Gobble, Gobble!

I hope everyone had a stellar Thanksgiving! We had a last minute change in plans and ended up having my dad down here instead of going up to PT yesterday! Dare I say it was better that way? It is nice being in your own home and your own kitchen at least.

For the majority of the day, we grazed on Hickory Farm’s party box that I received as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.

It made for great finger food while we waited for our turkey to cook!

I did not like the turkey summer sausage and didn’t care for most of the cheeses. I liked the cheddars though!

I also set out the mustards (plus some pineapple jalapeno jelly). We really liked the sweet hot mustard but generally thought the cranberry mustard was kind of weird. Too much cinnamon or something in it?

The Hickory Farms crackers, supplemented with some gluten-free crackers, accompanied my dad’s famous salmon cheese ball.

Gorgonzola stuffed bacon wrapped dates rounded out the finger food in a good way!

What a spread and it wasn’t even dinner yet!

Dad brought a free range brined bird to cook up!

We had never brined before but have heard it is the way to go. I think that it did come out a bit saltier than a standard bird but that was the only real difference I noticed.

We did an oven bag this year and it took about 4 hours to cook our 20lb bird.

Worth every minute!

Dad and I worked away in the kitchen making most of the classics!

I made mashed potatoes with roasted garlic.

Dad tackled the gravy.

I tries a new twist on sweet potatoes: twice baked sweet potatoes.

He carved up the bird.

And he unstuffed it.

I tossed the salad.

And pulled the cranberry sauce out of the fridge.

We cracked a bottle of wine.

And dove, head first, into or fabulous meal.

And I was stuffed, half way in! Too much grazing! {And bailey’s + coffee in the AM, and a martini or two around noon.}

After a few hours of letting food settle, we went back for the pies.

3 pies for 3 people? No problem! Dad made pumpkin and apple and bought a key lime for the Huz – it’s his favorite!

A small slice of each. Favorite: hot apple + vanilla ice cream. Least: Key lime. It was too rich and thick. I remember them being lighter than that. This was more like cheesecake consistency.

It was a wonderful day, full of excess.

Excessive alcohol consumption.

Excessive food consumption.

Excessive Catan games. {I won 4 of 8!}

Excessive dog treats.

Excessive love.

And apparently excessive hair frizz.

{Thank you Huz, for being the camera man!}