Getting excited....

It's that time to start planning our Thanksgiving dinner. I am a fanatical list maker for everything. Well, that is even true of planning Thanksgiving dinner. I have an Excel form that I use. I list every item that we are having in the first column. Then in the next column, I breakdown each item by a list of ingredients needed to make that item. Then, I sort it and use the remove duplicates function to let the computer remove any thing I listed twice. Once that is done, I have my list of ingredients. The next step is to print that and go to the kitchen and see what we have and what we need (we stock some things all year so I "shop" my stock first. Then I go back to my list and remove any items we already have. The final step is that I visual the aisles of our favorite grocery store and beside each item I put the aisle number it is in. Then I sort the list by aisle numbers, remove the number and the remain items is a shopping list in order of their location in the store. The whole process only takes about 20-30 minutes. But when you think about how much time you go back and forth in the store because you forgot something, it is well worth the prep time. 

I spend yesterday evening rearranging cabinets so we can start stocking up on non-perishables that we need. I love my big old pantry. You can stock stuff high and deep.

In another Pantry I have a head start on baked goods for the winter season. The chocolate cake and Confectioner's sugar are for a cake for the grandkids on Thanksgiving. 

I will get to use my Town & Country divided dish for the first time. I am excited about that. I put TGIF Baked Potato Skin Chips in one side and a queso cheese dip in the other side as an appetizer that I set on the coffee table in the living room. 

Hubby is off on Saturday for the first time in months and months (other than vacation). We are going to do a little Christmas shopping then go to the grocery store...armed with THE LIST. I can't wait.