Happy Thanksgiving! — My All Around Kitchen

Every year on Thanksgiving at my Mother's house, I am responsible for the appetizers. We were a nice, 'intimate' group of eleven, so we decided to change things up a bit. We didn't want the apps to totally stuff everyone and 'ruin' dinner like it inevitably does each year. So I thought I would do a really nice spread of charcuterie, cheeses, some spreads and nuts and pickled mushrooms and olives. It was fun to make, fun to eat, a great make ahead set of apps and brought everyone together. The perfect party food.

When making a spread for a party and you know it's going to be a main event for a while, you want to make sure it's going to be a crowd pleaser. You want to 'cater' to your crowd. I kind of mixed it up with things I knew our guests would love, and some things I knew our guests would give a chance and most likely end up liking.

The components that I made from scratch were a cranberry sauce, pimento cheese balls, an anchovy butter (recipe from my trusty Prune cookbook) pickled mushrooms and fennel and roasted spiced almonds. I mixed those items in with some store-bought cured meats and cheeses. Taleggio, Prima Donna Gouda and a NY State Sharp Cheddar. The meats were a Spanish Chorizo, a semi-spicy capicola and a hot soppresata. Also, sliced bread from my parents' neighborhood Italian bakery. There were also picholine green olives and pistachios filling in the negative spaces along with the almonds.

Making this spread was a lot of fun. I found arranging it to be kind of therapeutic and relaxing and it was also fun to disassemble! You want it to look pretty, but not TOO pretty that your guests are afraid to dig in!

I hope everyone had a happy, healthy and of course delicious Thanksgiving! XO Lisa