Thanksgiving Meal Prep Almost Killed Me: Christmas Won’t Do That Thanks to These Local Businesses!
BREAKING NEWS:
Rookery will also offer their Christmas Tree Cheesecakes!!
Original post:
As I said in a previous post, I’m pregnant. As such, I sometimes way overestimate my abilities. This happened on Thanksgiving, and I ended my evening doubled over in pain and sore feet for days.
A large part of this was because I was determined to cook everything myself. Seriously, here’s what I cooked/made morning of: green bean casserole, sausage balls, goat cheese balls, deviled eggs, cream cheese biscuits, roasted Brussel sprouts & butternut squash, roasted okra, and collards. Prepped the night before: chocolate trifle. Purchased: key lime pie from Ilir. And other items brought by my family- with Rusty cooking two turkeys that morning. Phew!! And then after everyone was gone and those that stayed were napping…. I was even more determined to let them sleep while I cleaned everything.
EVERYTHING. Most by hand, only one load of dishes in the dishwasher.
Stupid. I was stupid.
Now, some of this could have been avoided had *someone* not decided to plant a flower bed the evening before and had gotten a decent nights sleep… however I digress…. (and honestly it looked beautiful so I can’t complain!)
(Cue the look of my daughter exasperated by said someone on a whole other occasion.)
So I’m determined to NOT let that happen this Christmas.
In the past, I’ve done a waffle bar inspired by my time working at Waffle House doing all of their hiring and what not in Middle Georgia.
As I told my mom we weren’t doing that this year, she expressed disappointment at which I reminded her I am pregnant and waffles are best served fresh…. they get soggy sitting out. I’m not standing and serving people all day again. Nope.
So THIS year I’m getting smart and letting others do most of the cooking for me, and have already placed orders.
Coca Cola glazed ham from Grow
Key Lime Pie with Lemon Merengue Topping from Ilir (and it was amazing at Thanksgiving!)
Al Tillman’s Famous Banana Pudding
I definitely grabbed this photo from his FB- it’s hard to see all the puddings but let me tell y’all… it’s the BEST in town. No doubt about it! Granted, he and Ilir both aren’t necessarily a small business in the brick and mortar sense but sometimes the best food is made out of folks kitchens. This is the case here.
I’m SO SO pumped for this!!
And….. the only thing left to order is the Breakfast Casserole from formerly The Casserole Shoppe now Acres & Oak Kitchen. They’ve also got other breakfast options, too!
The only things I’ll leave on my plate are sausage balls (super easy to make and I’ll do a Reel video on it later!!! Check out my older ones here) , pigs in a blanket (thanks a freaking LOT Sister Schubert’s …. now I have to make them myself!!), deviled eggs, yogurt bar with Greek yogurt- berries- and granola, and some kind of chocolate dessert. Oh and my grandmother ALWAYS brings a pecan pie. It sounds like a lot now that I type/say it out loud lol BUT I feel a lot better about it all already.
What are you doing for your Christmas meals?!
