1:00 PM – Hi there. It’s Corelyn here. Jennie and I continue to be having the most relaxing Thanksgiving day ever. Of course, none of our guests have arrived, so we’ll let you know how things go in a couple of hours.

Since we’re only in charge of the turkey (and the gravy, and maybe some bread pudding) this year, we have the opportunity to reflect on all the other elements that come together for a good Thanksgiving celebration for 20 or so of your friends. For us, the devil is in the details, and we have (hopefully) taken care of most of the details in advance. I’ve been reading every hosting tip that TheKitchn cant throw at me for the last month or so, and I’m excited about having guests arrive later today and NOT being a frazzled mess. Fingers crossed that my dream comes true!

12:20 pm – Hello friends! Corelyn and I are hanging out, enjoying our morning/afternoon that’s moving slowly and is quite relaxing. We put the turkey in around 10:45 because thanks to my coworker we’re trying a new thing were we put the turkey in on high heat the whole time, which means this sucker will be ready in only four hours! We’ve cleaned the kitchen, gotten a lot ready for the day, and have completed a crossword puzzle and drank almost an entire pot of coffee.

Someone on Instagram asked if we had an oven schedule available for download, so we thought we’d upload that for you here! Just click on the photo below, and you will download a template for the oven schedule to use for yourself! We’ve been doing an oven schedule since 2008, and it really helps us stay organized and make sure that everything is heated and ready for eating!

Sophie, the bird, is in the oven and cooking up a storm, spurting and smelling amazing. She’s 28 pounds, and we love her for being big, brined, and full of citrus and onion!

We’re getting ready, but we’ll be back soon with another round of updates!

Around this time of year, Jennie and I get a little nostalgic looking back over the 7 years of Thanksgiving celebrations we’ve coordinated together. Inevitably, this results in a “looking back” post full of embarrassing photos featuring us in near-pajamas shoving a raw turkey into the oven, or admitting publicly just how much time we spend planning, scheduling, and color coding our Thanksgiving day.

Well, this year is no exception. In 2014, we are embracing how ridiculous our Thanksgiving retrospective and live-blogged posts actually are. It’s the one time each year that we stop caring about perfectly plated food blogger photos and let ourselves step in front of the camera in all our mid-cooking, frazzled, sweaty glory. This year, we want to highlight everything embarrassing about past Garlic, My Soul Thanksgivings. Brace yourself.

2008: Our first year cooking together, even before we had GMS. Jennie actually gave herself a 6 week plan to research how to cook a turkey!

2009: We tried brining. Somewhere between spilling the brining liquid all over the front seat of Jennie’s moving vehicle on Thanksgiving morning and plunging our hands into ice cold water to fish out our massive turkey, we decided wet brining isn’t for us.

2010: The year we went Gluten Free for the sake of our friends with GF dietary needs. Many consultations were required to ensure our anti-gluten efforts paid off, and at least one of those consultations occurred via video chat.

2011: Although I was living on the East coast at the time, I flew out to LA for the holiday. It was a whirlwind weekend of planning, cooking and eating. We were in a new kitchen for both of us at our friend Paul’s house, and we were so excited to catch up with each other and have our favorite day together!

This year’s crowning moments were using tinfoil to tie up the turkey (we always, always forget twine) and a last minute panicked text message conversation about the size of Paul’s oven.

2012: This year we were apart for Thanksgiving for the first time in four years, and we still managed to make Thanksgiving happen amazingly for our LA crew, while Jennie live-blogged and video chatted in from Chicago.

2013: We were back together and better than ever in 2013, and it was our first year hosting in one of our homes. We bought all our veggies last year from the farmers’ market, we launched our new web design on the most wonderful day of the year, and we even had an official hashtag to have people follow along with photos of the day – which helped us out so we weren’t stuck behind a camera.

We also gave everyone a sneak peek at our planning process, including the infamous oven schedule. It has come a long way over the years! Take a look at the difference between our 2009 oven schedule and the obsessively color-coded 2013 version.

This year, we’re taking it easy. For us that means letting our friends help with more of the main dishes so we can focus on relaxing, enjoying the day with friends, and experimenting with new turkey recipes. Per tradition, we will still be live-blogging all day tomorrow, so stay tuned for more embarrassing behind the scenes tidbits that we’ll probably regret posting on the internet.

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is in just two days? We are so excited to be so close to our favorite holiday of the year!

In case you’ve missed our posts over the past few weeks, here’s a recap of what we think you should make for your holiday dinner:

The veggies sides:

This Roasted Lemon Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts Hash are great options for your veggies sides. They’re good for swapping out for a green bean casserole and they both are hearty enough to be the main veggie at your dinner.

The sweet potato dish:

If you really want a sweet potato dish that’s maybe a little more grown up than marshmallow topping, try this Herb Crusted Fall Veggie Mash, or if you want something more on the roasted side, our Roasted Carrot and Quinoa Salad.

The dessert:

We love pie, but if someone is bringing the classics, we love this Pear Crisp. Or, if you want something crunchy, try this Baklava.

Whatever you end up making, share it with us! If you make a GMS dish for your Thanksgiving, be sure to hashtag it on social media with #gmsthanksgiving!

Happy holiday, everyone!

Thanksgiving is THIS WEEK and if you’re like us over at GMS, you’re putting the final touches on your Thanksgiving menu, picking up your turkey, and generally getting ready for the big day!

To help with that, we wanted to give you some downloadable menus that you can edit and print with your personalized menu for your big day! You have two options to choose from – click on the one you like better below to start the download.

Happy almost-Thanksgiving, y’all!

If you’ve been craving Thanksgiving dinner, this recipe is for you! It is a little sweet and savory, not to mention paleo-friendly. Turkey, cranberry, onion, tomato, sweet potato, cinnamon…what’s not to love? It may not be the most low maintenance recipe (takes about an hour and a half to make), but it sure is worth it!

*This recipe requires a food processor.

Ingredients:
-6 peppers
-1 pound ground turkey
-2-3 sweet potatoes
-1 onion
-3 tomatoes on the vine
-chicken stock
-walnut oil (or another oil of your choosing!)
-pack of dried cranberries
-cinnamon
-paprika
-salt/pepper (optional: try using lemon pepper for a little extra zing!)

Directions:
1.) Preheat the oven to 425 and set a large pot to boil on the stove.
2.) Prep your peppers by cutting off the tops and cleaning out the seeds. Prep your sweet potatoes by cutting off the skin; then wrapping them in tinfoil.
3.) Boil the peppers for 5-7 minutes then remove from the water and bake the sweet potatoes for 45-60 minutes.
3.) Cook the ground turkey until browned. 1/4-1/2 cup chicken stock to keep ground turkey moist. Set aside.
4.) Chop your onion and tomatoes. Brown onions in pan with walnut oil; then add tomatoes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika. Stir in some cranberries and set aside.
5.) Once the sweet potatoes are done, remove them from their tin foil and cut them into cubes. Add the cubes to your food processor with a tablespoon of chicken stock, a little oil and salt / pepper. Add a couple dashes of cinnamon as well. Pulse. Repeat the seasoning (and chicken stock, if needed only) and add some cranberries. Blend again until the sweet potatoes have a mash potato consistency.
6.) Place a couple scoops of sweet potato mash into each pepper. Stuff the rest of the peppers with the turkey, onion, and cranberry.
7.) Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400.

Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving!