A Traditional and Simple Thanksgiving Meal

Every year I go through all the magazines, all the on-line guides, and my cookbooks and think about everything I would love to make for Thanksgiving dinner. It is really the one holiday this is about the food, traditional food at that.

The first year we moved to Virginia we decided since it was just the three of us we would forgo the traditional turkey and have cioppino. It was delicious. And then I cooked a turkey breast over the weekend.

This year we decided that we would go simple and traditional. Here is our menu:

Butternut Squash Soup with Cider Cream
Simple Roast Turkey
Sage Stuffing
Rich Turkey Gravy
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Sweet White Corn
Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

We opened a bottle of Blenheim Vinyards Petit Verdot that perfectly complemented the meal.

little j and I did much of the cooking on Wednesday so we could have a relaxing day on Thursday. We took our guest, my college roommate and very good friend, to Monticello for one of the best tours we've had, and then spent much of the rest of the day visiting and putting our feet up. The turkey went in the oven at 1:15 and was out by 4, perfectly roasted. And we sat down to eat at 5:30.

It was a lovely meal with good company, good food, good wine, and good conversation. Afterwards everyone helped in the kitchen then we watched The Santa Clause and ate pie. It was the perfect holiday.