Thanksgiving 2k11 RECAP!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

almost an entire week late. 

Eh...To be honest, I think we should be thankful all year round and don't need a turkey and cranberry sauce on the table to remember that. But this year I am definitely thankful for these two :)

As I mentioned earlier, I hosted Thanksgiving this year and totally let myself down. No, I didn't burn my dishes or set my kitchen on fire but I did let my perfectionist side get the best of me. I was so concerned about the house being clean, the centerpieces and having everything look good when that really shouldn't matter AT ALL and I regret getting so wound up instead of having a good time. In the end, nothing came together and guess what...Thanksgiving went on. I wanted to chuckle the weeks before Thanksgiving and see everyone posting pictures of the "perfect table setting" and such because although they are GORGEOUS, who really gives a rats ass what the table looks like. I would NEVER want my Thanksgiving table to look like this, it looks sterile to me. Too clean, too clear cut. Where is everyones mix matching tupperware and how on earth did it all fit on that table? In my house, we take up every inch of counter space with our foil wrapped goods and make it buffet style.

I didn't really whip my camera out too much, I was on cooking overload, but I still managed to get some photos of some of the dishes I cooked:

Brown Sugar Carrot Curls º Garlic & Cheese Mashed Potatoes º Stuffed Mushrooms º Caramel Apple Dump Cake º Squash Casserole º Cream Cheese & Homemade Glazes º Pumpkin "Cakies"º

Over all, everything was delish and I impressed my family and quite honestly, myself. The fan favorites were by far the carrots, stuffed mushrooms and pumkin "cakies" (I call them this because it's a perfect mix between a cookie/cupcake!) and you can find the original recipe from Ruthie Hart here!

I have to brag about my stuffed mushrooms, y'all. They were SLAMMING. I had never even attempted making them before and was so amazed how well they turned out. I used cream cheese, bread crumbs, the mushroom stems, basil, Asiago cheese, seasoning and and 1 egg yolk for the stuffing and cooked at 400º for 30 minutes. DELISH.

One thing I am thankful for EVERY DAY is how close mine and Travis' families are. It is very rare that families mesh as well together as ours do. Our parents talk to each other on just about a daily basis, in fact our GRANDMOTHERS talk weekly and when my parents lived here, both our entire families would gather at least twice on the weekends. It came up in conversation last Sunday about having to split Holidays between families and I just couldn't imagine having to do that. We also always gather in a huge circle (try to anyways) before a big meal and pray. I captured it RIGHT before the prayer this time (I wasn't peaking okay... ;) 

To conclude this post I'm sharing some pictures Travis took of Baja and Bobby and they sincerely melt my heart. They are perfect. You can see some of my husbands commercial work here and see what mission work he is looking to do here. 

Oh and P.S.:
My Baja is GENIUS and used the left over stuffing for deviled eggs for dipping with celery. It was amazing!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving....I still feel like a 9879874 lb. brick is in my stomach.