Can you believe it’s almost Thanksgiving? Just one week, and you sit down to dinner with guests at your very own table! Are you ready?!!
Perhaps these hints will smooth your holiday weekend, and you will truly enjoy yourself and your company!
Ready your table soon as you can! We did it today, one week out! Extra leaves, table pads, tablecloths – and the folding chairs are all in place! Reconfirmed the guest list – we’re all set knowing our numbers! Believe it or not, this took a good 3 hours, and we gladly checked it off our to-do list!
This organization maximizes my cooking time which is important since all our dishes are prepared fresh Thanksgiving Day! No cooking a week or so early and freezing these beautiful vegan and macrobiotic dishes. Our 5 o’clock dinner time is easily met, and we also will have served breakfast and lunch to our visiting family and friends – with us, numbering 7!
Errands, shopping, personal paperwork are up to date! Especially with family coming in town, we complete everything else to truly focus on this wonderful time together, and sharing special places in Atlanta. Five extra folks staying with us means readying guest rooms – checking closet light bulbs, shelves, sprucing up the bedrooms! Guest bathrooms too, well-stocked 2 weeks out!
Now, the meals. Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday! Loving the tastes, gatherings and wonderful historical story of sharing harvest. Thanksgiving memories shared across this great country.
Well, I’m ready to start cooking, having shortened my preparation time considerably, and you can too.! I call it prepping, just like I prep for my macrobiotic cooking class! That’s right! This Sunday just before Thanksgiving, I’m giving a Vegan and Macrobiotic Cooking Class for Thanksgiving and I have just completed measuring all non-refrigerated ingredients. Set on individual trays for each of the 8 recipes we will make in the class. That’s the trick! Each tray holds the recipe and ingredients of a single dish, copied from my macrobiotic cooking class Thanksgiving recipe handout, so it’s easy to identify each dish. Here’s an example. For ease, the pumpkin pie actually has two trays: one holds ingredients for the filling – the different spices, the kabocha squash; the second tray separately holds the flours & the rolling pin for my famous pie crust, with room for the additional items we add Sunday morning.
Getting a jump on gathering these ingredients, and leisurely measuring ingredients saves so much time Thanksgiving Day. Giving me one more chance to ensure my recipes are understandable, and all ingredients made the final shopping list. We shop early Friday morning for my Sunday class. Before the crowded weekend, and by then we know our final numbers for the class, and the produce is still exquisitely fresh for Sunday! Early morning class day I gather all refrigerated items, adding them to trays before starting to prep each dish. And we’re off and running!
And you can do this too! Turn on your favorite music, get to grooving around your kitchen, pantry, dining room, and wherever else you may have extra table space. We set up two extra card-tables in our living room, so our 23 guests will sit in close proximity, and those tables are holding my trays for my macrobiotic cooking class. Have fun prepping your holiday cooking this Thanksgiving, and you’ll learn to enjoy this shortcut whenever you entertain!
I just came across this Cranberry Sauce Recipe you might enjoy this year! It’s always fun trying new tastes, and this one is sweet, and really stretches those organic cranberries! From Gail Jack’s wonderful book of American Macrobiotic Cooking, she credits it to her friend Alice, from Becket, Massachusetts! Thank you Alice and Gail!
I call it sweet smilin’ cranberry sauce! And you would too if you saw my sweet husband’s smile when he tasted it for me tonight!
SWEET SMILIN’ CRANBERRY SAUCE
from Gail Jack, Amberwaves of Grain
1 cup organic cranberries
2 cups apples, chopped
1 cup apple juice, Whole Foods, not Gravenstein!
pinch Si Salt sea salt*
Rice syrup to taste
1 1/2 teaspoon kuzu
• Place cranberries, apples, apple juice and sea salt in a saucepan.
• Cover, bringing to boil & simmer til cranberries soften, approx 15 minutes.
• Add a little rice syrup, if too tart.
• Dissolve kuzu in little cold water & add to sauce; cook & stir til thickened & clear.
*Si Salt Sea Salt – preferred in Macrobiotic Diet recipes, fine, still contains 67 trace
minerals, available at the Kushi Institute Store 800 . 645 . 8744!
Hope you and yours enjoy this free Macrobiotic Diet Recipe,
Wishing you a very, healthy, Happy Thanksgiving!
