Some Things to be Thankful for

This Thanksgiving was a big year for us for many reasons. We just moved into this super cute house in Richmond and we had informed family that we would NOT be traveling for the holidays, considering that we had recently survived this move and were counting down the days until this wedding. I am not going anywhere so you people need to come to me. I think those were my exact words.

Well, much to my surprise, they actually listened and made the trek. So, Jeff and I were hosting our first Thanksgiving! Not only that but both of our parents came into town and this was the first time they had met. We were super happy that we had the opportunity to introduce them before the wedding. People are always so shocked that our parents haven't met. News Flash!!! They live on opposite sides of the USA and we don't live in the same state as either of them. We've all been pretty busy so our paths just haven't crossed. Until now.

Wednesday night before Turkey day, the parents took us to dinner at the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Richmond, which was super nice. The next day Jeff's baby brother, who I kindly gave the official nickname "Baby G", joined us. Drew, a friend of Jeff's also joined us for dinner. It was really great to have the whole group here.

" Jeff Boy R D" (as his mother calls him), really wowed us with his culinary skills, as usual. We will get to my contributions later. For the main course, Jeff made a "deconstructed" Turkey. This was the decision was reached for a couple of reasons. It is MUCH faster. I'm not starting a turkey at 6 am and I am not having that big bird take up my oven all day! I'm also not cooking the bird so it isn't really up to me. With this method, you cook the white and dark meat separately to keep the white meat from drying out while it takes the dark meat a bit longer to cook. Very good. Try this next time you are making a big old bird.  As a side note, the gravy in this recipe is to die for!

I dont think the grill was part of the recipe but this guy loves any excuse to fire that baby up!

With the bird there must be stuffing (or dressing for G.R.I.T.S). The classic overachiever that I am marrying, made 2 stuffings. One has meat and one vegetarian. The meat one he made for his work potluck and we still had leftovers so it was enjoyed on Thursday. The first one was really good. But after having this one, (which happens to be vegetarian also), I have a new favorite. Unbelievable!

Do we have mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes? Well, for some reason there was a rumor started that Baby G didn't care for sweet potatoes, so this dude made both. Interestingly enough, this was false and we all, including Baby G, enjoyed both very much. ** as a side note, the chef would like for me to add that for the regular potatoes, you should add garlic cloves to the water when boiling--this is not in the recipe)**

Lucky for me, the man of the house takes every one's favs in consideration when menu planning. So this one was for the lady (aka, me). Mac and Cheese, please! I have a feeling this one will be on regular rotation for family dinners!

For good measure, the responsible Jeff had a good veggie too. Roasted (with EVOO/Salt/Pepper), brussel sprouts, broccoli and sugar snap peas.

Yay for Jeff for doing everything! He went to the store and cooked all the food (with some minor soux cheffing for me and clean up along the way by FIL). The only thing I wanted to do was set the tables,( as seen here) and make the dessert. Drew was bringing Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies so I was going to make cinnamon ice cream  (via the ice cream maker). 

Drew's cookies!

At some point, I discover that Jeff is planning to also make this pie. Now that is real nice and all but you can see that this is clearly over stepping his call to duty. I wanted make dessert and he was to make everything else, what is so hard about that! Why the hostile take over?


Clearly, I had to take over pie making. Good thing I did because my ice cream was a FLOP!  I don't want to point any fingers or place any blame....BUT.....that morning I realized that bucket that I always keep in the freezer so I'm ready to make ice cream at a moments notice, was not in the freezer. This dude, had washed it last time I used it and did not put it back in the freezer. So even though I put it in the freezer at 9 am, it wasn't frozen enough to make the ice cream at 4pm. It turned out more like "cinnamon gazpacho" according to Baby G.

Its ok, the creamy base was still good so I returned the bucket in the freezer and made it the next day, after the bucket had a good 18 hours to freeze.  Speaking of, there is still some left, I will go have some now.

So, we consider this Thanksgiving, our first to host, a success. Everyone was very well behaved and the food was tremendous. After 12 years of traveling for the holiday, it was nice to be at home. 

after a long day of hosting