Thanksgiving 2018

I’m not hosting Thanksgiving but will still be in the kitchen a decent bit this week. Here’s what’s on deck for me this long weekend:

Simmering: Stove top potpourri (left). Surefire way to generate “it smells good in here!” comments every time someone enters the house.

Breakfast-ing: Orange cranberry muffins

Snacking: Seasoned pretzels. Pro tip: Check whether your lemon pepper seasoning is salted. Last year I neglected to do this and the amount of salt between the pretzels and seasoning made this almost inedible. This year I used unsalted pretzels with my salt-containing seasoning and it was just right. Seriously easy (telework day friendly!) and addicting.

Drinking: Chai vanilla old fashioned. I made the chai syrup this past weekend and it smelled amazing.

Dessert-ing: The great pumpkin pie with this pie crust and Brown butter maple pecan pie bars. I have never made pie crust before. A little nervous about this! (I have store-bought as back-up).

While I imagine most people have their meal plan set by now, if you’re looking for breakfast or brunch ideas throughout the long weekend, here are some of the recipes that are on my radar (asterisk indicates I have made it before and liked it):

• Buttery breakfast casserole
• Whole grain pumpkin spice waffles*
• Scallion herb cream cheese on bagels
• Sheet pan breakfast sandwiches
• Puff pastry breakfast pizza
• Maple pecan banana muffins
• Maple pumpkin oatmeal breakfast bars or apple cinnamon oatmeal bars
• Classic pumpkin scones
• Orange and almond granola
• Pumpkin cheesecake muffins
• Pumpkin cinnamon swirl bread
• Sweet potato casserole baked oatmeal*
• Overnight cinnamon roll casserole

Wishing you a restful and happy holiday!