This coming Thanksgiving will be the first one in years in which I will be hosting dinner. For the past 9 years, I have lived out of state every year except for just one. My son and I have always came home to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. But this year we are back living in our hometown, and I eagerly volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner for my parents and my sister. I love being the hostess. I love being in charge of the menu, and the decor, and having everyone over at my home. And, hey... I figured my mother has earned a break by now, right? ;)
Needless to say, I have been planning the menu for Thanksgiving dinner now for weeks...
And now with just a couple of days until the big day, I have our dinner menu finalized.
After much debate, I finally decided that I would just do a compound butter rub under the skin and on top of the skin for the turkey. I had considered doing a brine, but realized I did not have the room in my refrigerator for a 14 pound turkey in a gallon sized bucket...
I will be making a quick gravy with a butter and flour roux, some of my homemade chicken broth, and drippings from the turkey pan.
My mother is making and bringing a couple of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner favorites- her homemade mashed potatoes and her clover yeast rolls. I really cannot express how excited I am for those rolls. She hasn't made them in YEARS, and I have fond memories of them from my childhood. They are typically pretty time consuming to make, but since I am hosting dinner this year she has the time to make them. (Yippee!)
We will, of course, have sweet potatoes on the table. In an effort to free up the oven a bit, I am actually making this year's sweet potato casserole in the Crock Pot. I am thinking though of foregoing the pecan topping on this one for a marshmallow topping. I would just transfer the casserole to an oven safe dish, top with mini marshmallows, and set it under the broiler for a few minutes. (Anyone know if the removable dish in the Crock Pot is oven safe? ;) )
Here are the rest of the sides that made the cut...
I plan on baking this the night before & heating it in the oven while the turkey is resting.
Also making an appearance per the exclusive request of my son, will be Stove Top Turkey stuffing. He specially requested nothing fancy, just the stuff from the box. ;)
In lieu of the traditional canned cranberry sauce, I will be serving Apple-Cranberry Jam from Food in Jars. I canned a couple of jars of this yumminess a few weeks back, and it ended up gelling to about the same consistency as a canned cranberry sauce.
And now the best part! Dessert, right?? :) We will have three pies on the menu. My sister is making and bringing a pecan pie. I will be making a homemade apple pie. I made and froze apple pie filling a few weeks ago, so all I need to do is defrost a bag of it and make my from scratch pie crust (get my absolute favorite pie crust recipe below). This pie will also be sitting pretty on my dessert table...
For both of my homemade pies, I will be using the recipe below for my pie crust. This recipe makes enough for two double crust pies, and it is delicious and flaky- the perfect pie crust.
I am going to whip up a homemade cinnamon vanilla whipped cream to top our slices of pie with. Just heavy cream, sugar, a few drops of vanilla, and a couple of dashes of cinnamon all whipped up until thick and creamy.
Are you hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year? What will be on your Thanksgiving Dinner Spread? :)
Want to see all the recipes I pinned while I was planning my Thanksgiving spread? Come check out my Planning the Thanksgiving Spread Board on Pinterest. 
