Thanksgiving Dinner

They came, they ate, they left dirty dishes. . .

In years past holiday dinners have been pitch in potlucks. Not this year. For some insane reason my daughter and I decided we would cook Thanksgiving dinner for our family - all 28 of them. I think it started with me saying "Wow! I don't have to work Thanksgiving!"

I left the menu up to my daughter, Lydia. She's the family "foodie". After weeks of her planning and shopping and about 3 days of cooking here is what we served:

Appetizers:
Garden spinach dip with corn chips, deviled eggs, warm chicken spread on Italian breed rounds and spicy barbeque meatballs

Main Course:
Citrus-herb brined - herb roasted Turkey, Ginger-ale glazed ham, Caesar salad, sliced tomatoes, mashed potatoes (10 pounds- I have some really big nephews who love mashed potatoes), green bean casserole, creamy Mac-n-Cheese (a special request from the littlest neice and nephew), gravy, apple-bacon stuffing, sweet potatoes, homemade dill and whole wheat bread with dairy butter.

Dessert:
Pumpkin Roulade, Apple crisp, Fried fruit pies, Chocolate chiffon pie in Oreo crust.

It was way too much food. We could have fed another 10 people easily!
It was fun to show off some of the things we grow so well on the farm: the ham was from one of our Red Wattles, the eggs from our hens, the sweet potatoes were freshly dug from the little patch of experimental vines Anders had planted. The tomatoes were from the hardy vines hanging on in our greenhouse, and the lettuces were the last hardy survivors of a tiny patch I'd covered with spunbounded row covering.

The after dinner wreckage is prodigeous! It's going to take a couple of days to wash up, sort out Lydia's cooking utensils from ours, get all the furniture put back in place and all the temporary tables and chairs put up.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it! I think I'll go to bed and start on it in the morning.