My Thanksgiving

So I finally got a chance to sit down and write this post about my Thanksgiving. I know I am late but I had a busy and amazing weekend full of lots of food, fun and laughter with the family.

My sister and I were hosting the big dinner at her house for ~15 people and I was tasked to make the turkey. I had done it twice before but still was nervous. I had only ever done it by brining it and that’s exactly how I did it the third time as well.

Although my sole responsibility was to not screw up the turkey, I couldn’t help myself and make a couple of other things too. I tried a new dip (I LOVE chips and dip). This time it was a jalapeno popper dip. In addition, I also decided to make strawberry and cream cheese pastries using puff pastry sheets that we already had in the freezer.

Okay so here is what the menu was:

1. Jalapeno Popper Dip (as a quick appetizer)
2. Turkey
3. Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
4. Corn
5. Sweet Potatoes
6. Stuffing
7. Dinner Rolls
8. Kale Salad
9. Pecan Pie
10. Pumpkin Pie
11. Tuxedo Cheesecake (from Cheesecake factory that my cousin brought all the way from Pittsburgh since there are no Cheesecake Factories out here in the Burg)
12. Pastries

Quite a menu don’t you think? Since I was stressing over the turkey until the last minute, I couldn’t take pictures of everything. I had my timing a little off so everyone was waiting for it and as soon as it hit the table, the food started being devoured. It was so hard to even take a photo of just the turkey lol.

But the good news is that the wait was well worth it. Everyone loved it and one person even said it’s the best turkey they ever had! We barely had any leftovers as well and mind you, it was an 18 lb-er! lol

Besides the food, I also took the liberty to kind of make the place look a bit festive. I went out with my nieces earlier in the day and picked up some fallen leaves and hung them up using twine and my trusty mini clothespins. I hung them on the mantle and the walls. I also added a bit of lighting and candles on the mantle.

The table was a simple set up. I just took out Kraft paper which as you know I love using. Then get this, my sister has stored old baby food jars, so I cleaned those up and used them as simple center pieces. I just put a couple of flowers in them and spread them out in the middle of the table. I also took some leaves and scattered them between the jars, very minimally. I didn’t want anything too big or elaborate as it takes up too much room on the table, and I hate when I can’t see the people around the table when center pieces are too big.

I also printed out my thanksgiving coloring page and had some crayons set up. Even the adults enjoyed that! 🙂

Overall, I think it went well, but I won’t mind letting someone else take responsibility for the turkey next year. lol And I’ll have recipes up for the things I made soon, in the coming weeks and months. So stay tuned!

How was your turkey day? Did you have to make something for it?