Cooking for Thanksgiving

One of the things that I don't really blog about too much, but that is a huge part of my life is cooking. In our household, I am the cook and A.P. is the cleaner. I love to cook and learned from watching my mother growing up. Growing up, my mother made dinner every night, often from scratch. When my parents divorced and she returned to work, she came home from work every night and made dinner...still from scratch. It was always my job to set the table because despite the ease of eating on a couch like so many do these days, I grew up eating our dining room table every night.

As an adult, I realize how great it was that my mother prepared healthy meals that weren't from a box or a frozen foods section. I also learned that variety, especially when it comes to meals, is the spice of life. I have certain dishes that I prepare as favorites, but for the most part, A.P. and I rarely eat the same thing twice. And we eat everything. I cook almost any kind of cuisine I can. But it's holidays that I love the most.

For years, I didn't cook for the holidays, so instead I had an annual holiday party. I would cook a huge meal for my friends and family and we'd kick off the holiday season with a big feast! It was in those years that I perfected my large meal cooking skills. However, the last two years and now again this year, we have (and by we, I mean I) prepared and hosted Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, we celebrated our first Thanksgiving together and I made a huge meal. I tried a lot of new recipes out last year, but think I'm going to return to my old standards. And so it is in that spirit that over the next few Thursdays (all leading up to the big day, of course), I'd love to share with you some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. I hope you enjoy this series of posts! Check back later for some of my favorite appetizer recipes!

(Photos of last year's Thanksgiving by me!)