Getting ready for Thanksgiving....In July?

Thanksgiving in July......yes....My assistant and I are busy preparing cranberry orange Thanksgiving turkeys, herb sausage stuffing and green beans with roasted red peppers for a shoot on Monday. These foods will be part of a spread for Healthy Cooking Magazine. I like the idea of thinking about fall right now (maybe because all these horrible Wisconsin mosquitoes will be gone!). I need to really put my thoughts into fall so I can think about garnishes for my platter. Since the recipes include cranberries, oranges, thyme and sage I will definitely include those on my platter. But, I am also thinking about figs...because they are sooooo beautiful and earthy looking cut in half and baby artichokes for their color and spikey ends.

(Here I am stuffing mashed potatoes in the neck cavity for a nice rounded look to the breast).

(yummy, luscious figs)

I think garnishes of deep purples and mossy greens will look amazing with the oranges. I will probably also throw in some pineapple sage leaves on the platter because of their nice broad leaf and almost limey green color. (Tomorrow I will post my finished Turkey).