Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

This Thanksgiving was my first time creating Thanksgiving dinner! We usually have lunch with my family and dinner with my husband's family, but my husband's family had made other arrangements for dinner. We will be visiting with them on Saturday. Since I was only serving dinner for my husband and myself I created a miniature feast. I opted for smaller portions of various items, and roast split chicken breast instead of a whole turkey.

The Menu:
Roast Split Chicken Breasts
Mashed Potatoes
Stovetop Stuffing
Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash (which I've blogged about before)
Green Bean Casserole
Mini Sweet Potato Pies with Whipped Cream

The Decisions:
I decided to treat the Chicken similarly to Turkey on Thanksgiving, so I followed Ina Garten's Herb Roast Turkey Breast recipe with my Split Chicken Breasts instead. I had fresh rosemary and sage in my garden, but my thyme was really struggling so I used the dried herb instead.

I won't elaborate too much about my Mashed Potatoes, since they're a fairly common side and my recipe isn't atypical. I peel my potatoes, boil them in salt water, mash them, and then add butter, milk, and pepper before serving. I don't usually add more salt since the potatoes absorb salt from the water, and the butter I use is salted.

Stovetop Stuffing is ubiquitous and I make it according to package directions. My husband loves it, and I've not ventured into the home-made croutons or bread crumbs area yet. Notice I said yet. We will leave his beloved Stovetop Stuffing behind at some point in our lives. I promise.

The Parmesan Roasted Butternut Squash is a recipe I go to again and again. I've discussed it on my blog in the past (see link above) and I've used it in my weekly meal plans several times. It's absolutely wonderful, and a very nice divergence from sweet sugary butternut squash dishes.

I've never made Green Bean Casserole before. Can you believe that? I grew up in North Carolina and still I haven't made it before. Green beans are in season and inexpensive right now, so why not give the casserole a try? I followed fairly closely to Taste of Home's recipe, but skipped the sour cream, and I used ~3oz cream cheese, 2T ricotta, green beans leftover from Sunday and added bacon, season salt and pepper.

The Preparation:
On Wednesday I prepared some thing to make dinner come together faster once we get home from visiting with my family. I accomplished a great deal, and made dinner at the same time. Here's what I recommend:

• Chop the butternut squash & place it in foil covered ramkins in the fridge. 
• Peel and chop the potatoes, put them into a pot, cover them with water, and put them into the fridge. 
• Prepare the green bean casserole (minus the onion topping) and put it into the fridge. 
• Prepare the sweet potato pie (from making pie crust & baking the sweet potato all the way through cooling the pies) and put them into the fridge.

The Big Day:
I wanted dinner to come together about 7:00PM, so I started well in advance. I made sure to pull my prepared items out of the fridge with enough time for the baking dishes to warm up a little. I didn't want to put my ceramic and glass dishes into the oven directly from the fridge. Here's what I did:

• 5:30PM Season chicken
• 5:40PM Place chicken in oven
• 6:10PM Place butternut squash in oven
• 6:15PM Put potatoes on to boil
• 6:30PM Check chicken, cover with foil if browning too much
• 6:30PM Top green bean casserole with onions & bake
• 6:30PM Add cheese to butternut squash, continue to bake
• 6:40PM Drain potatoes, add milk & butter, mash & season to taste
• 6:45PM Start stovetop
• 6:45PM Remove chicken from oven, tent with foil, & rest 15 minutes
• 7:00PM Remove green bean casserole and butternut squash from oven
• 7:00PM Serve dinner

This was a fantastic 2 person dinner. We had leftovers of everything, but they were devoured within a few days. The chicken turned out fabulously, and I'll definitely be using that recipe again! The green bean casserole was about what I expected. I would prefer my green beans steamed and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper next time. My husband really enjoyed them though, and commented about the tasty bacon! Have you ever cooked a Thanksgiving (or other holiday) dinner for a small group of people? What did you do?