Thanksgiving

I woke this morning a married man in the MGM honeymoon suite with a great morning view and a feast to prepare... so before I headed home to slave in the kitchen I was due for a nice bath... (Thanks Sonny!)

9 people for Thanksgiving... certainly not a task I have ever taken on before... but after several very successful holiday meals... I was up to the challenge...

1 stove, 4 burners, microwave and Webber grill to create a masterpiece for 9. The menu

Apps
Steamed shrimp with home made cocktail sauce (Thanks Dad)
Fetzer Gewurtzaminer

Main Course
19 pound stuffed Turkey
Sausage stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Savory Green Beans
Baked Acorn Squash
Cranberry, orange relish with green apple, golden raisins and almonds.
Giblet gravy (Thanks Mom)
Cakebread Chardonnay

Desert
Apple pie (Thanks Mom and Dad)
Pumpkin pie (Thanks Mom and Dad)
Fresh boutique coffee from Beachhouse Coffee (Thanks Amy!)
Aalborg Jubilaeums Akvavit

Other Beverages
Full bar and Fat Tire, Wexford Ale and Corona

It was a great success... everyone really enjoyed themselves and were all somewhat surprised that I was able to pull it off with limited resources (small kitchen) my technique, logistics and final result were all A+... very satisfying.

After dinner, desert and a Ja Ja! I was facing the task of cleaning the mess that I had made in the kitchen preparing all of this food... I was beat! Married yesterday (can sap a little energy), cook all day... eat turkey (tryptophan), drink and then clean! yikes... but then Rose, Angela and Lisa came to the rescue!

And this is only a sample of the mess they faced! And that was after Angela, Sonny, my mother and father all helped during the cooking with cleaning dishes to help keep me sane in that small kitchen.

Probably the only living creature that didn't do anything to help was this little bugger... our cat Paris... named after the Las Vegas casino of the same name... not the Hilton sister.

Once everyone had left for the evening a very exhausted Sonny and I retired to our own bed... whew!