family gathering is complete without a triple batch of chocolate chips cookies. I'm also making pumpkin bread with brown butter glaze and rosemary-white bean dip. The dip is my low-fat, high fiber, good for you contribution to the gathering. I'm bringing some Food Should Taste Good olive chips to eat it with, so good!