Thanksgiving 2011

Our Thanksgiving Day preparation began on Monday of Thanksgiving week when we took a family trip to Whole Foods to get all the goodies to stuff inside the turkey.  Robby made the brine on Tuesday afternoon & little Miss Charlotte was very interested in what was going on.  She said multiple times "What doin' Daddy?" She says this a million times a day right now : )  We put our 22 pound Turkey into the brine when we got home from the beach Wednesday morning where it soaked in all those delicious juices for the next 24 hours.  Before I went to bed Wednesday night, I whipped up a Chocolate Pie & Buttermilk Biscuits, both recipes of my Grandmother Alene along with some Pumpkin Muffins, my mom's recipe....all super yummy!



Charlotte checking to make sure Daddy put all the right ingredients in the pot : )

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early ready to start our fun day.  We hurried & got the biscuits baking, all of the prep done for stuffing the turkey & did the first clean of the kitchen for the day.  Hugo, Juanita & Matilda joined us for breakfast and some Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade watching. The girls were in their PJ's & we were all quite relaxed....except Chef Robby, he was in a cooking mood : )

Watching the parade with Juanita & Matilda...the girls were happier than they look in this picture.

Hugo overseeing some Play dough activities.



pulling the turkey out of the brine



Stuffed & ready for the oven!






the CUTEST turkeys in the house!

 Our friend Heather joined us for the day & we had so much fun with her! Charlotte got LOTS of extra attention which is always a good thing in her book : )  Heather spent our very first Thanksgiving with us in Florida.  I am not sure if I have mentioned it before but it was our first go around with hosting and cooking a turkey.  Long story short, we didn't get to eat until about 9:30 at night due to a slight miscalculation of time needed in the oven.  Heather has also spent some time at our house taking care of Bennett & Bella when we were out of town.  During one of those visits, she chased Bella a couple blocks down after she took off on her own little sprint.  All that to say, we were very thankful that Heather would even consider spending a holiday with us! She was pleased when we sat down to eat about 30 minutes ahead of schedule ; )

The house smelled amazing with that turkey cooking & we were all drooling by the time we sat down to eat! The turkey was amazing again & Robby tried a new recipe for stuffing that turned out SO good! I could eat that meal once a week....seriously!

the spread

These two girls really love each other.  We can't help but smile watching them interact. Here they are jumping, dancing, smiling & hugging.  LOVE THEM!  We should have taken some pictures of them hitting  & stealing toys from each other just so you could get an idea of what ALL our time looks like together : )



Mati, Juanita & Hugo



Charlotte's smile after we told her she would get a lollipop if she would smile....hahaha! 

 

Elo, me & Heather after chocolate pie




The end of the night, the girlies were so tired they switched daddies for some snuggle time. 

 It was a lovely Thanksgiving as we had much to be thankful for.  It is hard to believe that only 3 years ago, at our first Thanksgiving feast in the Valentine home I had a teeny little baby Charlotte growing inside my womb!  So much has happened in 3 years. I feel like we look really young & thin in this picture....maybe we will look like that again next year ; )

We actually cooked a second 12 pound turkey on Friday & Robby went all out & made three new recipes with the leftover turkey.  We usually make about 8 gallons of soup for the freezer but we were so tired of turkey soup that we decided to try something new. 

Our chosen recipes for the 2011 leftovers were:

• White Bean Turkey Chili
• Turkey Pies with Mashed Potato & Asiago cheese topping
• Fontina & White Wine Fusilli with sauted Caprese Mushrooms, and turkey of course : )

No photos but believe me, they are delish!

Two things in closing, I enjoy the Thanksgivings where I am not nauseated & likely to vomit during a meal....1st & 3rd Thanksgivings here, joyfully pregnant but oh so SICK!  Also, I am happy to not clean the kitchen 4 times a day for awhile ; )