Thanksgiving Dinner

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year Bryan and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for some of the White Family at our home. I spent most of Wednesday preparing for the feast. I like to cook - and I had a grand time cooking in our kitchen.

By Thursday morning, the flowers were arranged,

the table was set,

and I had very little to do except wait for the cooking to be complete.

This was the first time I cooked a turkey, and I must say, it was delicious. I'm usually not a huge fan of white meat, but the white meat is this turkey was absolutely succulent!

I think the key was the brining. I used a brine recipe that was featured on the Pioneer Woman
we also cooked the bird "low and slow" and massaged the turkey with a compound herb butter during the last hour of cooking. Delicious turkey!

To join with the turkey, we made a giblet gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with a pecan crumble, cornbread dressing, green bean casserole, cranberries and three pies - chocolate bourbon pecan, pumpkin, and apple.

Doesn't that apple pie look delicious? It's an illusion! This apple pie looked delicious on the outside, but when we opened it we learned that it did not cook well - in fact the bottom crust was still raw. :( Oh well, that's why there were two other delicious pies! Including this bourbon chocolate pecan pie!

Besides good food, we enjoyed spending time with Bryan's parents, Lem and Ken.

I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with good food, family and good memories.

Pecans!

Have you heard? We have a papershell pecan tree. And yes, the realtors were right, this tree can produce a large quantity of delicious pecans. (Not that this was the reason we purchased our home but everyone seemed to talk about it at that time). This is our first real crop of nuts from the tree as last year we saw a measley ten nuts. Imagine our surprise when the tree started dropping these beauties this fall! (If you would like some pecans - just ask!)

In preparation for Thanksgiving dinner I spent an evening shelling nuts. I'll admit, previously I was not a huge nut fan - but I think pecans are growing on me. (Probably a good thing, eh?) I made a delicious bourbon pecan pie for Thanksgiving dinner and topped our sweet potatoes with a pecan crumble. I have a feeling that I will be developing pecan recipes for quite some time. If you would like the recipe for the pecan pie check the facebook page, "Sue's Cooking" (the brainchild of my cousin Meg and my nephew, Philip)

And yes, I had to do it (in part because it has been the most popular joke of the week). Here is the picture of Bryan and his rather large nut sack. Er, um, I mean...sack of nuts!

Halloween Festivities

Yes folks, it's true - and I'm very sorry! I have been a bit of a blogging slacker - there is not a really good reason for this - it's just the truth! So, today (while my loving husband and his brother are busy working on our kitchen cabinet doors) I'm finally clearing out my email inbox and catching up on a blog or two.

I do have a new (to me) camera - and I have been trying to be better about capturing an image or two.

In preparation for Halloween Bryan and I carved a pumpkin for our front porch. (Ok, honestly - Bryan did the hard work of carving the pumpkin because I was spackling the kitchen cabinet doors. Do you see a trend in what has been keeping up busy? You should - it's kitchen cabinet doors!)

Here's a picture of Bryan getting into the pumpkin.

Now, we are creative folks - and this might have been one of our most inspired pumpkin carving moments. A few weeks before Halloween we had been at Austin's Pub and the waitress had given us a few Budweiser Lime rings. The rings included a blinking red light. When we returned after our night out I deconstructed the rings hoping we could find a use for the blinking LED.

And then it came to us, blinking eyes for the pumpkin!

Pictures don't do the pumpkin justice, but it was a spooky effect as the pumpkin's eyes blinked all night long!

Because I am a bit of a geek, I imagine the possibilities.