Meal No. 746: Thanksgiving on the Half-Year

Oven Roasted Turkey Breast

The Roediger House has some fine traditions, including the one observed tonight: Thanksgiving on the Half-Year. Since the delicious dishes featured in this holiday feast are too good to limit just to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the crew here likes to create a Memorial Day weekend excuse for putting on this monster meal.

Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce

I always, always love the food that goes on the holiday table. With twelve on hand for the grub, and my dining room still being a bit of a wreck, this big gathering required that the old men chairs get pushed away from the fireplace so that a card table could be set up to keep us all in close proximity to one another.

Tonight was just about perfect: great company, lots of talking and laughter, the food turned out right, folks brought in some good desserts, and some of us even finished up the evening by stepping out for a few games of pool at Recreation Billiards.

Clockwise from Bottom: Turkey with gravy, stuffing, corn pudding, sweet potato casserole, layered green bean casserole. Center: Beef tenderloin with wine sauce.

If there is any kind of downside to this fantastic occasion, it's that today was another phenomenally gorgeous May Sunday and I've still got lots to do in the yard before my time at home runs out this week. But hey: the food coma made me go all amnesiac on any of those yardly regrets.

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"Oven-Roasted Turkey Breast," Betty Crocker: Holiday Entrées, Sides, Brunches, & More, November 2001, p. 22-23.

"Beef Tenderloin in Wine Sauce" (p. 296) and "Spicy Horseradish Sauce" (p. 295), from The All-New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. Compiled and Edited by Julie Fisher Gunter. Oxmoor Press (2006).

"Layered Green Bean Casserole," from my sister Allison in Rossville, Indiana.

"Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping," from Southern Living Slow-Cooker Cookbook,  (Oxmoor House, 2006), p. 234-235.