Thanksgiving: Monday

Last night began my week of Thanskgiving preparations. I came home from a weekend trip to visit friends in St. Louis with bronchitis. Determined not to let my illness and germs affect my Thanksgiving holiday, I hightailed it to my doctor and asked for the heavy meds. I also asked the nurse for a face mask so I can cook without worrying about hacking germs into my bisque. By last night I was feeling better and ready to cook.
Went grocery shopping and picked up all the fixin's. Last night I started things off by making Acorn Squash Bisque, minus the cream, which I will add on T-day. The bisque came out a little chunky, having used just my stick blender, so tonight I will pour it into my blender in batches to try to thin it out, and if that doesn't work I'll press it through my chinois to get it nice and creamy.
Tonight I'll make the ginger-cranberry chutney and buttermilk biscuit rounds to freeze until I can pop them into my oven on T-day. I'll also press my table cloths, polish my silverware, and set up the tables.
One last minute substitution to note. I was planning to make a pumpkin layer cake, but decided that every time I make something for dessert with pumpkin, my family usually neglects it and goes for the store bought cream pies instead. This year I'm giving up all pumpkin pretense and have decided to make triple chocolate cheesecake (with creamy chocolate ganache on top) along with my apple crumb pies for dessert. This year the pumpkin will be implied.