Next Thursday is Thanksgiving for those of us in the United States. I love Thanksgiving. It’s a lot of work. I enjoy the food, but what I love most is the people. We have a mixture of family and friends who come for dinner. Some come every year, sometimes we find new people who need a place to go for dinner.

Thanksgiving dinner is not something that you just put together at the last minute though. Most years I have started to purchase items for the dinner before the end of October because buying it all at once can get expensive, and sometimes, if you wait until the last minute, the grocery store could potentially be out of the item you’re looking for. I do like to be completely done with my shopping the week before Thanksgiving, but usually make one last trip to the grocery store the Monday before. After that, I avoid the stores as they are super busy and people seem to be super cranky.

Our menu I feel like is pretty simple, I have a number of tried and true dishes that our family loves, but every year I like to look around and see what other kind of side dishes or dessert recipes I can find. Our menu usually goes something like this:

• Turkey – I usually do 2 – 16 or so pound turkeys, partly because of the number of people and partly because I like the leftovers.
• Stuffing – I have a really good homemade stuffing that we all like. I don’t stuff the turkey as I think the stuffing is mushy and slimy, so mine is a baked stuffing.
• Mashed Potatoes – a big pan, because these are most people’s favorite kind
• Sweet Potatoes – this one evolves. I have done so many different kinds of recipes with sweet potatoes and this year it’ll be a new one again. I love them but haven’t found “the one” yet.
• Relish Tray – this is usually picked items from our garden. This year it’ll be a little more sparse with some items as our garden didn’t do as well, but I love the taste of the garden when it’s snowy outside.
• Fruit Salad – this is one of my favorite parts. I love fruit, and this is one of the last items I buy on the Monday before because I like fresh fruit salads.
• Rolls – I love baking bread, and the rolls are one of my favorite parts of dinner.
• Turkey Gravy – I am not a big fan of gravy, but I love turkey gravy. I don’t know if it’s because we don’t have it super often so it tastes great, or because it just tastes great.
• Veggie – This one also changes year to year. Sometimes we do a big green salad. This year I am going back to the green bean casserole. When my kids were younger it wasn’t their favorite, but it’s grown on them over the years. We also do a veggie tray with carrots, broccoli, and celery
• Pecan Pie Bars – This is a recipe I found 2 years ago, and it became a favorite with several of us instantly. Now it’s a must for Thanksgiving.
• And of course – Pie! My Mother-in-law did a bunch of different pies. She was a great pie baker. But I am not, so I only do a few choice ones – Apple Berry, Pumpkin and sometimes cherry. A couple family favorite always prepared by my Mother-in-law was Chocolate and Butterscotch, I am going to attempt a Chocolate this year, we’ll see about the Butterscotch.

So that’s our line up for Thanksgiving dinner this year. What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes?