Weekend Meme: A Thanksgiving Meme

So thanksgiving went pretty well. Early afternoon, I went to a vegetarian meal prepared by my excolleague and had a great time talking trash about some other excolleagues. The food was exceptional with fake sausage stuffing, green bean casserole, mash potatoes and biscuits. They even roasted a turkey breast for the meat eaters.

In the early evening, I went to another gathering composed by mostly people right out of college. Had a pretty decent meal, the photo above was the pumpkin cheesecake that I made. With sour cream frosting and candied pecans. Personally I'm not a pumpkin/sweet potato person and I think there are ten ways that I could have made it better but I did get quite a bit complete with a few people saying that's the best cheesecake they've ever had. Though I know they were just being polite. We also played a new word game called Snatch and I pretty much spanked everyone... HARD. I doubt that they'd want to play with me ever again. lol.

Today I have another thanksgiving celebration that I'm in charge of cooking. The list of 12 guests had grown to 17 and still growing. It's a bit daunting and I'm wired to make sure I've got everything. Hope it will go well.

Today's Meme is brought to you from Joy of Desserts. Yes, even though I cook everything else, I get most joy by making desserts. I know Thanksgiving has passed but since I still have a party to go to and cook for, I guess it's alright.

There are only two easy rules:
1. Post these rules when you participate in this meme.
2. Link to the people you tag as well as the person who tagged you.

Here we go:

1. Which do you like better: hosting Thanksgiving at your home, or going elsewhere?
I can't host at my home since it's so small. So it had to be elsewhere.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen turkey? Organic? Free-range?
I'm a big believer in fresh ingredients, the fresher it is, the better it tastes. Unless it's free, then frozen is fine too. Though a fresh turkey is about 4 times as expensive than a frozen one.

3. Do you make stuffing or dressing? What kind?
I don't like stuffing a turkey because the risk of salmonella, so I usually would bake it separately, which makes it a dressing, right? I like to make a mushroom, rice, sausage and sage dressing but this year I'll go creole and make something Jambalaya like.

4. Sweet potato pie or Pumpkin pie?
Neither. Apple pie would be my choice or banana cream even though it's not too festive.

5. Are leftovers a blessing or a curse?
I've never been in a situation where I have leftovers for days, so it had always been a blessing for me to have food.

6. What side dishes are a must-have in your family?
I like to change it around so there's no must haves. Though everyone loves mash potatoes.

7. What do you wish you had that might make Thanksgiving easier?
A bigger kitchen with more gadgets. My current kitchen is a half-kitchen, I barely have enough counter space for stuff, but that'll have to wait until I move for it to improve.

8. If/when you go to someone else’s house for the holiday, do you usually bring a dish? If so, what is it?
Oh yes, it's only polite. I usually would like to bring dessert whenever possible. It gets my creative juice flowing.

9. What do you wish one of your guests would bring to your house?
Flowers or beverage.

10. What do you wish one of your guests would NOT bring to your house?
Attitude, that's never attractive.

11. Do you stick with a particular menu from year to year, or do you mix it up?
I like to change it up according to what I feel like eating at the time.

12. Is Thanksgiving a religious or secular holiday in your home?
It has some religious elements to it, but I think it's above and beyond that.

13. Share one Thanksgiving tradition.
I dislike the tradition of going around the table and say what you have to be thankful for, it's so forced. I think the cooking thing has starting to become a habit and tradition for me.

14. Share one Thanksgiving memory.
Learning how to make a freeform caramel apple pie from a friend one year in my friend DC's huge kitchen, it was nice.

15. Name five things you’re thankful for.
If I must:
1. The boyfriend 2. My health 3. My friends 4. All the freedom I'm having 5. My TV, computer and internet.

Have a great weekend!