Happy Thanksgiving!

We were pretty excited to stay in town for Thanksgiving this year, especially since last year we were living in a hotel (remember that?).  Even though it was just going to be the two of us, we decided to make the full shebang Thanksgiving dinner, including all the sides, pies and an 11lb turkey.  Who doesn't love Thanksgiving leftovers?  Plus, we were really pumped to use all our kitchen stuff, and here's what we got =)

First, as I mentioned before, we did a fresh turkey from a local butcher this year and it was awesome!

Here's Jermaine - our Thanksgiving Turkey

Marc decided to brine the turkey - here's our bucket.

Awww...naked Jermaine.

Have fun in your overnight bath, Jermaine!

So...Marc was in charge of the brine, but I was in charge of looking up the recipe for it.  I accidentally gave him the wrong ratio.  A brine is supposed to be 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water (approximately)  if you're brining for a few hours, or 1/2 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water if brining overnight.  I accidentally told Marc that was 1/2 cup salt to 1 CUP of water...oops!

Even though our brine wasn't the right ratio, Jermaine was still totally delish.  The only difference was that the gravy from the drippings didn't need any salt.  It was already seasoned enough =)

Thursday morning, we woke up early to start cooking and enjoyed some of Marc's homemade cinnamon rolls.

Yummy.

After breakfast, I buttered Jermaine up with an herb butter.  I have to say, while it tastes delicious to do this, I definitely had to work really hard to get over the "ick" factor.  I actually separated the skin from the meat and got the herb butter in there...as I said - it's yummy and worth it, but way gross (I went through almost a whole bottle of antibacterial hand soap that day).

I also got started on my stuffing / dressing.  Marc LOVES dressing, so I made sure to make a lot of extra.  We did a cornbread, white and wheat combo...I was actually quite pleased with the results!

No worries, Jermaine - I've heard herb butter does wonders for your complexion....

About to stuff!

 Then it was time to start making my antipasta!  This is a tradition my family has always made before big meals.  It's super easy to put together and you can really add anything to it.  Here's how you make it:

Antipasta can really have anything in it, but ours always has white albacore tuna as the center.

Start with a bed of romaine and then add the tuna to the middle.

Then layer with deli meats.  We use salami and prosciutto, but you can add ham, turkey...whatever you want!

Next you add the cheeses - we used provolone, mozzarella and asiago.  Then you just layer everything else on top!  Simple.

Yummy!  I also add anchovies to my side - Marc doesn't like anchovies.

We made the rest of the sides, including mashed potatoes, steamed green beans (sorry...I had to have something green that wasn't in a casserole), and a broccoli and cauliflower casserole.

Check out that killer spread - and what beautiful china =)

Originally, the plan was to eat around 2pm (my family always eats T-day 'dinner' in the afternoon so you have time to relax, nap, watch football, eat pie...and then eat more dinner in the evening...childhood obesity?)  However, I'm convinced that the altitude changes the cooking time for poultry.  Our bird took almost 6 hours to cook!!  It was insane.

Jermaine - you were late to my party - by my goodness you were delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, we ate a quick dinner, then it was time to pick up our buddy, Gord, from the airport.  When we got home, we had some pie, ate a little more, and had a jolly good time having a few drinks and catching up.  Thursday was pretty chill.

On Friday, Gord and I decided to be healthy and go for a late morning jog around one of my favorite parks.  He kind of kicked my butt, but it was still fun to run with a buddy =)  After that, we got ready and went off to one of my co-workers happy hour and then out for drinks.

Saturday was a very relaxing day.  Gord went for a run in the morning by himself (it was freezing - the boy is insane) and then we really just chilled out all day.  Apparently Friday was too exciting for us and paid for it on Saturday.  We saw some sad football games (go jackets...) and some happy football games, and went out to eat for dinner.  

Sunday, Gord had to leave really early to get to the airport to go home, and then Marc and I continued our house hunt.  We haven't found "the" house just yet, but it's been fun to hunt around.

And that really wraps up our Thanksgiving!  We had such a great weekend - it was fabulous to see an old friend and just spend some time at home and relax.

Hope all of you had a Happy Thanksgiving and are enjoying the Christmas spirit!