Thanksgiving prep

As I didn't have to work this past Saturday, I was able to prepare my Thanksgiving day dessert. In an earlier post I told you that I would be prepare pumpkin cheesecake crumble squares. I followed the recipe, except this time I added a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the crumble mix. Why you make ask, on its own the crumble mix is delicious. I  thought that this would be great as a granola mix. I wanted to accentuate the cinnamon flavor. The addition was great, the cinnamon wasn't too overbearing. Now I just need time to make the granola. 

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Back to the cheesecake crumble squares. Instead of the using the 9x9x2 pan the recipe called for, I used a Pyrex 13x9x2 glass dish which worked out just fine. You may want to reduce the temperature by 25 degrees when blind baking the crust. You can then raise the temperature to the proper setting once you have poured the filling in to complete the baking process.

Once the cheesecake squares were done, I left them in the dish to cool and then covered to chill. We had a little taste last night and they were delicious. My husband said that he's never had them fresh as I usually  make them ahead and serve frozen, which by the way is fabulous. This morning I cut them into squares and froze them until the holiday.

I've decided on a recipe for my turkey. This year I'm making roast turkey with maple herb butter and gravy. It's a recipe that I found on www.epicurious.com back in October 2004. I'll make the maple butter ahead of time and keep that frozen until Thanksgiving. For the gravy I use Williams-Sonoma Turkey Gravy Base, that I pick up on sale.

No decision yet on the recipes for the sweet potatoes or green vegetable. I would like to recommend NJ broccoli which is currently in season and available at Delicious Orchards. I tried this many years ago and find that it has a sweetness to it that you don't find in other varieties of broccoli. 

I have my schedule for Thanksgiving week and I work late afternoons into the evening. I'm off the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so that will be the day I prepare my dressing and sweet potatoes. The soup I'll make one day this week before I go to work and store that in a friend's freezer. It's a challenge this year to prepare Thanksgiving dinner and normal supper simultaneously.