Happy Thanksgiving from the Pacific Northwest! It has been unseasonably warm today and yesterday (about 60 degrees). Although it is still cloudy and a bit drizzly, we will definitely take the warmer temperatures especially in the month of November.
It was a pretty quiet Thanksgiving for us this year -- we enjoyed a FANTASTIC meal at home, just the two of us. Since we are starting to re-model our master bathroom, we couldn't really host anyone, nor did we want to go anywhere. Our bathroom has been in need of re-modeling since we moved into the house, but we'll save that for another blog post.
The plan in the Edmonson Household is always to eat around 2pm, so as usual, Kristina upheld the tradition. She planned for 2pm and everything was ready at 2pm -- ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Jared is always amazed that Kristina pulls that off.
Kristina took a PTO day yesterday and spent the day chopping and making pies. She made Jared's favorite pumpkin pie with the pecan streusel topping, chocolate cream pie, and a sour cream raisin pie. The sour cream raisin pie is from Kristina's childhood -- her grandmother used to always make it, and she doesn't have the recipe, so she continues to look for one that will be close. It is a rich pie and while this recipe was close, it wasn't quite there yet -- she will continue to search.
Today was all of the traditional items. First thing this morning she got her crock-pot dressing in the crock-pot. This is one of her favorite recipes -- it just sits in the crock-pot for as long as you like and stays super moist. Here's the recipe that serves as her base recipe, but you know Kristina, she never follows a recipe after making it the first time.
After that she got the dough for her homemade cloverleaf rolls going. This has become a bit of a tradition with Kristina. She and her brother first made these together in 1997 when he and Stephanie came to visit -- and she had continued to make them ever since then (so has he).
The turkey was all ready to go into the oven soon after that. It had been "dry" brining in the refrigerator since Sunday, so all she had to do was take it out of the refrigerator an hour before popping it into the oven (so that it could come up to room temperature). Kristina used a new recipe for her turkey this year, and it was fantastic. She plans on keeping track of this recipe and using it again.
Once all of those things were going, she had a few moments to relax here and there -- although, not for long. In addition to the items already listed she also made mashed potatoes, creamed peas, cranberry sauce, and stupendous gravy. Gravy isn't one of Kristina's strong skills, but she totally rocked it this year. She was channeling her Grandma Hill as she made her cornstarch slurry and began whisking it into the drippings and juice from the turkey. She didn't have a recipe, she just went with it -- and it was GREAT!
Here's a shot of the fantastic meal before we sat down and ate...
Not a bad spread for two people and a dog! After dinner though, we promptly cleaned up and headed out for walk. Indy needed it, and so did we!
Happy Thanksgiving!
