Ben and I have almost been married for 2 years now (yay!!) and I've done my own Thanksgiving ever since (hence the title, Attempt #2). This year was so much better than last year, I think. I wish I took pictures of everything but you can use your imagination (or the help of these Google images... haha). Here's just some of the things I made that I'm particularly proud of (because sometimes you just want to be proud of what you did, you know?) :
First, and most importantly to every Thanksgiving meal, the turkey. This year, I was only going to buy a small turkey because my family has never been a big turkey fan but thanks to our friend Fuzzy, we got a 20 lb turkey for absolutely free (and as a college student, how is free not good?!). His work was handing them out and he surprised us with one. Anyways, the turkey was so big it didn't fit in any of our pots.... Ben fixed this problem with a 5 gallon bucket and a lot of scrubbing because who knows what was in that bucket. We brined the turkey in this maple-brine from Better Homes and Garden. It was seriously, so good!!
Second, the stuffing. If you don't like stuffing, I PROMISE you will like this one: Awesome Sausage, Cranberry, and Apple stuffing. I doubled the recipe for this one because Ben cleaned house with it last year and I hardly had any.... Plus, I had to stuff a 20lb turkey with it! Anyways, you can find the recipe for this on allrecipes.com.
Next up: cranberry sauce! I know, I know.... you all have probably had it at every Thanksgiving meal but I never have. And I'm not talking about the kind that you take out of a can (although we did have that as well). It was so good with the turkey... I couldn't stop raving about it to everyone. All it is: sugar (1/2 c white, 1/2 c brown), water, orange juice, and a package of cranberries. This will definitely be something that I make every year!! Plus, it looks so pretty!
Finally, the pies! If I do say so myself, I make a pretty good pie.... 3 actually: maple-flavored pumpkin pie, grandma ople's apple pie, and irresistible pecan. I think I found all 3 of these on allrecipes again. I added and took away some things from the original recipes but seriously, these are some amazing pies. I think I'll make another one soon....
So I guess the point of this whole post --- It's really not as bad as you may think putting on your own Thanksgiving dinner! We had 8 people over in our little dungeon and there was more than enough food. It wasn't as stressful as it may seem (although Ben did help out so much with the cooking!) and it is so much fun trying out new things!! The guys went out and threw a football/frisbee around, the gals played Ticket to Ride (although Riena cheats... I think that's how she has her name written in the board so many times....), we pigged out, life was good :)
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!!
How it happened:
