Thanksgiving Prep to remember...

The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving have been exciting. This will be the first time I can remember spending Thanksgiving with my Dad. He rented a house in the Poconos and we are meeting him there to spend the holiday together.

Since I am making dinner I planned out my menu weeks ago.

Lemon Herb Roasted Turkey
Stuffing
Roasted Potato Medley with Mushrooms, Brussel Sprouts, and Butternut Squash
Broccoli Casserole

Pumpkin Cheesecake
A local fruit pie

A fairly simple meal, right?

On the Saturday before, we braved the masses and food shopped for the items I would be making in advance; cheesecake and casserole. We also picked up the turkey because I was determined to get an organic, cage free bird. I actually had my mind made up on a fresh bird, but fainted at the cost. $4.99-3.99 a pound seemed a little much, I feel good about our choice and we didn't spend a small fortune on turkey! Now let's just pray the darn thing isn't still frozen Thanksgiving morning!

Anyway, so Monday morning I started out my prep day with a good breakfast. I often make a big breakfast for my husband, daughter, and myself and since my mother in law had stayed over I felt like it was a good idea. So I whipped up whole wheat toast, baked cheese and chive omelette, and sliced honey crisp apples. While chopping the apples with my Pampered chef apple slicer I cut a large gash in my right ring finger, this device is now in my recycle bin! Great start to prep day huh?

I've been cooking long enough to know that I should have stopped there, but I ignored that warning and forged on.

After the clean up, I started the broccoli casserole. Overall an easy dish, but it requires several kitchen items and makes a lot of clean up. Luckily my husband happens to love to chop, so I enlisted his aid with chopping the produce for the dish. Once chopped, I resumed kitchen duty to complete the dish.

I decided to play with the recipe a little this year (another dangerous idea since my luck is off today) and mix in cauliflower in addition to the fresh broccoli. I also banned canned items (for health reasons) from my home so we picked up a boxed organic cream of mushroom soup instead of the 2 cans requested in the recipe.

Casserole mixed, poured, ready to bake... Something doesn't look right... Oh yeah canned soup is condensed, boxed not so much! Ok I can do this... Bake uncover instead of covered, let the moisture evaporate. So far so good. I'll report later how this one came out.

Next on to the Maple Bourbon Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake. Sounds great right? !

Grind up cookies for the crust, bake... Smells great already! I used 2 different recipes here, one called for a water bath and the other didn't. I have never used a bath with my cheesecakes and they have all been great so I decided against it.

I get my cheesecake in the oven. Timer set. About 15 minutes in it smells like its burning? I peek in, nothing. Hmmm, must need to clean the oven. Another 10-15 minutes go by, I ask my husband, "do you smell that? It's smells stronger now!"

I peek in again and see a drip from the bottom of the pan. Hmmm ok. So I put a cookie sheet lined with foil on the rack below it to catch the drips. I run upstairs to do a load of wash and I come down to a smoky living room. Open to oven door to a fully enflamed oven floor!

I grab the baby and open the door before the smoke alarm goes off and my hubby puts out the fire. Needless to say the cheesecake is trash! It's grey from smoke. My house reeks!

Could this day get any worse?! After it cools I toss it and clean up the disaster area. I've decided it must have been the syrup from the cookie crust dripping and the sugar caught fire in the oven. Very frustrating!

Oh well! We will buy dessert in the Poconos, they have to have a mom and pop bakery right?

Stay tuned...