Thanksgiving 2014

I've been dragging my feet around here. I wanted to tie in our Thanksgiving with the grand opening of the dining room but don't have the pictures for it yet. And I likely won't until after the piles of what is now Christmas are gone from the table. But that doesn't mean I can't talk about our turkey in the meantime! It was a monster 27 pounds and Jason cooked it in a roasting bag (with champagne!) after some kind of spiced juniper-berry cider brining process. Honestly I don't pay much attention to poultry or any protein for that matter. I'm usually in charge of the side dishes. But here's Jason getting our turkey toasted.

The turkey got the bubbly, we got the whiskey sours. I've heard these are making a comeback, but in our house, they've never gone anywhere! The key is in this little bottle:

Now surely they could have named this something else. But it does what egg-whites do and simply makes the drink what it is! It's available on Amazon, but perhaps on some adults-only websites as well.

From left to right clockwise: Grandma, Uncle Chris, Berg, Karen (and their baby-to-be!! YAY! Arriving May 2015 so poor Karen had just a sour, no whiskey ;) ), me, Grandpa, and Jason. Not pictured: Katie and GG, I don't know where they were. Also not pictured, Ashton and Alex, who by the grace of God were napping.

The cooking overall went very well. We had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, balsamic pearl onions, green bean casserole, roasted beets, rolls and Ashton and I made a chipotle sweet potato dish:

I'll tell you what, it was freaking fantastic. I always make the same stuffing (Ina Garten - who else?) but decided to take a chance on Bobby Flay this year for something new. I wanted to do a not-your-usual sweet potato dish and the smoked chipotle cream recipe was a total hit. And totally easy, so maybe you could try it sometime. Tell Bobby I sent you.

I tried to get a good picture of my table all pre-set (Lynn, if you are reading, I nestled the candlesticks you got us for our wedding into some leaves for the centerpiece- they looked gorgeous! I love them so much :) )

And here we all are, looking blurry and fabulous from the end of Jason's arm.

I'm afraid I don't have much else for you as it pertains to Thanksgiving. It was a great start to the season where we all get fatter (and paler - ugh). Tomorrow we are supposed to be getting some kind of Noreaster; I don't have the heart to look at the forecast for the details. But Christmas is in full swing, we have our tree and lights up so I'll be back soon with those fun updates. I'll leave you with a free Thanksgiving concert.

p.s  I have Trisha to thank for bringing to my attention that it had been nearly 2 weeks since I had updated A New Nill. I believe her exact words were, "Where was your Thanksgiving blog post, dammit!" at Katie's party last Saturday. So this one's for you ;)