Happy Thanksgiving

I would first like to say THANK YOU to my mom & mother-in-law for all the hard work they have done over the years making incredible Thanksgiving feasts. They are both GREAT cooks & I love eating a meal I didn't have to make. This year though I was on my own, I had to actually make Thanksgiving dinner. I have always helped by making whatever side dish I was assigned...Mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, rolls, etc. But never never had I actually made THANKSGIVING DINNER!!! I was FREAKED OUT for such a huge responsibility, but felt up to the challenge. (Knowing that Boston Market is only 2 miles away gave me some relief, because getting food through their drive-up was my backup plan.) I started the night before making the stuffing & the pies. The next morning Der & I prepped the turkey (Yuck, I hate raw meat) & put "Tom" in to cook for several hours. Luckily I had purchased the worlds most awesome meat thermometer at Target the night before, because as we prepped "Tom" we noticed he didn't come equipped with a pop up timer. Now I am starting to relax, because the pies are done, the stuffing just needs to bake & "Tom" is in the oven. All we have to do now is the mashed potatoes & gravy. To me making the gravy is the most stressful part. I either make it to runny or it looks like Jell-o. I think it was a Thanksgiving MIRACLE, because the gravy did turn out pretty good. We were elated that our Southern friends Shawn & Ashley would be joining us for dinner. (They are from Louisiana, & moved to Chicago about the same time we did for the same reason we did.) And lucky for me Ashley is a good cook & wanted to help by bringing some of their favorite side dishes. She brought Sweet Potato casserole (this was to die for), some sort of broccoli rice casserole (this is a family tradition of hers that was very tasty), deviled eggs (another family tradition), & rolls. We had quite the spread. We had so much food that it wouldn't all fit on the table. Ashley & I were so excited that we had pulled it off, we had made our very first Thanksgiving Dinner & it was DELICIOUS!!