Years ago, Eat With Me showed me the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

Now it is my favorite holiday, and I channel Scotte as the day approaches.

It’s our first time hosting together for a party of 12. See if you can guess the theme.

Here’s the menu:

Salad: Spinach, red onion, cranberry, mandarin orange and honey toasted almond salad with cranberry vinaigrette.

Sides: Scott’s Drunken Cranberries, stuffing, green beans with bread crumbs and succotash (From Williams Sonoma’s The New Thanksgiving Table), sweet potato casserole, wild rice pilaf, cheesy spagetti squash. Supplemented by mashed potatoes and sticky rice stuffing from the guests. (Exciting!)

Beverages: Spiced Cranberry and Pineapple punch, cranberry martinis

Main: A hybrid recipe of Turkey with Citrus and Herbs de Provence, the Washington Post’s brine, and my co-worker’s recipe. Keep your fingers crossed that the final recipe is NOT the “Calling the Harris Teeter for a fully cooked turkey” recipe.

Dessert: Homemade apple pie from the local farmers market. We bought this over the weekend because the poor lady selling it had been bearing the 30 degree weather since 8 that morning and had maybe a handful of customers come by. She was also frantically trying to piece her booth back together every time a gust came through dropping the temperature down to the 20s. Cranberry cheesecake, after dinner cranberry-walnut scones (to go with tea and coffee service) and pumpkin pies supplemented by guests. (Squeal!)

Greg has built a larger table area, bought a perfect cranberry-colored table cloth and stolen all of my dad’s chairs. A maid service had come through two weeks ago, things were trucked to Goodwill, and new sets of silverware, glasses, plates and serving ware were purchased. Three dishes are already in the freezer. We are getting there!

Oh, and here’s a final hint as to what the theme is: