Some serious cooking

Pictures to come later.

In preparation for Thanksgiving today I have so far made:

-A Pecan Streusel Spice Coffee Cake from my new Coffee Cake book by Lou Seibert Pappas.
-Hot Chocolate fudge cakes from the new December edition of Cooking Light-
-My mom is making the Lemon Meringue Pie from my Williams Sonoma Pies and Tarts cookbook but with her own coconut crust

Apple pie will be made tomorrow, my mom rolled out the dough today.

I also have some cornbread in the oven for tomorrow! The turkey is seasoned and brining as we speak.

Also, for dinner tonight we're making my mom's AMAZING ginger orange marmalade chicken with asparagus and polenta. Yum yum yum yum.

Also my mom and I went to the grocery store today to buy the vegetables for my side of roasted vegetables. I got red onion, carrots, butternut squash, acorn squash, brussel sprouts, turnips and sage. That's all I can remember... I think that's it.

Oh and my mom bought some yukon gold potatoes to make her oven roasted potatoes. She peels them and cuts them in large chunks and then tosses it in olive oil, salt, pepper and some herbs. She roasts them in the oven and they get this golden, crunchy crust on the outside with a really creamy center.

The other families who are coming are bringing pork loin, rice, farofa (a traditional Brasilian side dish), french cut green beans... not sure what else.

The fourth dessert (the Lemon Meringue Pie) was last minute because we have a lemon tree in our garden which has tons of lemons on it and my mom wanted to use them. She thought four desserts was too much but I know how much she loves lemon stuff so I made her make it. So now there's something for everyone! Lemon-tart (she makes her lemon curd super tart), the spice cake I made super spicey, the chocolate cakes are really dark and rich and the apple pie will be just nice and classic.

The cornbread was also very last minute. I had thought of making it but then gave up on the idea because I thought it'd be too much. (And it will be) but my sister and I love cornbread to death so I thought, hey, good excuse for a ridiculous amount of left overs.

Pictures will be coming on all the prep and then lots of pictures of the final products tomorrow. I'll keep you updated! Time to make dinner.