preparing the feast

[ljgeoff]

For my own reference and for prosperity:

Tomorrow, both Mike and I work in the morning, so I'm going to be doing a lot of the feast prep tonight. Our menu is the classic meal:

roast turkey
mashed potatoes
chestnut stuffing
baked sweet potatoes
savory rice ring
steamed rutabaga
steamed broccoli
cranberry sauce
green bean casserole
broccoli salad
crescent rolls
rainbow jello mold
pumpkin pie and spice cake

The rice ring is a family tradition -- rice mixed with sauteed ground mushrooms, sweet pepper and onion -- it's savory and very yummy. I'll make two small rings, and fill the center of one with steamed broccoli and the other with rutabaga. I'll use this recipe for roasting the turkey.

The jello mold this year is a new one for us that Kayla has offered to put together: Rainbow Jello Mold.


My jello molds are never this pretty, but we'll see!

Just the Lansing contingent of family will be at the table -- me, Mike, Luke, Jerome, maybe his gf Jessica, Sam, Kayla and Trentyn (5), Zary (4), Torrin (almost 4) and maybe Jessica's son Josiah (almost 2). (so, seven adults and four kids)

Today I'll get the turkey ready, make the stuffing, the rice ring, and the pie filling. Here's the rest of the feast-making schedule:

-- make the prep stuff today
8 am or so -- make broccoli salad, chop rutabaga, prep green bean salad
11 am to 3pm -- work -- We're going to bake the turkey at Kayla's, so I'll drop that off on my way to work.
3:00 or so -- start baking things; pour the pumpkin mix into the pie shells and bake, make the spice cake and bake, put the rice rings in a water bath and bake, bake the stuffing, green bean casserole, and find room for the sweet potatoes. Everything bakes for between 30-60 min.
4:00 -- while everything is baking, set the table and wash all the dishes/pots/pans. Start boiling the potatoes and rutabaga, and get the broccoli ready for steaming.
4:30 or so -- when Kayla arrives, place the turkey a clean roaster, and make gravy and mash the potatoes.
5pm or so -- start getting everything out

I'll need one platter for the turkey and another for the sliced turkey that's passes around, two platters of rice ring, the green bean casserole, bowls of broccoli salad, stuffing, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes cut in half, basket of crescent rolls, a small bowl of cranberry sauce. (so, note to self, I need to make sure I have four platters of different sizes, a small casserole dish, and four serving bowls)

Finally, I surely won't be doing all of this on my own -- everyone will help. But I get to organize it and keep it humming along.