This year's Thanksgiving definitely goes down in my record book as one of my all-time favorites. Brian and Ashley drove all the way from Houston to come spend the holiday with us! For a while, it looked like the dinner part was going to mostly up to me and honestly, I was freaking out a little bit (uhh, because I've never even cooked a turkey before, let alone a whole Thanksgiving feast). Lucky for us, our good friends, the Stahelis, joined us and me and Whitni got our Betty Crocker on in the kitchen together. We started with a shopping trip, then pies on Monday night, and continued to slowly get all the dishes ready in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. A big thanks to Lindsay for teaching me the ways of stuffing (I had never made stuffing in my life...in fact, it wasn't too long ago that my taste buds finally matured enough to even eat the stuff).
We tackled an amazing turkey that rocked my socks off. The effort was totally worth it. Recipe
here. Even Emery got in on the turkey action---dumping in cups of ice---as we got it ready to brine.
My first time making homemade cranberry sauce was also a success. Loved
this recipe (and yes, you could basically say the majority of our thanksgiving was brought to you by Our Best Bites. When it comes to buttery, tasty, holiday/party food, these girls don't lead astray).
For doubting our turkey cooking abilities, we made Jason eat the turkey heart. Just kidding...pretty sure he volunteered or had minor encouragement from Pete and Brian.
Anywho, we had a day filled with fun and food...and days afterward filled with leftover casserole (layers of mashed potatoes, turkey, and stuffing, with gravy drizzled over the top), which is almost better than the whole thanksgiving feast, in my opinion.
Brian and Ashley brought the all-important pumpkin pies and combined with the ones me and Whitni made, we had almost a pie per person (which means we got to eat pie for many, many days). The only cooking fail of Thanksgiving was a couple banana cream pies I made. They didn't quite set right...not sure why, but I've had success with the recipe in the past, so I'll probably give it another chance sometime.
Well, to make a long story longer, Thanksgiving was fantastic. Spending it with family just made the holiday so real, we're so glad Brian and Ashley came! And I'm so glad Whitni and Jason could join us, especially so they could up our coolness by quite a few degrees (as Pete is says) ;) thanks everyone for making the meal a success and the whole holiday just plain awesome!
And as a note to self for next year...this is what happens when the guys volunteer for clean up:
1 comment:
Dan and I cooked a little after-Thanksgiving meal and he spent half the time he was carving identifying the turkey's anatomy. I thought it was pretty funny. Looks like a good time!
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