Thank you everyone! Grainlady, you solved a problem I was having with by suggesting your recipe. It's printed out and attached to my notes and already on my shopping list. We live in Arizona and like a lot of other places, the temps here have been so high that we've been compared to Death Valley temps. Ugh! We were up to 128-129 for a couple days. Double ugh! But hey, it's cooled down to 121 for the past couple of days. :) The pumpkin parfaits couldn't be more perfect and will be one less thing to heat the house up and something the younger kids can put together. We downsized drastically when we bought this home and moved about seven months ago. My kitchen doesn't have half the counter and prep space that I had before...or any other space that we had before. Liz, our friends and family will be helping but I'm kinda OCD about my Thanksgiving dinners. But in planning I'm realizing that it's time to get over it. Strangely, not so much with other meals and since everyone is volunteering kitchen clean-up, meal suggestions, shopping and cooking it's really going to make it easy. So far we have about 35 people arriving in a two week period, with a 4-day window when everyone will be here together. We're expecting that number to rise somewhat in the next couple of weeks. We're lucky that we live very close to a lake and boats, PWC's and a couple motorhomes will be in the mix and arriving as well as our boat and pool, even tho it's a smallish pool. A surprise that we got yesterday was that our neighbor offered us the use of his house! We live in a town where a very significant percent of the homes are owned by out-of-towners as vacation homes and snow bird homes so they sit unoccupied most of the time. Our one neighbor, who we've only met/seen three times had come out to check on his house from out of state and we asked him if it would be ok if our visitors could park in front of his home (on the street) if he wasn't going to be here. Half an hour later his wife came over with the keys to their house and asked if we wanted to use it. We was absolutely stunned! Even today I can't believe it but I did call around and found a cleaning company for after all the company leaves. My husband and I also decided to pay for one month's of their water and other utilities bills so that they aren't incurring a cost as well as take them out for a nice dinner when they're back in town. I made PW's recipe yesterday and my husband didn't complain too much but he wasn't overly excited about it either. I froze a good portion of it as I want to see how it is after defrosting and warming. But, like Annie, I like mashed potatoes the traditonal way and have always made it that way with butter, a little cream and S&P. So that will most likely be the route I take, especially if someone else does all the peeling.That is probably the one thing I hate to do in any meal that calls for potatoes. Here's the basics of how I plan on doing all the hot foods: 2 turkeys - one stuffed, the other not - the 'empty' one done outside in the roaster the day before and the stuffed one done in the roaster outside the day of. Ham - spiral, wrapped in foil and warmed on the grill Two sides (yet to be determined, but sure one will be spiced yams) will be done in crock pots...you guessed it, outside. Deviled eggs started the day before. I'm also toying with the idea of making LindaC's cranberry Jezebel but haven't decided for sure. I've had the recipe for years but have never made it. Potatoes will be done inside and like suggested above, will put them on a back burner. Just so happens that I have a warmer spot on my stove that I've never used so thanx for the suggestion/reminder. I also have two warming plates so I'm sure those will be in use as well. Any other sides will be lighter and cold dishes and easy to make ahead. Our niece's BF makes breads and he's already volunteered to do all the bread and roll making, as well as breakfast rolls. Think that will be done at the neighbor's house. Alot of the eating will be done sitting on the floor or any other place that can be found. Nothing formal about this get-together or turkey dinner. One thing I never do is make appies.........I want everyone very hungry, so a light fruit breakfast the morning of the turkey dinner. Which is why they probably all think my meals are so spectacular because they're all half starving by the time dinner was completely ready. I'm sorry this got so long and that I've been rambling on. I am so very excited about next month and all the company that will be here. We have some wonderful long time friends and family and it's going to be oh-so worth all the time and effort. Thank you all again! Jenna

Make ahead hors d'ouvres... Black Olive Tapenade ==================== Olive Tapenade 2 large garlic cloves 1 3/4 cups pitted Kalamata olives 4 anchovy fillets 1 1/2 tablespoons drained capers 2 to 4 Tablespoons fresh basil 1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1/4 cup olive oil salt/pepper to taste . Finely chop the garlic cloves in a food processor. Add olives, anchovies, capers, basil . Process until almost smooth. Add lemon juice. With machine running, gradually add the olive oil. Blend mixture until smooth. Season tapenade to taste with pepper. Transfer to a small bowl. Serve on slices of french bread. Options: Use some or all green olives add small can of quality tuna add 1 to 2 tablespoons brandy add more anchovies Savory Blue Cheese Tart 1 10 inch unbaked pie shell 1/2 cup chopped pecans 6 Oz cream cheese 2 eggs 4 Oz Maytag blue cheese 1/2 cup milk 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp corn starch Ripe olives and chives to garnish Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle nuts in the bottom of pie shell. Mix the next 6 ingredients in a blender or food processor and pour slowly into the crust. Garnish with sliced ripe olives and chopped chives. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until set. Cool and refrigerate 2 hours, cut into 12 wedges and arrange on a platter Snackers 1 ring Dutch Balogna ( about a pound ) 2 medium yellow onions ( about the size of a baseball) Slice and layer in a crock or straihgt sided bowl In a sauce pan place 1 c. cider vinegar, 1 cup water and 3/4 c sugar and 1 tsp mustard seed ( whole). Bring to a boil and pour over meat and let stand un refrigerated for 24 hours. Serve with cocktail rye. Salad, black bean and corn 1 can of black beans, drained 1 cup frozen corn 1/4 cup diced sweet onion 1/4 cup diced bell pepper, green yellow or red 2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced 2 T chopped fresh cilantro Make dressing: 2T sugar, 2 cloves garlic crushed 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1/2 cup good quality olive oil Whisk all together�.and pour enough over salad to moisten.save any remaining and refrigerate for another use. Refrigerate at least 1 hour....overnight is good. Serve bean salad on lettuce and top with slices of grilled chicken if desired. and I have many more desserts, salads and main dishes if you want. Linda C

Guess because of the farm and time being a premium as well as oven space we got use to a lot of things made ahead. We usually have 12-15 people. I make my desserts (cakes, pies but not the Pistachio Salad) ahead and freeze them. Definitely make the cranberry relish ahead and after letting it set a day freeze it. It gets better with time.(Usually make several gallons for the rest of the year.) Sometimes I'll make up my crescent rolls and freeze them before baking but they are better fresh Then the night before I make up all my casseroles, (squash, sweet potatoes, onion, etc._ and get them ready and in the dishes. Cover them with foil and mark the temp and cooking time on them and put them in the frig. On TD I start at about 4 am. I mix up my stuffing, and get the turkey going. I cook my ham in my roaster, the turkey in the gas oven and the last 2 hours I'll use the electric oven to cook the casseroles. Veggies like corn, peas, mashed potatoes are last minute. Mom makes her Waldorf salad :-/ last minute usually so it doesn't get watery. Some of the family and friends I don't get to see very often so I'd rather be visiting with them instead of trying not to miss something in a recipe listening into all the fun in the other room or measuring while trying to have a conversation. (Not one of my strong suits. I always leave something out when I'm talking to somebody and cooking) It's not all fresh but a lot of the folks that come fix dinner out of a TV dinner box so they're always happy and stuffed with the fare that's put on the table. And I get to spend time with everyone.

It sounds like a good recipe, though I'm not sure about the toothpick test. This obviously is prone to falling by the type and by the anti-falling directions, and it looks like her pictured cake has fallen. That might mean that the toothpick could encourage falling. As to freezing, one can freeze a souffle, of which this is a cousin, but it's not easy. I've only frozen souffle with T&T instructions which I don't remember well enough. I know it has to completely steam out before wrapping, and it goes from freezer to oven, but that's smaller portions. I don't think you could do freezer to oven with a 9" cake. The results were fine for the souffle, but not magical like right out of the oven the first time. Since this cake is meant to be served room temperature, I don't know. The notes on what chilling does to the texture make me think that it falls further, so that's probably going to happen if you freeze it. Not that fallen can't be delicious, but it is dense. Good luck with it.