There's nothing left but the crumbs.....we had a great Thanksgiving Feast....but rather than bore you with the details - I'll let the pictures do the talking....
< Brown Butter Green Beans 
Cranberries with Madiera >
Jello made with Orange Juice and Fresh Raspberries on a cloud of whipped cream and cream cheese 
Stuffed Celery...a favorite for as long as I can remember...it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it! >
< Red Cabbage with apples and onion in a cider viniagrette - this was something my Grandma always made and it's just part of our tradition - whether it's eaten or not!
> Caesar the Wonder Dog enjoying a few minutes at the dining room table - before being banished - he thought he was so clever - jumping up when no one was looking! Bad dog! (Don't you just love his underbite? He's so proud of it!)
< Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes - first they were riced - and there was nary a lump!
< The best gravy in the world...no flour or corn starch needed - pureed root vegetables thicken the gravy -which is why the gravy is a little more "orange" in color than regular gravy... it is truly delicious...I'll post the recipe soon - I'm just too stuffed to get up and get it right now!
French rolls - hot from the oven...yum! >
< Stuffing with sausage, cornbread, mushrooms, craisins, onions, celery and all the spices....it looks great on my thighs!
Streusel Topped Sweet Potatoes....okay, this photo needs a little 'splaining...first of all, I used yams and not sweet potatoes and then, the streusel topping was supposed to be crumbly but I melted the butter when I shouldn't have so it turned out pourable not crumbly...but man oh man, it tasted great! It nearly put me in a coma due to the brown sugar...but it was worth it!
< What was left of the turkey after 'round one'....a 20 lb. turkey for 5 people - poof! It's almost gone!
I had given up hope of finding Princess Eats-a-lot and her Papoose and Totem Pole weeks ago - and then today
, while looking for the roaster, I discovered her! She made a quick entrance just in time for the feast! Princess Eats-A-Lot has overseen our annual feast for many years now - it wouldn't have been the same without her! (Thanks to Laura Walton, where ever you are!)
A table place setting...my daughter made a turkey when she was 9 or 10 out of construction paper - I found just the head of the turkey - have no idea where the body went! I took it to Kinko's and color-copied it and used them as place cards....she doesn't even remember making them!
The mister brought me the table cloth back from Vietnam - it's hard to see the cutwork that is in the center of the cloth but it is really beautiful. He out did himself with this....but you should have seen the robe he brought me....made for a midget...sorry, that's not PC...made for a little person....and I even gave him a picture of what to get....oh well, he tried!
My son-in-law falls victim to trytophan....not really, he was just tired from getting up at 4:00 am to catch his flight to Seattle....He was so sound asleep that he didn't even move when Caesar the Wonder Dog jumped up on his lap....he woke up a few hours later with a very stiff neck.
Now I'm sure you won't find this as amazing as we did....but this is the son-in-law's bag...his ONLY bag....and what's so amazing about this is, aside from the fact that he only brought ONE BAG...there is actually room left in the bag! In his past trips he and my daughter have arrived with two or three bags a piece!!! And one of them usually contained nothing but HAIR PRODUCTS!!! So...I had to take a picture of this just to document the event in case it never happens again!
We started our feast by reading this quote from Abraham Lincoln - and with a blessing on our food - we have much to be thankful for - family, home, friends, country - it's all a little overwhelming when you stop to think about it - as we did between mouthfuls - but we are truly blessed and so thankful to be able to spend this holiday together:
"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in number, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace and multiplied and
enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."
Abraham Lincoln
