Happy day-after-Black-Friday-and-two-days-after-Thanksgiving!

I like my holidays, don’t judge.

I have to say that this Thanksgiving went about as smoothly as one ever has for my family.  Granted, our crew was slightly smaller than usual (just my parents, myself, my sister, her husband and her two boys), but still.  It was expertly orchestrated if I do say so myself.

The key is division of labor. In my family, that means the following:

Dad: turkey, stuffing, gravy, creamed rutabaga
Me: brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans
Mom: pies (pronounced, “paaaahs”)
Kim: appetizers and kid wrangling

That’s right. We run this meal like a well-oiled machine.  How WASPy is that?

I started my prep on Wednesday night, making the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and throwing them into casserole dishes to heat up before the meal.

Those are stuffed twice-baked sweet potatoes inspired by this recipe, by the way.  I omitted the tofu and added parmesan cheese.  If your family isn’t a fan of sweet potato casserole (or sweet potatoes made sweeter in any way, for that matter), you should definitely give these a try, they were a big hit.

I was also responsible for the “green part of the meal”, so I went with simple roasted brussels sprouts (roasted in pancetta drippings, because I like to rock out) and green beans sautéed with a sliced shallot.

And some kale chips for my nephews.

All the cool kids are eating kale chips these days, I’m tellin’ ya.

And of course we had to balance out my crazy side dishes with the traditional family recipes from my dad:

Is creamed rutabaga a tradition in anyone else’s house?  It definitely is in ours.  But then again, we’re sort of  weird.

I put the veggies (other than the green beans) in the oven as soon as the turkey came out, so that the bird and the veggies all had a good 30 minutes to cook/rest.  It’s a great way of timing everything so that all the food hits the table hot, if I do say so myself.

And then I ate my body weight.  Clearly, moderation is still not my strong suit.

But it wouldn’t really be Thanksgiving without the food coma.  So, mission accomplished.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving full of food and family!