Thanksgiving looked a little different for us this year being so faraway from the majority of our family. Our Thanksgiving used to typically consist of driving to different family members houses, eating a lot, spending time with with aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents (and maybe some Black Friday shopping). Instead, this year our Thanksgiving celebration looked like this: Wednesday night, Thanksgiving Eve Church Service with a pie social(so yummy!), Thursday, thanksgiving day dinner and watching football with some church friends, on Friday we were cleaning the house and prepping our food (cooked our turkey overnight) for hosting a Saturday Thanksgiving dinner, having 7 friends come over and bring wonderful additions to our meal, Sunday morning we had church/bible study and once we were all home it was nap time then for dinner and a football game we headed over to a church friends house.
Our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!!!! We only made a few of the dishes and here they are:
The Turkey ~ We tried something new with our bird this year thanks to my mother-in-law and it was amazing! We buttered and seasoned it using: garlic salt, seasoning salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning and sage, then put it in the oven on Friday night 10pm at 300* and the Mister got up at 5am Saturday morning to take it out(LOVE HIM!). We let it cool for a few hours then took all the meat off the bone, put it in the crockpot with the juices sans the fat, until we ate around 3:30pm that afternoon. We loved doing it this way for a few reasons being 1) we didn't have to even think about our turkey because it cooked while we slept, 2) it was super easy, 3) it was amazingly tender! We will definitely be trying that recipe again!
The Ham ~ We cooked our ham the way the package said to. I know, boring, right? But it was great...I may have added extra brown sugar...LOVE the caramelization that happens! Even though it was Thanksgiving and the main event is supposed to be the turkey I am such a sucker for the ham. The Potatoes ~ We HAVE to have mashed potatoes at every holiday. I think it has something to do with growing up in meat and potato country, the Midwest. We boiled, mashed and mixed up 10lbs. of potatoes to put in the crockpot. As long as your crockpot can be set on low or warm the potatoes will stay fluffy and creamy until you're ready to eat.Peanut Butter
Cream Pie ~ I cannot even pretend to take credit for thinking up this amazingly sweet concoction. I am NOT a baked fruit person. I don't know what it is, the texture maybe? So when I was trying to think up a pie to bake for our church's pie social I googled recipes with graham or pretzel crust and came across this one. I didn't end up using it for the pie social but thought I would let my Thanksgiving guests be my guinea pigs to try it out. Everyone who tried it said it was good enough to make again. Personally, I am the worst critic of what I make, I thought The peanut butter/whipped cream mixture was a bit much which made the pie extremely sweet....not always a bad thing but can be overpowering for some people.
Our amazing friends are the ones who brought everything else to complete this feast. We had rolls, corn, green bean casserole (one of our favorite dishes!), wine, beer, dump cake, and turtle pie! It was a great first Thanksgiving in CO!
(This post is very boring without the pictures, I apologize. I forgot to take pictures on Thanksgiving and I haven't been able to get our friends pictures yet to add to this post. Hopefully you have a great imagination ;)
