Okay, lazy! Here’s this finally. The cooking officially starts tonight with the making of the cranberry sauce. Puddings, cookie dough, hen brine, cauliflower gratin and roasted veggies all happen tomorrow.

Appetizers:
Wheat Blini w/ Smoked Salmon — recipe from Dorie Greenspan, a French Fridays with Dorie adventure from last month.

Veggies & Balsamic Hummus Dip — pretty easy here. Using a store-bought, local hummus that I like. May thin it a bit with yogurt for easier delicate-vegetables dipping.

Rosemary Marcona Almonds – from Trader Joe’s. But I may try candy-ing some. For fun.

Dinner:
Yeah, there’s no turkey this year. No. Turkey. Instead, everyone gets their own “tiny turkey.”

Cornish game Hens w/ Apple, Sage, Sausage Stuffing & Gravy – America’s Test Kitchen recipe. One day I will type up this recipe. It mainly consists of brining, stuffing, roasting breast-side down for a bit, turning breast-side up and basting with olive oil & balsamic . . . → Read More: Thanksgiving 2011

In case you’re looking for some pumpkin or Halloween recipes, I thought I’d just post links to all of the ones I’ve done so far. Enjoy!

Spider Cookies (Image above — but you probably figured that out…)
Less time consuming than you’d think. Chocolate cookies, pretzels, melted chocolate, sprinkles and red frosting.

Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good
A Dorie Greenspan recipe in which one takes a small pumpkin, hollows it out, stuffs good things inside and bakes it for about two hours!

Sour Cream Pumpkin Chocolate Bundt Cake with Struesel
This recipe originally came from the back of a can of pumpkin. Best can I ever took the time to read.

Roasted Honey Parsnip Bisque
Very good and creamy. Maybe not super Halloween-y, but there might be another holiday coming up soon this would be . . . → Read More: Have a Delicious Halloween!