The making of a homestyle Sunday Dinner

I began by getting the things for the 

fresh strawberry cream pie

ready.

Then I switched gears and prepared the chicken...

ginger-lemon chicken with thyme, similar to this one I did for 

Christmas, when I used sage instead of thyme.

 I used fresh strawberries for the middle of this pie... 

and frozen for the sauce...

there was not as many strawberries, so that was the main 

difference between the 2013 version and this one now, in 2015...

Note to self: use the normal mixer part, not wisk...

I used the double boiler to thaw the frozen strawberries and make the sauce.

While it did not come to a full boil, the sauce was still fine

and worked very well in these two pies...

I must of whipped the cream cheese 9 times! I did not kept track but kept 

adding a spoonful of powdered sugar each time, 

tasting it until it was slightly sweet and whipped to a good amount of softness,

so it was easily spreadable on the fragile crust.

I also had the cheese setting out for at least 2 hours to soften it before

I began. I only used sour cream this time for it, as I did not have

any usable heavy whipping cream... 

The pies worked well and are well enjoyed!

Recipe here.

I made a list of all I needed to do

for the dinner and

set the table the day before.

I find that if I do a lot of prep beforehand,

the day of goes a lot better...

*

The next thing I need to remember is to,

if possible,

is to wash up the dishes after the dinner party

so that the day after is not so difficult.

One thing at a time!

I do love doing dinners like these.

*

What I can't fully understand though is why it is such a big deal.

My Mom made Sunday dinners like this with apparent ease

and when I do them, it always seems more involved.

*

Mothers, they are magical!