Dinner Recap

I'm still full. There's just no two ways about it yet my stomach was growling like crazy when I woke up today. Ohhh, Thanksgiving, how I love and hate you at the same time.

Those who know me well know that I love tradition. There's something about building and keeping tradition that I find sweet and meaningful. I've already mentioned that this was mine and Allison's 9th year cooking Thanksgiving dinner together (only I messed that up and it was really the 8th year, ooops!) so clearly that tradition has been very special to us both. This year, we surely kept our favorite dishes but added a couple of new twists in there, too. I suppose it's a modern take on tradition. :P

We decided our final menu would be turkey, stuffing, grand marnier cranberry sauce, roasted butternut squash, mashed potatoes and black pepper biscuits with pumpkin cream cheese pie for dessert; everything homemade, of course. We went the route of doing an herb-rubbed turkey this year and it turned out fantastic! The 'rub' consisted of fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme combined with olive oil, lemon juice, a little dry mustard, garlic, salt and lots of cracked black pepper:

Making the cranberry sauce is one of my favorite parts of the meal because it makes the whole house smell like the holidays. While it simmers, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and apple all create such a cozy aroma and it makes me really excited for Christmas. While that cooked, I made my infamous mashed potatoes. This time I used Danish gold potatoes with a couple of Idahos thrown in. I left the skins on all and they were fantastic! Allison made the pie after that and holy crap, I want that exact pie every year from now on. Yuuuum, food:

The layer of cream cheese just makes it pop and it was delicious! I think what we were both most excited about this year was making the black pepper biscuits. I'd seen the recipe (a Bobby Flay'er) a while ago and man, did they sound good. Being a hater of baking, I figured I'd never in a million years make biscuits. Um, me roll out dough? No thanks. This recipe, however, had you combining ingredients in the food processor then kneading only slightly before cutting them out. I was still happy to have Allison do that part, though:

They were so good! Next time, I'd do salted butter and combine the black pepper throughout the dough instead of just on top but they really were fantastic. It goes without saying that I greatly enjoy the ease factor, as well.

Allison and I had such fun cooking together this year because we actually spread things out over Wednesday night and Thursday morning. It was much more relaxing and definitely allowed for more time drinking vino. It's hard to choose whether we like the food or wine more at Thanksgiving, this year especially. When we were in Napa this past Spring, we both joined different wine clubs and we get a two bottle shipment every quarter. What better time to drink our super nice wine than Thanksgiving?! That may or may not have gotten me in a little trouble on Wednesday night.

All of this said, Thanksgiving was fabulous this year and I think we're really going to have a hard time topping it. What a wonderful holiday to celebrate and I'm pretty sure this sums it all up:

Gobble! Gobble!