And the sides:

That's all I am making ahead. Everything else will have to be made the day of. Still, whatever few things I made ahead surley will make it easier on turkey day!

Hon, I'm up (fell asleep mid puzzle) but I'm not leaving the cozy blankets to go take pictures of dough balls wrapped in plastic and apple slices ditto. Pie will be. Or did you mean the bowl of drying out bread, matzah and chow mein? The two bunches of baby broccoli? The frozen chicken stock? I have ingredients. Feast to follow...

Well yes. I posted this extra early so that everyone will have notice and hopefully remember to snap a pic or two and post it!

That pumpkin pie looks terrible. Please don't risk eating it. Just go ahead and send it to me and I'll dispose of it properly. 😁

My yeast roll dough is made in in my fridge. Today I will make the cranberry sauce and bake the candied sweet potatoes and just heat those up tomorrow. Tomorrow I will bake my rolls. That is all I am fixing to take to my youngest daughter's tomorrow. Only will be six of us there.

Sue

Amylou - I always love seeing your pink kitchen! And the food looks delish!

Amylou, you are a hoot. I love reading your posts as I seem to "catch" your enthusiasm for the holidays. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Your killin' it gurl! Yum! ♥

I made pumpkin cheesecake, but...it needs to chill overnight before it's going to look like anything. Then... stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce & gravy.... tomorrow.

amylou, good for you for the homemade pie crust! It looks pretty good to me, good enough to eat, that's for sure. And I have a couple of granddaughters who would happily dig into that mac and cheese too...

I have some cranberries simmering, some sweet and smoky oyster crackers in the oven, and a list of things to do. Elery and I are alone tomorrow, we're having a very small and socially distanced dinner on Friday, so I'll do most of my cooking tomorrow. I'm having both turkey and ham, so there will be leftovers, LOL. I like turkey, others like ham, so I'm having both. Leftovers can go to the homes of others. (grin)

I'll try to remember pictures.

Annie

Not making anything until this weekend when I'm not working. Got a delivery of a smallish turkey (13 pounds, still too big for just me) today. They had no cornbread stuffing mix or gravy so I had to go out today and the only gravy available was a packet you mix yourself.

I need/want your recipe for that mac and cheese Please!!!!! I did prepping today...Cut up onions, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, made pumpkin pies, cooked sausage, made bread cubes and made spinach dip.

Okay. Here you go...

Yet to be constructed apple pie:

Cranberry (organic) sauce cooling:

Libby’s recipe pumpkin (organic) pie in whole wheat spiced crust. I used to be embarrassed by my pie edges until last week in the Food Network contests. Ugliest pies ever! Mine aren’t nearly that bad! I forgot not io use convection, so have a spot where the fan reflection hits. I don't care!

The delicious cranberry-orange sauce has been simmered to spicy perfection. I cubed peeled orange slices to fold in before plating and serving.

The cornbread is cooling and will be abracadabra-ed into an herbed dressing tomorrow.

The giblets, along with chopped onion, sage, thyme, and black pepper simmered until the meat fell off the neck bones. I’ll pick the wing-tips clean and strain the broth - tomorrow. I’m using whole wheat flour to thicken the roux - tomorrow.

Eggs. We won’t talk about the devil - not deviled - eggs. There will be no appetizer plate featuring delightful deviled eggs.

I boiled nine eggs; the shells would not come off the eggs, deleting my plans for deviled eggs.

The arugula salad will not be garnished with deviled eggs. It will not be garnished with lovely thin egg slices. It might be garnished with chopped eggs. Three of the less disappointing eggs are bobbing around in a small jar of pickled beet juice as an experiment. I’ll offer them to DH; he’ll eat anything - except Brussel sprouts.

The Duck. Ahhh, the tasty duck. I went through the entire prepping process. Painfully (shoulder) ground all the spices. Made the wet rub. Rinsed and dried the bird. Massaged the boozy spices into it inside and out. Soaked 24 hours in a sealed bag.

Patted dry, set on a rack, and placed on the breakfast table to get better light for a photo.

Its adventure continues in the next post.

My prepping tasks are finally done. This afternoon, I toasted cubed homemade bread, ready to be made into stuffing. Then I made cranberry sauce and my pie crusts.

Caroline, I love your story. Congratulations on your agility and speed. It's pretty hard to go faster than a dog when they are intent on food.

I came in airborne from the stove, arms reaching out, bellowing “Nooooooooooo.”

I would have loved to see this.

Happy eating all.

Agreed! ‘Tis a cinematic story, Caroline. It's late in the game, but my new trick for peelable eggs is to leave them to cool completely before chilling them. That includes no cold shock like blanching vegetables. I don't get the dark ring. If you do, cook a little less next time. I discovered this when I forgot them one evening. It has continued to work with lots of different types/ages of eggs. Since they’re self contained and have just been sanitized, so I have no qualms.

20lb stuffed turkey & pumpkin cheesecake w/ home made whipped cream. ☺ Ready to eat!

If I am honest, after cooking all of this all day, once it was done, I didn't want to eat it. At all. That always happens to me. Plan,shop, cook, stare at the food and watch other people eat it. I just don't want it. Maybe tommorow. I did bring some pie with me to work. I think I can force that down.......

It was a quiet Thanksgiving, like every one for the past 15 years or so. Wanted to try something different so I made sausage and apple stuffed baked acorn squash with roasted Brussels sprouts for a side. It was delish!

Lynda - your pie looks delectable! I love pie crust and this one appears more than fork-ready!

Constructed apple pie— my pretty scroll edge melted in the oven!

Constructed apple pie:

drooling over all your festive goodies

Thanks for starting this, amylou. It's better than cooking...or even eating all of the wonderful food in this thread! We tried the catered dinner from our senior center on Tuesday -- an impossible challenge for any Seniors I know, to OPEN all the little plastic containers! I sent DH to the grocery today, and we will have turkey breast and some sides after all. We could only Zoom with our DS and family yesterday...and had lamb chops for our T'day dinner.

Judy. Here is my Mac recipe:

8 oz macaroni, cooked in salted water and drained

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups heavy cream

7 slices American cheese (not the individually wrapped kind. I use the Great Value brand "deluxe")- this is mainly for creaminess

3 cups shredded cheese, I use cheddar or a mix of cheddar and monterey jack, use what you like. You will use 2 cups in the sauce and 1 on the top.

Melt the butter, whisk in the flour to make a roux. Whisk in the heavy cream and cook until it starts to heat through. Add the American cheese and when that's melted, the 2 cups shredded cheese of your choice. Mix in the mac, pour into a baking dish and top with the remaining cheese. Bake at 375 until bubbly and brown around the edges.

This is a half recipe. Double it and you will have a massive amount of it that nevertheless disappears at every event I take it too.

Instead of the American Cheese, if you wanted to, you could go right to the sodium citrate. :)

Lynda, I love all that blue! What dishes are they?

All the foods above look and sound so perfect. I can taste them all the way up here!

My duck, despite its wild adventures escaping the resident duck dog, turned out beautifully!

It was so moist and so juicy and so flavorful and so aromatic, just like its name and I am being so modest! 😊

The skin was crispy, dark, and so flavorful. We were both very pleased with it. DH says he likes it better than turkey.

We saved every bit of the wonderful duck fat drippings.

The other dishes were very tasty. I overcooked the cranberry-orange relish, not burnt, just mushy.

The cornbread dressing was a dry. Not having even a bit of turkey meat in it was the main problem.

No one can mess up steamed broccoli and I did make the Hollandaise sauce for it.

That duck does look pretty amazing. I have one in my freezer for Christmas dinner. Hopefully, I will do as well.

cloudy_Christine Thank you! The dishes are from Pottery Barn. The pattern is called Cambria, and the color 'ocean blue', which is ironic because our home is in Cambria, CA and in walking distance from the ocean. I have been very happy with them so far and keep adding to the collection. - https://www.potterybarn.com/products/cambria-stoneware-dinner-plate-stone/?pkey=s%7Ccambria%20dinnerware%7C21  

My breakfast this morning, on a salad plate:

Thank you, Lynda. The dishes and the tablecloth are such a lovely shade of blue. Is the tablecloth also Pottery Barn?

kathsgarden, that looks like a pretty good breakfast to me, in fact, it looks very much like my supper, LOL.

I got out my turkey platter, cleared away the turkeys and set the table...

Thawed an apple pie:

Made some rolls, a cheesecake, gluten free cornbread for the stuffing and a gluten free lemon chiffon dessert:

Made the cranberry sauce and the strawberry topping for the cheesecake:

Madison, who is 8, made individual "favors" for each plate. Pumpkins constructed of orange napkins, filled with small candies and a stem made of green Frog Tape:

And then I rested, LOL.

Annie

Love your feast, Annie.

Cloudy_Christine, Unfortunately, I don't know where the tablecloth came from. It was not pottery barn.

Lynda, I bought the plates! Pottery Barn had a great sale, 40% off plus free shipping. Thanks for the link.

I am glad you found them. That is a great sale -- I may have to add to my collection!