We hosted Thanksgiving at our home this year, and I admit it was an absolute madhouse! My cousin and his family (six people total), Matt’s coworker and his wife, and our former neighbor and his daughter all came over, so we had 12 people to cook for.
And boy, did we cook!
I wish I had captured pictures of everything we made, but I only got a few before people started to arrive and the insanity kicked into full gear. In total, Matt made a turkey, vegetarian stuffing, mushroom gravy, and roasted carrots, and I made cranberry-pomegranate sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread, and stuffed acorn squash:
The filling for the acorn squash.
The actual stuffed squash!
Matt messing around with the turkey.
Rosemary butter sauce for said turkey.
The cranberry-pomegranate sauce, pre-chilling!
… we were also 4-year-olds and made construction paper turkeys:
Guess which one is Matt's. 
We lovingly call him Derpey.
And of course, Florida-specific derpeys... a Marlin and a Dolphin!
We had a great time visiting with everyone, but admittedly, if we were to do it again… I’d want a smaller, more intimate gathering. Having so many people was more a challenge when it came to really sitting down and chatting than it did the food!
Speaking of the food… here are recipes for just a couple things that we made this year. The rest of it were either from tried-and-true recipes (like the green bean casserole) or from wingin’ it (like the, uh… turkey, lol ).
Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce
This one was actually from Pioneer Woman. I admit to adding more sugar to mine and using pomegranate juice concentrate rather than plain ol’ pomegranate juice, and it still turned out yummy!
I also want to preface this with the same warning I gave Matt: Prior to this, I had never had cranberry sauce. I know, strip me of my US citizenship, why don’t'cha! Fortunately, Matt had a few times before, so he taste-tested it. As did our guests. And I heard compliments, so it must be good.
Ingredients
* 16 oz fresh cranberries
* 14 oz water
* 2 oz pomegranate juice concentrate
* 1 cup sugar (and more if preferred)
As before, pomegranate juice was used in Pioneer Woman’s recipe. Hers calls for 16 oz pomegranate juice; the ingredients up there create 16 oz from concentrate.
Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When concoction starts boiling, turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes.
2. Sauce will thicken as the 20 minutes goes by; adjust time to allow thickening to occur. Note that it will thicken even more in the fridge.
3. Have significant other(s) taste-test. If all set, pop in the fridge and serve a couple hours later with all your other nommables!
Pumpkin Bread
I’m gonna cheat on this one. Just visit here.
Fig and Pumpkin Seed-Stuffed Roasted Acorn Squash
Now THIS one was a huge hit! For those of us who enjoy side items more than the turkey, but who may also want something of substance so it still feels like you’re eating a main dish (because you are!), this acorn squash recipe is just as delicious as it looks. And it’s vegan!
(Adapted from this recipe, as I have a tree nut allergy. Also, they call it a side, to which I say… PSHAW!)
Ingredients
* two (2) acorn squashes, halved lengthwise and seeded (you can save the seeds for baking!)
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/3 cups agave nectar
* 3/4 cups dried, de-stemmed Calimyra figs, chopped
* 12 oz baby spinach, slightly wilted in a saucepan with a touch of olive oil
* a handful of toasted pumpkin seeds (de-shelled)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Drizzle the insides of the acorn squash halves with olive oil, using a brush to get into all the nooks. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then turn upside down on a foil-lined broiling pan (to get some nice grill lines!) and bake for 45 minutes.
3. Mix the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and mix until well incorporated. Remove squash from the oven and turn right-side up, then fill each half with the fig mixture. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the filling is soft and bubbly.
4. Cool for about 10 minutes before serving, then dig in! You can use the squash rind as a bowl or eat that as well.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too! Now to move on to plans for ChristmaChanuYulekah…
Sounds like a good time; I prefer intimate gatherings though, personally.
Never had cranberry sauce? Seriously? *Shocked look*
I’m grabbing that squash recipe…
After something like this, I do, too. But you never know until you try!
Now it’s just convincing Matt that smaller gatherings can be nice, too… LOL
LOL!
That’s where I’m lucky; Kelly feels the same way as me (part of the reason for the very small wedding ceremony we had; we were worried if we did anything bigger it would get out of hand… Like my brother’s 2 years ago that he’s still paying for).
That’s why there was nothing about hosting gatherings on my “What I want to do before I turn 30″ list (did you see that, by the way?)
OMG, don’t even get me started on weddings! I wanted something really small, he wanted something huge and that included everyone. I think we had a good amount of people (about 90 attended ours), but getting to that point was HARD. Fortunately, money talked.
I did see your list!! Funny enough, I was going to comment on your most recent post and say that I love what you have! I’ll have to go comment, anyway, as it’s a fantastic list that I really hope you accomplish. <3