I hadn’t realized I was stressed out about Thanksgiving dinner this year until around three in the morning on Thursday when thoughts of all the different recipes we would have to prepare to pull off the meal interrupted my sleep abruptly. In 20-plus years, Patrick and I had yet to cook a whole Thanksgiving feast on our own. Can you believe our kids (14 and 16) had never had Thanksgiving at home? This year was going to be “a first,” and I wanted it to be super special.

I still had to go to the store in the morning to get the apples for the pie and the ingredients for the salad I would be making. (They wouldn’t run out of apples in the middle of autumn, would they?) I had followed Samin Nosrat’s recipe for her famous buttermilk turkey to a T and was crossing my fingers that we’d all love it.

To get my mind off of dinner, I grabbed some yarn and needles. I decided to learn how to knit a miniature mitten. I had promised I would teach myself how to make these and share a pattern for a cute Christmas garland.

It worked. As soon as I finished the mitten, I was tired enough to go back to sleep. As I knit quietly in my studio, I went through all the steps for the next day in my mind. The challenge was to make all the recipes in one afternoon with only one oven. The pie would go first, then stuffing and potatoes, followed by the bird and the yams. The cranberry sauce and the salad could be saved for last. I figured worst-case scenario we would eat dinner at six instead of four-thirty or five as we had hoped for. (Deep breath.)

We made it! I’m happy to report that everything went according to plan – well, mostly everything. The potato dish took a last-minute turn. The kids were in charge of potatoes. The plan was to make Julia Child’s Potatoes Dauphinoise, from the book Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home. Cooked in cream and butter, these are lovely in place of mashed potatoes. But when Patrick handed the cookbook to the kids he accidentally pointed to Jacques Pepin’s recipe instead of Julia’s. The potatoes were good, but they weren’t the creamy dish we had anticipated. It turns out Jacques’ recipe didn’t have any milk!

Samin’s turkey did not disappoint. The color was just like in her video, caramel all over, except for a few spots. It had the right amount of salt, and it was not dry at all. Beautiful!

Patrick was in charge of the stuffing. This has become his specialty and the one recipe he cooks almost every Thanksgiving to bring to the family potluck. He changes the ingredient mix a bit every year. This one had Italian sausage, homemade croutons, celery, chicken broth, and other spices. I was a bit too distracted with the pie to pay close attention to the recipe. All I can say is it was really good!

I decided to make a salad I’d seen in a blog I follow called Love and Lemons that looked super pretty. The ingredient list was short and called for common ingredients like apples and apple cider vinegar, except for something I had never heard of before called kohlrabi. I had to buy that in the morning. Did I have a plan B for the salad if I couldn’t find the kohlrabi? Not yet. Hopefully, this was a super common veggie. 🤞🏼I was curious what it would taste like and hoped we would like it.

They had kohlrabi! I was so happy because I didn’t want to think of another recipe at the last minute. In the end, we actually didn’t eat much of the salad because we couldn’t eat another bite. But I know I am going to be making this salad often from now on. It was crunchy and fresh and a breeze to make. You should definitely try it. I loved it.

For the cranberry sauce and the roasted yams, I just followed @clarkbar’s one-pan, one-pot Thanksgiving dinner recipes.

The apple pie I made was an old favorite. I tried an improvised lattice decoration and added a little turkey to match the occasion. I only wish I had used my new go-to crumble topping instead of the one I made that called for mace. I found out I am not a huge fan of mace. Thankfully, a little vanilla ice cream was all it needed to tone down the mace.

Our dinner turned out better than I imagined. The food was ready on time and tasted fine. Out table was nice and cozy, and sharing dinner as a family never felt better. We had candlelight and pretty leaves I’d picked on my walk with Estelle decorated the table.

Even in what seems the worst year ever, we have so much for which to be grateful. I am hoping for many more dinners at home and continuing to celebrate all the good things in our life. I’m especially thankful for a whole day of left-over sandwiches, apple pie and time together we’ve had today.

Happy Day After Thanksgiving, everyone!

💛 Gabi