It's baaack!!

Post Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner!! Yes, it warrants the double exclamation points ;p

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to on Friday night so I had a ton of extra shopping and cleaning to do on Saturday morning. This dinner prep/organization definitely didn't go as smoothly as last week's Thanksgiving dinner. I ran to the Giant to pick up some crucial ingredients and forgot one thing - my shopping list. AGH. Hate when I do that. I actually remembered everything I needed, but I didn't take inventory of stuff before I left the apartment. Good thing Sparky was coming over early...and needed to go to the store anyway. Phew!

I finally got productive around noon and Sparky came over around 2 to assemble his Horn of Plenty. O yes, a cornucopia centerpiece made of bread:
Curly parsley and tomato garnish? Of course. At the end of the waterfall of veggies was some Supremely Spicy Sabra Hummus. Duh. Like we'd serve anything else in my home ;p
Check out the crazy detail he did:
Apparently bread cornucopias were a fad this thanksgiving. Who knew?
While he was hard at work shaping the masterpiece, I whipped up the appetizers:

Horseradish Shrimp with Bacon
Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Tarts
Chicken Andouille Sausage Meatballs
Baked Flatbread with Brie, Caramelized Onions and Pears
Other, camera-shy apps included Black Bean Dip, Roasted Chickpeas, and some Brie.

Guests started arriving around 7 and came with plenty of wine and goodies! Dessert was the first to arrive ;) I've been salivating over this dessert since my friend told me he was bringing it - Gingerbread Trifle. Um. YUM. It took a lot for me not to sample it before dinner haha. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of dessert, but I'll see if anyone else was able to. There were lots of cameras so I'm sure one is floating around. More importantly, I will try to locate the recipe!

Susan started working on some Roasted Veggies and an Apple Tart for dessert
Fantastic impromptu roasted veggie dish. I'll grab recipes and post soon!

Old roomie and sort of neighbor brought some Asparagus with Chicken and Potato
Friends that usually take on Mashed Potatoes and carving/gravy duties also brought some Cranberry Relish
Of course that was in addition to the taters...that didn't get photographed because well, I think we all know what a mashed tater looks like, no?

Quinn brought the Brussels Sprouts I've been lusting for after reading about them on everyone's blogs post-FoodBuzz Festival
They totally lived up to the hype...even with her modifications. This is going up there on my list of favorite brussels sprout dishes!

Apparently my memory card was too full by the time the turkey got to the table, so I'll have to update this with a picture later...the master carver always does a fantastic job with presentation.
Since we had both sausage lovers and vegetarians in the mix, I made two stuffings

Wild Rice Stuffing with Cranberries, Mushrooms and Chestnuts
and for those who love meat, Italian Sausage and Bread Stuffing
It was a hit when I made it last year so I figured why mess with a good thing? Well, I sort of did. I used a little less sausage this time, used hot turkey Italian sausage, threw in some rosemary and thyme, and used light cream instead of heavy cream.

All in all another successful PTT dinner! I'll post again soon with recipes, but I must run now...SO exhausted and I can't believe Monday is tomorrow. Busy week, but I'm going to try extra hard to post this week!! Hope you all had good weekends :)