Thanksgiving Extravaganza

Well, we made it back safe and sound from Washington, where we got to spend 3 days bundled up in gorgeous North Bend at our best friends' house. The husbands got to spend some quality time with the XBox, annihilating zombies, while Mrs. B and I were total girls, cooking and chatting and reading trash mags. Which was exactly what how we wanted to spend our Thanksgiving vacation.

But Thanksgiving, as we know, is about food and drink. And we definitely had that. One of the best reasons to fly is that you don't have to drive, obviously, which is helpful when you like to drink. Which in turn, is helpful when you have 2 hours to kill at LAX. Word to the wise, however, ask how much the mixed drinks cost before you get a second round. Ouch.

Luckily they're cheaper on the plane. And, as it turns out, Alaska offers Jone's sugar free cream soda, which mixes up quite nicely with vodka...yum.

After lunch at Taphouse, we got settled at their house, and I got to work taking over their kitchen. Cornbread stuffing kinda needs cornbread, and it has to dry out overnight, so...I had no choice but to jump right in. And while I was at it, I baked the potatoes for the twice stuffed. And made a pecan pie. I'm kind of amazing, it's true.

The next morning, after waking up to my favorite nephew covering us in Labrador kisses (mom was sweet and didn't let him in til 10am), we went to work. Here's how it went:

Had a Mimosa. First things first.
Crumbled and prepped the cornbread.
Cleaned the birds, which wasn't as easy as I thought, as I promptly discovered they had necks. Ummm, not ok. So I recruited the husband to chop them off for me (I literally and figuratively just.couldn't.do.it).
Rubbed and stuffed the birds and threw them in the oven.
Rubbed the Prime Rib.

Drank Mimosa.

Prepped the twice baked potatoes and green bean casserole.
Made the cranberry sauce.

Drank Mimosa.

Took out the bird, put in the ribs.

Drank Mimosa.


Added cornbread, potatoes, and green beans to the oven.
Steamed the broccoli, made the cheese sauce, set the table.
Took everything out, and baked the rolls (we brought basque sourdough dinner rolls from Pyrenees Bakery. I totally had one.)

Whew. Though I'm more tired writing all this than I was cooking it.


Thanksgiving dinner is totally doable...you just have to plan ahead. So here you go—Thanksgiving recipes for 2010. Better early than late...better late than never. I'm going with very, very early...fashionably late is so 2001. I'm going to post them separately to make things easier all around.

You'll notice I'm not giving the recipes for the twice-baked potatoes, cause it's just baked potatoes, cooled, halved, then the insides are removed, mixed together to make everything potatoes, refilled, and baked for 35 minutes. Same with Green Bean Casserole (You can find it on the back of the French's fried onions or the Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup cans), but since I'd never made it before, I'll point out that we used reduced fat soup and it was delicious.

Enjoy!