For the 2014 Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to cook a homemade meal (well, almost entirely homemade). I somewhat cheated on the turkey by buying a pre-cooked turkey breast with stuffing. But I made almost everything else from scratch.

For mashed potatoes, I got a recipe from Williams-Sonoma, online. I bought raw potatoes from the supermarket. The recipe called for sour cream instead of milk, spices, and butter. The mashed potatoes turned out really well; exactly the way I hoped.

In addition to mashed potatoes, I baked sweet potatoes. I like diced mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar, but this year I aimed for a little bit healthier option.

Cranberry sauce is one of my must-haves for Thanksgiving. I usually buy canned cranberry sauce (but not the jellied type), which I like, but this year I made cranberry sauce from scratch. I used a recipe for “cranberry chutney”, from Williams-Sonoma. I boiled raw cranberries, added sugar and water and orange juice, and a cinnamon stick, with orange and lemon zest. The recipe called for port wine, but I left that out. The result was super good!

Now, I’m mildly embarrassed to admit that I heated up canned corn and added lots of butter. Canned corn is a guilty pleasure for me, and to be honest, I prefer good canned corn to fresh!

For green vegetables, I did not go with the traditional American green bean casserole. Instead I made a classic asparagus side dish.

All things considered, I think my 2014 Thanksgiving meal was a great success. I intend to follow up with a homemade Christmas meal!