I'll be thinking of you all tomorrow. Our T-day is going to be on Friday this year, because of various travel schedules, not to mention the several people who wanted to have dinner at their in-laws AND wanted to have dinner at DD's. I'm actually pleased ~~ for once, I won't be rushing home from work to start the prep for all the veggie dishes. Five vegs this year: cream-cheese/chili corn, harvard beets, gingered carrots & pears, snap peas (a change from the spinach squares), and a broccoli/cauliflower dish that has a nutmeg/cheddar sauce. Tried this last year and it was a success. 1 big bag of baby carrots, thoroughly rinsed, and the fat ones cut in half lengthwise. Dump in big pot of lightly salted boiling water, let boil for 10 minutes. While the carrots are cooking, open and drain a can of sliced pears -- this year, I'll have to slice halves, no pre-sliced in stock at the store. Put about ½ cup of pear jelly [or pear jam or apple jelly] in a small bowl and nuke just until warm and mostly melted. Stir ½ teaspoon ground ginger OR 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger into the melted jelly. Taste jelly and add more ginger if needed (you should be able to clearly taste the ginger). Depending on how many carrots, you may need to double the gingered jelly. Drain the carrots and dump into a large bowl. Pour the gingered jelly over and stir until all carrots are coated. Fold in the pear slices. For the dinner, it does very well on a warming tray, not going mushy. Have a good day, and may all your Thanksgiving dishes be wonderful.

Your table is screaming for a tablecloth. As others have said, the room has a very formal, elegant feel. (I like that). Follow that feel with your table and everything will look great Worry less about the walls and windows... focus your attention where your guests I will be! A book I heartily recommend to anyone: "The Art of the Table, a Complete Guide to Table Setting, Table Manners, and Tableware" by Suzanne von Drachenfels c. 2000, Simon & Schuster. This book explains it all, with great good humor, and tells you how to "make do" when you don't have all the proper "stuff" and/or are unsure about how to pull it all together. I see a lovely tablecloth (over a hushcloth, to deaden the table noise), with napkins to either "match" or provide a SUBTLE contrast. A simple centrepiece (a cornucopia with some fruit?) or NOT, depending on the available space on your table; maybe a discreet pair of candlesticks? Your "best" china and flatware; OR whatever you HAVE but sparkling clean and laid with care as to how far from the table's edge, everything in alignment, napkins crisply pressed and neatly folded THE SAME WAY AT EVERY PLACE. The most important thing is that you pay attention to detail. You can mix and match to your heart's content, but beautiful tables begin and end with attention to detail. All the rest is up to the company and the food... good fun conquers the oversights (be a love and pass the wine, won't you, dear?). ;) Here's what the basic white tablecloth can do with some imagination; even the "everyday stuff" looks fancier: I was pleased with the centrepiece in the first shot above, here are some others I liked, too:

mnerg - I did that very thing but for a different reason. I live in a remote town in Alaska and the 'bakery' here only has pansy bread...meaning soft, pillowy - NOT the kind you'd need to stand up to French-onion soup! It worked out just fine. I prefer not to have my bread soaked, anyway. But, I think if I were to ever make it again with some really good hard-crusted bread I can get in Anchorage, I will try the broiler method...just so I can say "I did it!" I may go back to the other way...we'll have to see. I think part of the French-onion soup experience is the cutting into the gooey, stringy cheese along with the soup & stringing it up to your mouth :)

There's been so many Thanksgiving goofs, I almost can't list them. Fortunately none so extreme to have made anyone sick. I think I'd been married all of about 5 minutes when my mother announced it was someone else's turn to start cooking the holiday dinners. She'd had enough. And really, she's never liked to cook or had enough interest to excel at it. That first attempt I didn't own a roaster (bought one) and barely had enough dishes to set a large table. Greatly underestimated the time required to thaw a turkey and while I didn't forget the bag of giblets tucked into the cavity, I did pull it out with pliers, still frozen inside. That same dinner, I dropped the roaster taking it out of the oven using dish towels instead of pot holders. The turkey made a sliding dash towards the dining room on its own across the floor and I lost all my drippings for gravy. We ate the turkey. Another dinner - I was hosting only my mother and sister. My BIL had been unwell, and his wife decided to travel to her mothers with the children and keep their holiday plans so as not to disappoint her mother. Turn of events, and DH got up in the middle of dinner and took his brother to the hospital where he was admitted for an emergency hemorrhoidectomy. We held dessert, he made it back home for that. The first year my brothers wife had all of us for dinner, she didn't have an actual large roaster yet either and used one of the aluminum foil pans. It may even have been doubled. But she pulled the turkey out onto the open oven door to check the temperature for doneness and unknowingly pierced the disposable pan with the thermometer probe. All of the turkey pan juices ran into the oven door somehow, through the glass window seal - it was a large bird and there was a lot of liquid. Every time we opened or closed the oven the entire rest of the weekend, more turkey drippings ran out of the door bottom seal onto the floor. A quick Friday trip to Frederick and Nelson's to buy her a roaster took place. My brother deep fried a turkey one Thanksgiving. He ordered the turkey, bought the fryer, made sure he had gas for the fryer and forgot oil. He hit every 7-11 within a 5 mile radius that morning buying every small bottle of oil on the shelves until he had enough to fill the fryer. Came in that afternoon saying 'the turkey is turning into a meteor, hurry up with the rest of the food so we can serve'. We hurried, tossing salads, mashing potatoes. It wasn't overcooked, it was not done clear through to the interior. Very pink thighs, he never deep fried another. Years later he cooked one in his Traeger grill and brought it in dusted with a fine powdery ash. And expected me to somehow do something magical with the drippings to make a delicious gravy from them. I used every spice I could think to try from their cupboards and could not cover the bitter taste of the pellet ashes, it was really awful gravy.