Thanksgiving 2012 Have you got an extra Guatemalan blue banana squash?

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday-I focus on cooking like no other time of the year and get to host many of my favorite people.

On Wednesday I prepped most of the food-here is most everything for the roasted root vegetables, green bean and mushroom casserole (from scratch!), mashed potatoes and the Squeeto (a Guatemalan blue banana squash stuffed with leeks, stuffed with sweet potatoes and stuffing)

Sausage and rice stuffing prep-I got to use the hot peppers, cilantro and lemon grass from the garden.

Finished cranberries

Part of Wednesday dinner was a mashed potato contest.  I grew up eating the flakes, and while they are tasty enough, I thought it was time to learn how to do the real deal.  E- was in charge of the flakes and the frozen  ones while Delicate Flower helped me with the Cook's Illustrated Whipped potatoes.  Everyone agreed that frozen ones were a last resort and while the flakes are not bad, there is really something great about the real potato version.  We made three batches on Thursday and they all turned out great and reheated well throughout the weekend.

The evolution of the pie table. One family has a tradition of baking ~1/2 pie per person.  Because you start off the morning with pie.  And of course you need some pie before dinner is ready in the late afternoon.  And then there is after dinner pie.  I have embraced this tradition because-PIE!

This year I made a couple of new ones-lemon curd in a pie crust, Maple Pecan (from Cook's Illustrated) and zucchini disguised as apple.  Friends brought 5-berry (we had to guess which 5 berries), sweet potato with praline topping and Indiana State Fair Award Winning Pecan!

The night before Thanksgiving and we have almost finished 1 pie-nice, we are on track.

Before dinner we added traditional apple, Strawberry Rhubarb from local Duarte's , cornbread and Cranberry Cornmeal Pound Cake.  Yes, non-pie dessert is allowed on the pie table.  Actual pumpkin pie and more sweet potato pie and apple tort arrived at dinner time.

And by Friday afternoon this is all that was left.

This year we are trying Trader Joe's Turkey-less as our vegetarian center piece.  While tasty, the look is lacking something-luckily we have some crafty folk to dress it up. 

Shake your tail feathers!

The fancy ice cube melts slowly and keeps your Manhattan fresh.  Because who doesn't want a Manhattan!?!

And on Friday the last of the turkey got made into stock that went into turkey pot pie.