Intimate Real Food Thanksgiving Party

With this intimate Thanksgiving dinner menu, your kitchen and table will become a real home away from home for your closest friends. Just because a Thanksgiving dinner party is small doesn't mean it can't be festive. If you're having only a couple of people over, let a roasted duck with star anise and orange sauce be the star! This annual holiday is observed as a day to commemorate the Pilgrim’s harvest of 1621, to give thanks for blessings great and small, and to feast! Thanksgiving is a festive holiday — a perfect time to gather loved ones for some quality time.

Partygoers 1-5

Invitation Find a memorable way to invite your family and friends over for a Thanksgiving celebration. Hand deliver your invitations. Attach a small note with raffia to the stem of an apple or small pumpkin. Tell your guests that they are sure to reap heaps of harvest fun at this event. Or, collect fall leaves from your yard. Place them as a stencil on card stock. Using fall-colored spray paint, spray the card then remove the leaf. You should have a nice outline of a leaf on the front of your card.

Décor Since there will just be four or six of you for dinner, try these tips to create a sense of intimacy. If your table is rectangular, set the placesettings on the sides of the table rather than opposite ends of the table. This arrangement brings you closer to your dinner companions and creates a cozier atmosphere. Opt for a themed centerpiece such as branches with red berries inside a tall crystal vase and use your best table linens, china, crystal and silverware. Use multiple pillar candles or votives in holders along the midline of the table, and dim the lights.

Food Blushing Cranberry and Pear Salad Orange-Rosemary Stuffed Chicken Breasts Hellmann's Carrot Cake (See recipes below)

Drinks Game birds such as duck have earthy, robust flavors, and go better with racy red wines. Great options include Burgundian pinot noir, Spanish rioja, and lighter Rhône Valley wines like Côte-Rôtie.

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Blushing Cranberry and Pear Salad

Ingredients

1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise

1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce or cranberry relish

4 cups torn romaine lettuce leaves

2 cups baby spinach leaves or mixed salad greens

2 cups diced cooked turkey

1 medium pear, cored and thinly sliced

1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans

1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion

Preparation

In medium bowl, combine Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise and cranberry sauce; set aside. In large bowl, combine romaine and spinach. Just before serving, toss with mayonnaise mixture. Top with pear slices, pecans and onion. Garnish, if desired with dried cranberries.

Orange-Rosemary Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

1/3 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise

2 Tbsp. finely chopped shallots or onion

1 tsp. grated orange peel

1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

3/4 cup thinly sliced baby spinach leaves

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breast halves

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In medium bowl, blend Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise shallots, orange peel, rosemary, salt and pepper. Remove 1 tablespoon and reserve. Stir in spinach. Gently lift skin on chicken and evenly spread on mayonnaise mixture, then brush chicken with 1 tablespoon reserved mayonnaise mixture. In shallow roasting or jelly-roll pan, arrange chicken. Roast 35 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Garnish, if desired, with orange wedges and rosemary sprigs.

Hellmann's Carrot Cake

Ingredients

1 510 g package pudding included yellow cake mix

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

3/4 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise

3 eggs

2 cups shredded carrots

1 can crushed pineapple, well drained

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Spray 13X9-inch baking pan with No Stick cooking spray. In a large bowl combine cake mix, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, mayonnaise, eggs, carrots and pineapple. With mixer at low speed, beat 30 seconds or until moistened. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes. Stir in nuts.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake in a preheated 350*F. oven for 30 to 35 minutes. To check doneness, touch cake lightly in the center. Cake springs back when fully baked. Cool pan on wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream cheese frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup softened cream cheese, 2 cups icing sugar, 2 tbls. softened butter, 2 tsps. lemon juice and i tsp. vanilla extract. Beat until smooth.

Makes twelve servings. You might try sprinkling coconut over cream cheese frosting. For moister, richer cake from a mix, prepare 510g pudding-included cake mix using 1 cup water, 3 eggs and 1 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise