Thanksgiving at Our House
Jeff and I decided to do Thankgiving at our house this year since we normally would go to Taylor’s — but she doesn’t live here anymore! Luckily Tehani decided to stick around this year and wanted to help bake the turkey! So i wasn’t as overwhelmed to host the dinner. I also invited Angie and her 2 girls, and Pat drove down from Oregon. Tehani brought along her 2 friends from school, Tetsuko and Megumi.
Tehani bought and baked the fresh turkey and also made the stuffing and green beans.
Pat and Jeff added the leaf to our dining table since we were having 7 adults and 2 kids at the table. First time we had to do that since we bought our new furniture.
The day before Thanksgiving i made some fresh cranberry sauce. Jeff wanted me to get “the stuff in the can” so i got that too .. =)
Basting the turkey .. its looking good! The turkey didnt come with the cool pop out thermometer…
but it did come with some free feathers.
Angie and her kids eating some salmon for appetizers before partaking in dinner. How cute are their matching pink tutus! Gotta love girls.
Turkey is done! Took about 5 hours… I didnt bother buying a special turkey pan because i didnt want to store it! But it’d be nice one day, to get one.. so we can make the gravy straight from the pan with all those drippin’s. The suction technique was a little messy but we did find a good solution to get them to a pot (ladle and baster combo!)
Green beans and stuffing. (The lighting is bad, i opened the curtains thinking that would be good but .. not so much….) I made some additional stuffing in the slow cooker which turned out quite tasty as well.
The Orzo Radicchio Salad was a hit with the girls at the dinner. It is soo good, i agree! Thanks to Taylor of course for the recipe.
I just grilled some squash for more veggies… figured it would balance out the rest of the meal – mashed potatoes, turkey, rolls…
Here’s the turkey! Jeff carved it for us. Head of household kind of duty.
Here is Jeff and I in our lovely (but messy) kitchen!
Here is the spread again!
Tehani cooked and fed butters the heart of the turkey! LOL! He was hesitant at first but then dove right in.
We’re really not formal around here – everyone just walk around the table and grab your food! No “pass the potatoes please” – too much trouble.
Here’s the plate! We all stuffed our faces and it barely looked like we made a dent in the spread.
Jeff wanted to make a fire really bad after dinner, so i let him. LOL. You like that? “I” let him.. muahaha. I like fires and all its just that it gets super smokey in the dining room whenever we light one. But it was nice. We all fell asleep after dinner next to the cozy fire.
Food coma! Even Butters in the corner, see?
My first apple pie…looked good on the outside but…
It was gross on the inside. I didnt take a picture, because i was so disappointed! I used the wrong apples… half green, half braeburn but i guess i should have just stuck with all green. It was way to watery on the inside…. still tasted good. Just not the right consistency. And a side of pumpkin mochi here… but i don think anyone really ate it or dug it this time, not even me. I went through an effort making it too because i originally used the wrong kind of pumpkin and had to start over. I’ve decided to stop making my pumpkin mochi starting next year. Kind of sick of it and i always have way too much left over.
The thanksgiving was a success. As Tehani called it – our Rookie Thanksgiving! I am so glad to have had her help and will be sad she will not be here after December! I am lucky to have had childhood friends live close by, they really do feel like “family”.
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