The rest of the menu

Menu:
My traditional spiced cider, slow cooked in a crock pot for hours so it smells up the house. TIP: don't leave it cooking for 24 hours or you evaporate every spec of liquid until it becomes a hollowed, honeycombed, burned crust of a mess. This morning, the house did not smell like sweet cider and spices - it smelled like burnt molasses.

Baked Goat Cheese Salad - served before the rest of the meal

Mom brought her famous mashed potatoes. I swear they are different every time she makes them, but they are famous for never failing to be awesome.

Skillet Green Beans
The "Quick Green Bean Casserole" recipe.
A non-trivial dish that was worth the effort. Beats the pants off French's dried onion, green bean, cream of mushroom soup casserole. I DON'T recommend having more than one dish on the menu that must be "served immediately". Our salad and beans collided in the kitchen. Since it has a creamy sauce, I suspect the re-heated leftovers will not be as good. We'll see.
From Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2003
Rating: great

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing
Though, technically, it's "stuffing" when it's in the bird, and "dressing" when it's not cooked in the bird...
Called for the same classic herbs and flavorings as the bread stuffing, plus milk with the chicken broth, sausage and homemade cornbread instead of white bread. I *really* enjoyed this dressing. Big bonus: the entire thing can be prepped the day ahead, just short of baking. There is a spicy variant I wanted to try with hot peppers and spicy sausage, but it was the wrong audience for this dish - some other time I hope.
From Cook's Illustrated Nov/Dec 2000
Rating: great

Cranberry Sauce with Star Anise and Port
Yuuummmy. Star anise is a beautiful looking spice when it's intact. And the bag I special ordered (not found in most supermarkets...) smells sooooo good. In my opinion, port infused with anything is a winner! Now I have to find ways to use the other 15 star anise still left in the bag.
The downside - the sauce did not go well with the spice rub - a bad combo. Better suited for traditionally basted turkey.
From Fine Cooking November 2003
Rating: great

And turkey, with bread stuffing and gravy made from the turkey drippings - all good this year, but not great. Seems we need to work on the basics.

For dessert, Grandma brought a homemade apple pie (great, though she thought too sweet) made with apples from Apple Hill, and a pumpkin pie from Bel Aire (good). She also brought Cool Whip-French Vanilla - a WAY better flavor over plain Cool Whip, which is somewhat artificial (though I still like it).


Quote of the evening:

"I'm so full, my watch is too tight." -J.T.'s mom