Formal Thanksgiving Supper

This is the last of the several menus in The Complete Holiday Cookbook - Formal Thanksgiving Dinner. This is the second full Thanksgiving Dinner they list, and I don't know why they are serving cranberries in a tupperware pitcher, but at least many of these menu items are recognizable today:

Crab Meat Cocktail

Roast Turkey with Fruit Dressing

Saucy Vegetable Trio

Yams with Watercress Sauce

Cranberry Relish

Avocado-Ribbon Aspic (Ahhh! Yikes! Aspic!)

Cloverleaf Rolls

Mincemeat Pie (I said recognizable, not edible.)

Pecan Pie

The Cocktail looks pretty good and fairly easy:

2 cans crab meat

3 green onions and tops, minced

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 tsp. dry mustard

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon fresh dill, cut fine

2 tablespoons French dressing

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients well; chill. Serve on shredded lettuce. Yield: 6 servings.

Why shredded lettuce? How would you eat that for cocktails? Seems messy. I say serve it in a bowl next to crackers. Yum.

I actually like the Cranberry Relish to:

4 medium oranges

2 pounds cranberries

2 medium unpeeled apples, cored

4 cups sugar

Peel oranges; trim and discard white part of rind. Put orange pulp and rind, cranberries and apples through food chopper. Add sugar; mix well. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Relish may be frozen. Yield: 2 pints. (Don't serve in a Tupperware pitcher!)

We're taking a little vacation in the next weeks, but thanks to the magic of blog post scheduling you won't notice a thing. I'm working on packing, and here is the priority: boys clothes and things to amuse them on the plane, snacks for boys, books, knitting projects, asthma medicine, netbook loaded with projects for my work as my agent Terry Burns' Editorial Assistant, clothes and things for me. Then we return to host Thanksgiving and celebrate my 38th birthday. It's been quite a year. Normally I plan a list of things I want to do in the next year, but really, if next year I get 1/2 as much done as this one I'll be happy. No more house moves, though! I'm still trying to find cookbooks...