After a whole day of preparation, baking, cooking and waiting, the meal of the year finally came together. There was a brief struggle as I snagged the turkey platter for photographs before the bird could be carved, but that aside, everything went smoothly. The soup was light and refreshing, the side dishes - which included roasted green beans with caramelized onions, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing (baked both in and outside of the bird) and cranberry sauce - were all extremely well liked, and the turkey and gravy were just right. Of course, I was a big fan of the dessert - but that almost goes without saying.

Click past the jump for pictures of the whole meal!

Since the popular mealtime for Thanksgiving seems to be about 5pm, any Slashfood readers on the East Coast are probably already chowing down by now while out here in California, I am forced to endure the smells of roast turkey, caramelizing onions, and freshly baked dinner rolls for another couple of hours. Half of the dishes, including the soup and the desserts, are ready to go and the other half are either in progress or waiting until the last minute. I used this recipe for cranberry-studded dinner rolls and opted to make another batch of the cranberry and dried cherry sauce to go with the meal. We're serving white wine, zin and a selection of sodas (mostly root beer) with the main meal and opted to pass on hors d'oeuvres in favor of more drinks and some good conversation to work up an appetite.

My final update will probably not be until after dinner is over, when I'll update with pictures of the final dishes.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The stuffing has been made, but not baked. Because the dish is supposed to stay moist on the inside, I have found that stuffing can be assembled quite early in the day and then left, covered, until you are ready to bake it. In addition to the stuffing, there are a couple other side dishes that will be on the table tonight. There will be some roasted green beans and roasted butternut squash, both made shortly before serving, and some mashed potatoes, which will also be made shortly before serving to maintain optimal texture. Rather than have yet another bowl of veggies out (not that there's anything wrong with that), we have opted to make a vegetable-based soup to serve as a first course - carrot soup, to be specific. This recipe for carrot and orange soup is easy and light. The orange flavor is actually very mild and just builds on the sweetness of the carrots. It would probably be excellent with the addition of ginger, but I'm not messing with it now that it is ready to go.

I always start with the desserts for Thanksgiving. Aside from defrosting the turkey, they take a fair amount of time and can be done in advance. Getting them out of the way first frees up the oven for everything that needs to be done at the last minute. I always do a pumpkin pie in addition to a second dessert according to the tastes of the other people joining the dinner. Sometimes the second dessert is a cake or cookies and sometimes it is another pie. Last year, I made an apple pie in addition to the pumpkin and this year I'm doing a lemon tart. The tart tastes lighter (even though it is actually a bit richer) than the pumpkin pie and has a nice bright flavor that is great after a heavy meal. Pumpkin will always be my favorite, though.

The recipe is after the jump.

I know that most of us are going to be busy cooking and eating today, so I thought it would be interesting to share a little peek into what my family does for Thanksgiving. Fair warning: it's not necessarily anything different than what the average family does, but there's nothing wrong with sticking to tradition every once in a while. I'll update a couple of posts with photos of in-progress dishes, finished dishes and a couple of recipes. Granted, the recipes might not be all that useful to you today, but there is at least one more occasion this year that could call for a big turkey dinner.

To get started, here is my turkey. It's a 16-lb Butterball - which did well in the taste test - and is not extraordinary, but if you have ever tried to persuade a Depression-era relative why you would consider paying over $100 for any kind of heirloom or specialty turkey, you'll know why it might not be worth the fight to try. The bird is defrosted, but will spend some more time in the fridge before hitting the roasting pan, as some of the other dishes will be prepped first.

Last night, NPR's News and Notes featured a brief but serious piece about macaroni and cheese by Los Angeles-based columnist and actor Joseph C. Phillips. Phillips seems truly distressed, and rightly so, that his kids have been served a powdery, imitation mac and cheese at a local restaurant. He uses this experience of what mac and cheese isn't as a springboard for talking about what mac and cheese is, and, more specifically, what it is in the African American community. "This is the storytelling," Phillips says of the guarded recipes and mystique that surround really good homemade examples of the dish. He then goes on to share a few of his favorite mac and cheese-related stories. His own recipe is available on his website, here. The photo is of Sarah Gim's liveblogged mac and cheese from last winter.