It looks like Andrew has fixed my images - thanks, Andrew!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year for The Scientist's parents and my brothers (also a last-minute guest of my brother JR). For a small house with only one bathroom, it went surprisingly well. My in-laws didn't arrive until the afternoon of Thanksgiving day, so that gave The Scientist and me time to do a lot of cooking and preparing in the morning.

I under-estimated the amount of prep time, though (note to self: next time, chop all ingredients the night before) and it was a little frantic. I had a cheese plate (with crackers, apples, and grapes) to start, though, so no one went hungry. That's the Midwestern paranoia, that someone will go hungry in your house. It must not happen, no matter what the cost (and since I did the majority of ingredient shopping at Byerly's, it cost).

Only two items (homemade popovers and roasted sweet potatoes) dropped off the menu at the last minute - luckily I had a substitute for one (not-homemade wheat dinner rolls) lurking in the background and no one missed the other. The menu was as follows:

• Fruit and cheese plate (starter)
• Roasted turkey (very traditional, stuffed w/onion, carrots, and herbs for flavor)
• Gravy (courtesy of Williams-Sonoma)
• Apple, celery, and ham dressing (I can't call it stuffing, since I didn't stuff it in the turkey)
• Mashed baby red and yukon gold potatoes (dirty - skins left on) with garlic and chives
• Creamed corn with fried onions and bacon (made entirely from scratch and it was the hit of the meal)
• Wheat dinner rolls with sage butter
• Roasted fennel bulb slices with parmesan cheese
• Green salad with strawberries, almonds, and brie cheese
• Potato/cheese casserole (made especially for JR and he took the leftovers home with him)
• Berry jello salad (made especially for JK)
• Pumpkin pie with brandy whipped cream and vanilla icecream (everything made from scratch except the brandy - which I think turned out to be butterscotch schnapps because didn't have brandy, but it was still yummy)

Whew! Needless to say, no one went hungry and we even fed dessert to three more members of The Scientist's extended family who stopped through town for an hour on their way to Iowa.

We ate mostly leftovers for the next few days (there was a brunch at a restaurant somewhere in there for JR's 20th birthday) and had a nice visit with The Scientist's parents - the first time they've been here since our wedding (although they visited us once in Madison).