Every year the day before Thanksgiving, is pie and prep day. This is the day that makes "The Ginormous Feast" quite a bit less stressfull if it is handled right. By now you have shopped for everything and you know your menue. Now is the time to sit down, go over all the recipes and think what can be done ahead of time, on pie day.

Pie! First thing in the morning, after making sure the kitchen is really clean and as uncluttered as possible, we bake the pies and any other desert someone has made a special request for.  This year things are different, my "pie girl" has school in the morning, then she will come home to change and drop off pickles, go to work until midnight. Needless to say, I will be doing the pie and prep day, alone in the morning and with two year old help in the evening so I will only make pumpkin pies. I make them first in case something happens to them (very rare occurance but Murphey's Law may say otherwise) I will have time to bake new ones. A word about using an electric mixer on the counter top... It is one of my least favorite of the kitchen tools. Put quite simply, the whole thing is too tall on a standard height counter top, you cannot see what is going on in the bowel. Don't get me wrong, it does save time and muscle power. I'm saying that it is sort of a pain to have to stop the mixer and drag the bowel down to see how things are going in there.

Now that the pies are done and cleaned up, it's time to wash all the produce that will be used. I also put my onions in the refrigerator, seems like cold onions, release less irritants when being chopped. The potatoes will only be washed because, even in water, cut potatoes that are exposed to air, turn black, they'd probably taste fine but grey smooshed taters are not very appealing to the eye. I have a stack of four cutting mats, that I put on the table all in one, that way as each one gets dirty, it can be set aside and a clean one is already in place.  Lots of produce can be cut, chopped, sliced, diced and julienned and stored in ice water in the fridg until needed. Apples can be cut and soaked in water with lemon or orange juice, put plastic wrap over the bowel and then weight it down to the water level with a saucer. Onions get peeled, quartered and dropped into the food processor, then stored in a glass bowel with plastic wrap, pressed into the surface of them and stuffed into the fridge... air and metal both can cause the onions to turn red. Picky will help me by putting cut vedgies into bowels and yes he will be sampling them, that is why I always prepare more then I know I will need.

Last, because I "delegated" out the rolls and casserole, I make the dips and chop nuts and grate a couplea pounds of cheese. And also clean up the awful mess that we made because the next day is....

Thanksgiving! YAY! Count your blessings and give Thanks because we all have things to be thankfull for. I wish you and yours a most wonderful day.

Whats for Dinner? Hamburger Hash, mixed vedgies and sliced apples.