enJOY it

an archived personal and craft blog from Elise Blaha Cripe.

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As mentioned, we are hosting Thanksgiving this year.

It's going to be eight people in our little apartment. We are using our table as a serving area & bar and doing a "eat on the couch and on these scattered chairs" situation. Because people will be eating on their laps or off the coffee table, we're sticking with foods that you don't have to cut. Just fork.

And we're going a bit un-traditional. The main flavors, turkey, potatoes, greens, bread, will be there – just prepared a bit differently.  

Here's what our menu looks like :

Appetizers

Main

Dessert

  • apple pie
  • mini sweet potato cupcakes

*Most of our recipes came from our favorite cook books, but where I could find legit sources from the authors, I linked.

I am so excited.

I picked out serving dishes for everything last weekend and drew up the largest shopping list ever. We also have a time-line made up for how we can get this all prepared with one oven, one stove and a slow cooker. Paul has today off (first day in weeks!) so we're hitting the grocery store and on Saturday we will be at the farmer's market before it opens to stock up on good food.

I am going to get our table decorated and flowers arranged this weekend. Did I already say I was excited?

Thanksgiving, you're my favorite.

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25 responses to “our thanksgiving menu.”

  1. Lindsay Fitz Avatar

    Your first Thanksgiving is so fun! Every other year we stay in DC and host dinner for our friends who can’t get home. I love, love, love it! I just started our menu last night, I’m getting excited.
    Don’t forget about everything you can make/prep ahead of time. That is HUGE. Good luck.
    Lindsay

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  2. RachelG Avatar
    RachelG

    You’ll find that you’re going to love hosting Thanksgiving, and may want to do it every year! Good luck Elise, you two will be great at it.

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  3. kelly X Avatar

    This sounds exciting. Good luck and have fun!!

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  4. Sara Avatar

    How fun! Everything sounds delicious and your dishes are so pretty! 🙂 You’ll have a wonderful time.

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  5. Joanne Avatar
    Joanne

    OMG…you are SO organized! Enjoy this first Thanksgiving hosting – sounds like you have everything covered and the menu sounds yummy!

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  6. Kim Avatar

    How exciting & fun for you!!!

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  7. Stephanie Avatar
    Stephanie

    YUMMM!!! We’re excited too!! Can hardly wait!! XOXO

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  8. she hearts art Avatar

    you are crazy organized. good luck!

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  9. Emily Avatar

    Elise you remind me of my mom! We have 50 people for Thanksgiving and my mom takes the entire week off to prepare. We have color coded and time coded spreadsheets and none of us are allowed to veer from our duties before guests arrive. All in all, it ends up being an amazing night, just as I’m sure yours will!

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  10. jessica o'brien Avatar

    oh my gosh, i do the same labeling on platters + bowls as you! learned it from my mama 😉 it’s actually my activity for tonight.
    and i’m making the exact same green bean dish! 🙂

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  11. elise blaha Avatar

    that green bean dish is sooo good. we tried it last week.

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  12. Laura Avatar

    So organized! It looks great, wish you could send food over your blog, yum, yum!

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  13. Cindy Avatar
    Cindy

    Have fun Elise! Jess and I have hosted a bunch of Thanksgivings for our friends in our tiny apartments and juggling the oven always requires an elaborate schedule. But things always turn out great! This year we did the “buffet table and then sit on the sofa and eat” thing and it was a super success.

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  14. Sandi Keene Avatar

    Just tell us what time dinner is and we will be there!

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  15. sarah Avatar

    No pumpkin pie? Ah, sad. It’s my absolute favorite and I’m definitely having pumpkin pie here. Mini sweet potato cupcakes MIGHT make up for it. 😉

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  16. Jen Avatar

    I love the idea of making it more untraditional!
    I look forward to when my husband and I can host a holiday! Best of luck!

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  17. Jessica at Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping! Avatar

    Sounds delightful! I saw Ina making that roasted turkey roulade, and ooh ooh ooh it looked good. Let me (us!) know how it turns out. I’m sure it will be wonderful!

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  18. sophie Avatar

    very exciting! can’t wait to see pictures of your first turkey day as a married woman.

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  19. emily Avatar
    emily

    Those sweet potato cupcakes sound intriguing to an english person, could you share which book it’s from?
    many thanks

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  20. elise blaha Avatar

    its from martha stewart cupcakes. 🙂

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  21. Mandi Avatar

    Oh man! Exciting! And for me it would be terrifying too. But I’m sure you got everything under control. 🙂

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  22. flora Avatar

    lovely menu! I just have to ask.. the orange sticky notes on the dishes? Is that labels for each dish? 🙂 love it.

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  23. elise blaha Avatar

    yep! I wrote the food items on washi tape and stuck them to the dishes so Id remember what goes with what.

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  24. emily Avatar
    emily

    great, I have that… will look it up! thanks 🙂

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  25. thanksgiving recipes Avatar

    I love hosting thanksgiving, it feels me so honored, because it sounds like they do believe on your cooking talent, that’s why every time I host the dinner I always look forward to make my very best to make my relatives happy and so proud.

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