thanksgiving

We had our Thanksgiving celebration here in Niagara this year. It was hosted at my parent's house and my mother was so kind to let me plan the menu. Through some trial and error over the years I felt like we had an ideal Thanksgiving dinner planned. My mother prepared the most perfectly cooked turkey with stuffing, gravy (a gigantic Pyrex bowl of it!), mashed potatoes, coleslaw, roasted vegetable tray of carrots, fennel, shallots & garlic and a crudite tray.

Owen contributed a craft to each place setting which were these cute turkey hand print cut-out napkin rings. 

I helped round out the menu with several items. This Cranberry Pomegranate Relish was savory and slightly tart. I was a little nervous about it because I don't typically eat cranberry sauce so I wasn't sure if the seasoning needed to be altered. Luckily everyone who tried it said it was great.

I think this Cauliflower Gratin is an essential Thanksgiving side. I made it for Thanksgiving 5 years ago and felt like it needed to be brought back to our table.

And desserts! This Rustic Apple Tart is from Everyday Food Great Food Fast and is as easy as pie. Wait, pie is super complicated! It's easier than any Thanksgiving dessert should really be. The only revision I made to this was the addition of apple pie spice, which I really think this dessert needs. These are the apples we picked the other weekend from Froot-To-Go. Very light and nice after a huge Thanksgiving Dinner.

The other two desserts were a Chocolate Pumpkin Tart (an old favourite from Thanksgiving's past) and my sister-in-law brought the most to-die-for Apple Coffee Cakes. They were the size of Owen's head! No, but they were huge that I had to stow one away for breakfast the next morning. So tender and delicious! I hope she shares this recipe.

One last photo of the two cousins having fun. "Hey Buddy!" is what Owen says to Ronan. I'm not sure where he got that from but it's funny none the less. The two played with blocks, coloured on giant rolls of paper and pretended to be frogs! There was no need for football on TV when you have these cuties entertaining!