Mr. & Mrs. Hawthorne's Early Preparations For Thanksgiving.

Mr. Hawthorne and I have a lot of dishes we like to prepare for Thanksgiving and we have to make most everything ahead of time. So last night, Mr. Hawthorne prepared his potato salad.

He diced his potatoes, simmered until just tender, drained, and added some coarse-grain spicy brown mustard.

Sweet relish went in next.

Then mayo.

He hard-cooked 3 eggs, diced them, and added the eggs to the mix.

A little salt and Lawrey's seasoned pepper.

Cayenne powder.

And hot paprika finished out his potato salad. If you remember from yesterday, I made the crepes for Julia's gateau. Today, I'll be preparing the three fillings for the layers- carrot, broccoli, and mushroom.

First, take about a pound of carrots. Trim and peel.

Julienne into matchsticks. About 45 minutes worth of work, in case you're wondering.

I melted about 3 tablespoons of butter in my pan, added the carrots, and sauteed until just tender. Do not brown.

I sprinkled in about a tablespoon of sugar for good measure, because I always like to add a bit more sweetness to veggies like carrots and onions.

Salt and pepper to taste, then I chopped some fresh dill from the garden and added that. Carrots are done. Next, the broccoli layer.

I washed and drained two heads of broccoli.

I chopped the broccoli into small pieces and peeled the stems.

Broccoli went into boiling salted water for about 3 minutes.

I drained the broccoli in a colander, then plunged it into a pan of ice water, to stop the cooking, and set the nice green color.

Next, I chopped the florets into little pieces. And the broccoli is done.

My third layer is composed of mushroom duxelles, duxelles being a sort of mushroom hash, scented with shallots.

I cleaned off the mushrooms, put them in my processor, and processed away.

Here are the minced shrooms.

Next, I placed the mushrooms in a clean towel.

And squeezed to get as much moisture out of the mushrooms as I could.

Next, I minced one large shallot and two green onions.

I had to wait for Mr. Hawthorne to get home to squeeze more juice out of the mushrooms for me. My hand is much better now, and thank you all for your concerns about that, but I'm still not able to do certain manual tasks. And if anyone knows what to do with leftover mushroom juice, please let me know. I guess I could have frozen it, then added into a stock later on, but I wasn't in the mood, and ended up tossing it down the sink. Bad Rosie.

The mushrooms, sans joose, just stay in a clump.

I melted about 2 tablespoons butter in my skillet, and added the mushroom duxelles, shallots, and green onions. Saute just until the mushroom pieces start to separate from each other.

Then I poured in about 2 tablespoons of sherry. This smells wonderful. I love pouring sherry into a hot pan. The wafting aromas are delicious.

Salt and pepper to taste, and you have lovely, earthy, mushroom duxelles.

I put the carrots, broccoli, and mushrooms into individual containers and they went into the fridge to wait for assembly on turkey day. Here's the completion of the Gateau of Crepes. I feel like I've already gotten a whole lot done, but Rosie ain't done yet. Next, I went ahead and made my sweet potato casserole.

Three sweet potatoes.

I peeled a potato, then sliced it into uniform pieces, and put it in a pot of water to keep the potato from discoloring, while I worked on the next potato. Bring the salted water to a boil and simmer until just tender. Mine were ready in about 15-20 minutes.

Drain.

Here's my mise on place for my sweet potato casserole.

I sliced 1/2 stick of butter into little pieces and added that to the hot sweet potatoes and started smashing.

I added in 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Then 1/4 cup heavy cream went in.

And just a tad vanilla.

Spread into a buttered baking dish.

Now, for the fun part - the TOPPINGS: pecans 1/2 stick butter marshmallows brown sugar

Not all the Little Hawthornes like pecans, so just half the casserole gets pecans on it.

Next, I added brown sugar over top.

Sliced the butter into thin pats and arranged that over top.

And finally, the marshmallows went on top. OK, sue me. I Sandra Lee'd it with store bought marshmallows. I have Semi-Ho'd my Thanksgiving and compromised my values. I should have gone to my friend Marilyn's FoodiesUntie blog to get her recipe for marshmallows. And I'm done for today. Cut! And that's a wrap!