Do Not Let Your Sons Be Victims of Learned Incompetence

Countdown to Turkey Day 2009: November 8
Heather says: Let’s make sure everyone is on the same page. We’ve found the dining room table, made a guest list (and invited them, right?), we have a soft menu plan, and if you’ve never even roasted a chicken that’s on the to-do list, right? Also, if you’re anything like me, you may need to put away all the stuff that has already found its way

Cornbread and Andouille Sausage Dressing
Heather says: The best part of this dressing, aside from it being fabulously tasty is, it’s gluten free! I have several friends who are either celiac or have friends who are. I love when I have a great recipe I can pass along, especially for a holiday meal. I’m not a huge fan of egg in my dressing, so when I doubled the recipe (to serve 20) I used only 3 eggs instead of four and it worked well. There was enough cohesion without any eggy bits.

Fearless Friday #25
Heather says: Guess what! Chiiiiiiiicken butt. Sorry, my two year old has been saying that all week and it’s stuck in my head. It’s already Friday again, how does that happen? It’s a good thing I was ahead of the game by being fearless on Sunday when I played hostess to a large group. Everyone knew when I sent out the invite that chaos would reign supreme and the point of the gathering was to keep me from drowning in leftovers. There were kids zooming around hopped up in a post-Halloween sugar frenzy and at one point, every inch of counter space was in use.

Apple, Cranberry, Sage Dressing
Heather says: Inside the bird it’s called stuffing, outside it’s dressing. Sometimes families or regions will call one the other. It doesn’t matter here. This recipe is for a savory dressing that contains sweet apple, tangy dried cranberry, and crunchy almonds. The original recipe called for sausage, but I use sausage in the cornbread dressing I serve. If you’d like to use sausage, use 1/2 pound of pork or turkey sausage. Brown it and use the drippings instead of the first 2 TBSPs of butter to saute the onions and celery.

Countdown to Turkey Day 2009: The Soft Menu Plan
Heather says: Yay! Another pen and paper exercise or maybe if you’re wired weird and serving a bunch of people it’ll be a Google spreadsheet. I’m still being teased for that, if you must know. Today’s exercise is not the final menu. This one has three versions, your ideal Thanksgiving dinner, the one that would make everyone happy (you know with Granny’s Waldorf Salad,