My Thanksgiving Menu

I've been working on my Thanksgiving menu and thought I would share some recipes in case anyone is looking for some good dishes for Thursday. You'll notice that I'm taking many of my dishes from Allrecipes.com, as usual.

I'm starting it with Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way. This will be year 7 of using this recipe for my turkey. It's a very simple recipe that uses butter between the skin and the breast meat to give the bird more flavor and juiciness. The drippings give you a good start on some very tasty gravy, too. I have a 21-lb. turkey this year and am guessing it will take about 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

Another favorite is my Sweet Potato Bake, a recipe from the Queen of Butter, Paula Deen. It is by no means a lowfat vegetable side dish; it uses butter, sugar and cream or milk in the sweet potatoes and has a topping that features chopped pecans (or walnuts, but I like the taste of pecans better), butter and brown sugar. Man, is it good! It's definitely worth the indulgence as long as you don't have this dish on your menu every week.

My potato dish is a make-ahead one that comes out really creamy and flavorful without the taste of having been in the refrigerator overnight - Creamy Mashed Potatoes II. The version of the recipe I have calls for a can of chicken broth as well. It may be a little too soupy for your taste with a full can, so try adding half a can first and then add more as needed. You can also add shredded Cheddar cheese, crumbled crisp bacon and green onions to the top if you'd like, but I find the potatoes just as good without the additions.

I'm trying a new recipe for dessert this year: Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake. Not being a huge pumpkin pie fan, I've always gone for other desserts at Thanksgiving. But I do really like cheesecake, and I made some Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins recently that were really good, so I thought I'd give this a try. It's something I've wanted to do for a few years now. The suggestions from reviewers are to use 3 packages of cream cheese (instead of 2), add 1/2 c. of sour cream when you add the eggs and to use more pumpkin if you like a prominent pumpkin flavor. One person also drizzled caramel sauce over the cut slices, and I may try that as it sounds even more delicious than plain!

The rest of my menu is pretty simple: stuffing (I just use boxed stuffing most years), salad, rolls, olives and cranberry sauce. Oh, and I have a Glazed Baby Carrots recipe that is really good for Thanksgiving, too, but I'm forgoing that this year as there is already plenty to eat for only 8 people!

Let me know if you end up trying any of this recipes, and if so, what you thought. Whatever you have on Thursday, I hope it's delicious!