The event was last night. Many thanks to Ruthanna for the recipe. I went with that, and we could leave a hint with the dish so I called them "Arizona beans." Some folks were on the right track & guessed the sequel to the book, which we also read. It was fun & there were interesting offerings - from bread & beer representing "Pillars of the Earth" to a lamb dish representing "The Red Tent" to a beautiful Armenian pudding representing a dish from a book we read about that country. Thanks again folks!

Traditional trifle doesn't have a cookie layer, it has a sponge cake layer. You can make a GF sponge cake easily. This recipe is pretty well bomb-proof, I have given it to people who are positive they can't make a sponge cake and they've been pleasantly surprised: No Fail Sponge Cake 4 eggs, separated 3/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar 1 cup GF cornstarch 2 tsp GF baking powder 1 tsp vanilla Grease and line two deep 8" cake pans. Preheat oven to 350F. Stir baking powder into cornstarch. Whip egg whites until soft peaks appear, then gradually beat in sugar until stiff and glossy. With a metal spoon, fold in egg yolks and vanilla, then fold in cornstarch mixture. Pour batter into pans and bake about 30 minutes, or until cake is springy and starting to pull away from the sides of the pans. Immediately turn out of the pans onto cake racks to cool. You can freeze any unneeded cake for later.

To each of you who have commented on this post, I want to thank you. It's been a week since asking the Houzz community what your thoughts, opinions, and preferences were, and you all had truly valuable input. Now that my company has gone, I can get back to becoming an informed consumer. After reading everyone's comments up to this point, here are my thoughts: I agree that there is simply too much differing information on the Internet and that I need to go in to a showroom (or two) with a few pots and pans I use daily and pretend to cook. My first choice would be to do a double wall oven, but though I may be able to do just that, I also would lose valuable real estate, which is why I was mostly decided on a range. I kinda do agree with Jerry when he said that appliances that do more than one function, only do one of them well, so by separating them, you can get the best of each. BTW Jerry, thanks for the pics - I love your Blue Star Wall Oven! Again, I need to go to showrooms, and research there. To those of you who loved their particular range, I have made a list and plan to compare in the showrooms. I do love the browning, faster and more even cooking that a convection oven allows; however, as I often cover food with foil when baking or broiling, I will look in to ovens that can do both. At this moment, I'm on the fence about an induction cook top. Though the greater majority of you preferred it, it rather sounded like a PITA getting the settings just right, and the fact that I'd have to additionally purchase a whole new set of cookware is a negative. Though gas is not nearly as clean or fast as induction, I kinda like being able to see how high or low the flame is - but don't get me wrong, I'm still undecided between the two. I'll make my decision in the showroom! Many of you brought up valuable points to consider that I would never have thought of. This post has been more help to me than all the hours of research on a gazillion sites. Thank you all!

While we don't have much variation year to year, I do love the meal. We do our turkey on the grill and have for the last 20+ yr. It is amazingly moist and flavorful. No sweet potato casserole, just baked sweet potatoes (my preference). There is always green bean casserole though and roasted brussels sprouts (this recipe sometimes changes) .. also corn. I make creamed onions-- I can't really eat more than a bite because of the milk but it's a very old family recipe and it seems only I can get the thickness and garlic-white pepper-black pepper ratio just right. I don't care for our stuffing-- it's boring and just not worth the carbs/calories. I also usually pass on the mashed potatoes though they are delicious. I load up on the veggies. I am sure many of you will cringe but most of us like cranberry sauce from the can lol ... but we also have my Aunt Ruthie's cranberry walnut salad. The gravy has a wonderful taste from the charcoal grill .. and some of us like it with the roasted onions, carrots and celery included. It used to be a treat my dad would save just for me (the veggie lover) but now my sister and a few others love it too. Of course there are breads and rolls. We don't do appetizers -- it's just too much food. We do start with bloody marys in the morning as I help sister prep and cook.. then move on to cocktails or champagne by afternoon when guests start arriving. There are always MANY pies. I very much dislike pumpkin pie and rarely have room or desire for dessert but the selection is mind numbing. Always a peanut butter pie and usually a couple of apple pies, blueberry, raspberry .. I like a pumpkin roll but don't make one every year. A very traditional, not-so-fancy meal. If I could change it at all ... it wouldn't be much. I'd make a more interesting and flavorful stuffing and add something with wild rice. I'd love a soup too but logistically, it wouldn't work well. PS. It is getting harder and harder to get the onions for the creamed onions. We have tried fresh pearl onions, frozen but the absolute best are Aunt Nellie's Holland-Style onions in a jar. I just ordered 6 jars! I don't know if the recipe is swedish or ukraine (i should research it) but it is from that side of the family. Dad loved them and some of the rest of us like them-- but they are a prized leftover because they are great to add to soups.