Our Thanksgiving Feast...yummy!
Ahh, the simple excitement of olive fingers!
The boys had a great time decorating gingerbread men, and even better they got to eat them right up...thank you Craig and Laura!
What an amazing family and life together we have :)
Granny and Papa in their element of pure joy :) Thank you for a great week spent together, the boys miss you already!
This year we hosted our first Thanksgiving and I look forward to doing it again! I spent a lot of time planning and preparing what I thought to be a fantastic meal. The pressure was on however because as I quickly learned, my husbands family has some picky eaters who love a very traditional...not going out on a limb, sort of meal. But I did it any way...I went out on a limb preparing a non traditional stuffing (the apples, cranberries, and sausage making it not so traditional), using them as my guinea pigs trying to brine and smoke a turkey for the first time, and choosing to forgo the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and make a whole new sweet potato recipe (my father-in-law really was not so sure of that idea!!!). They only thing that really made me nervous was the turkey. Every recipe I read suggested cooking the bird for 30-60 min per pound in our smoker. So, with an eating time of 1:00 and a bird weighing in at 19 lbs. Steven got up at 3:00 AM to put the turkey on the grill...it was done by 8:30!!! We couldn't believe it, but even with it having 4 1/2 additional hours of cooking time it was still delicious! I think the two things that saved me from having a "Griswold" turkey were the fact that I had soaked the turkey in a brine and basted, basted, basted! SO, every thing turned out great and although they may still prefer some of the "traditional" recipes the meal was enjoyed by all and I can't wait to make it all over again for my family with the extra turkey I bought!
A big thank you to Steven's family for being my "guinea pigs" and making it such a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Recipes to be posted at http://nicoleskitchen.blogspot.com/ soon!
Everything about it was wonderful. Thanks so much for all your hard work,a fabulous dinner, and great memories.
ReplyDeleteFun, fun, fun! We hosted our last Thanksgiving this year. It's always a great time! We also try to vary between traditional and something new, it's really fun! Looks like you did a great job!
ReplyDeleteNicole the food looked great...we did Thanksgiving too w/ some friends after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. BTW Mason is Steven's twin! Your kids are so cute!
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