Summit County, CO Colorado

FRISCO - The sweet smell, fall colors, elegant dishes, gorgeous squash centerpiece and calming guitar music created the perfect ambiance for Thanksgiving dinner at Michael Babnik and Vera Dawson's Frisco home.

"I think of it as a little art project. ... It's a creative process from the very beginning to the serving," Dawson said with a smile.

This couple's love of and talent for cooking could make anyone wish they were one of the guests arriving this evening. She and her husband spent Wednesday preparing for what will certainly be a festive, delicious, multiple-course holiday meal.

Their advice is to keep it simple. Create classic dishes while having fun with them, but don't feel like you have to make something overly elaborate, they said. Also, remember the day is about sharing a meal with family and friends, so keep stress out of the equation. You want it to be a meal everyone, including the hosts, can savor.

"The success of dinner is reflected in whether the hosts are enjoying themselves," Dawson said, adding that even if the food is great, a stressed-out host can detract from it. "A lot of people don't enjoy Thanksgiving because they're getting frantic at the end."

For Babnik and Dawson, preparation began with the guest invitations. Once they knew how many people were attending, the grocery list took shape. Monday, they took a trip to Whole Foods in Denver, and Wednesday, the cooking began.

Starting early can take away stress from the day, Dawson said. Thanksgiving "can really be a relaxed, easy time to appreciate life."

Use traditional, simply dishes, they advised. And if something doesn't turn out right, don't worry because no one knows what it is supposed to be like anyway or even that it would be on the menu, Dawson said.

Another tip they offered that it may be too late for this year, but could come in handy in the future, is to brine the turkey. By soaking it overnight in a salt solution, potentially with turkey stock, the bird will be more moist. It can make a significant difference in the taste, they said.

While this couple doesn't always have Thanksgiving at their home, when they've hosted the holiday, they've never had the same menu. Turkey maintains a starring role, but the other dishes vary, Babnik said as he began creating one of the appetizers.

This year, their holiday will begin with friends arriving about 6:30 p.m. ready to start off with champagne and appetizers of crab, cheese, grapes and olives. Dinner will be a buffet with turkey, two cranberry sauces, sweet potatoes, wild rice and more. Then, the deserts of pumpkin cheesecake, fat-free strawberry torte and walnut caramel torte will certainly leave an impression. And they will finish the evening with coffee, homemade chocolates and candy ginger.

Babnik and Dawson have always loved cooking, which is something that brought the couple together. They have shelves of cookbooks they read like novels, and they have had plenty of practice tweaking recipes for our high altitude. Dawson, in fact, is a regular columnist in the Summit Daily News, providing baking recipes tailored to high altitude conditions.

In general, food needs to be cooked longer here, said Dawson, adding that is something to take into consideration when planning on how long the turkey will take.

"I really enjoy the whole (holiday and everything that goes into it). ... It's just a day to really celebrate what we appreciate about life, particularly in Summit County," she said, motioning to the beautiful scenery outside.



Lory Pounder can be reached at (970) 668-4628, or at lpounder@summitdaily.com.