y'all wanna see my turkey?

So I realized I never posted about Thanksgiving and I really wanted to because I cooked a turkey! I need to brag, I cooked a whole turkey. I did a cider glaze and it was delicious. Mom and I spent all day cooking and drinking prosecco and we ended up with a huge amount of delicious food. Below, you can see on my plate the cider glazed turkey of course, mashed potatoes and gravy (pan drippings are yum), a mushroom-y stuffing, this bomb-ass cranberry walnut cranberry relish with maple syrup, brussel sprouts with bacon, and roast acorn squash and sweet potatoes. Yeah...yum. I'm kind of jealous of Amanda, who has a mini-thanksgiving every New Years Day, because I want to eat all this stuff again. Oh, and some of our homemade cider as well!

I'm pretty proud of how all our food turned out, as well as how our table looked. I bought my mom some new plates from Ikea because ours were all chipped and ugly. These are a nice simple style in a pretty light green color. I also found some nice green napkins at the thriftstore (just wash in hot water!) and even though they're not the same green I think they look nice. I bought a ton of them because they were super cheap and finding a nice big set is unusual. We paired that with crystal and silver from my grandma, some pretty flowers from Trader Joe's, and some seasonally appropriate orange tapers in my great grandmother's silver candle sticks. I kind of love the combination of modern/thrifted and antiques and heirloom pieces. And yes, the silver needs to be polished, especially the teapot holding the flowers but I reallly like tarnished silver so I let it go.

sweater - icelandica, dress - francesca's collections, tights - mp, clogs - jeffrey campbell

Even though we didn't have many people over for dinner and just a few friends came over drinks later that evening, I like dressing up for holidays, so I wore this new dress I got when I was shopping with Amanda. The pattern along the hem was what really made it for me, since it reminded me of city skyline. And the black and brown seemed perfect for fall! Of course, when A stopped by later, she was wearing her classic hand-turkey tshirt which I LOVE. Seriously, check that shit out. Maybe I need a guest post from her next year?

My new Thanksgiving tradition is having friends over for drinks and a movie after everyone's long done eating. I tend to get bored in the evenings of holidays where most of the action happens earlier in the day, so I like to do things with friends in the evening on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Anyways, last year my family was out of town, so after dinner at A's, Shane and Shiloh came over for some homemade hard cider. This year, I added Fantastic Mr. Fox to the evening, since I think it is the perfect Thanksgiving movie. So much food! I think that may become an annual tradition too. This year though, I invented a cocktail! It's called the Apple Snap and it's delicious. Inexact recipe after the picture!

Apple Snap

2 parts bourbon

1 part boiled cider (aka apple molasses)*

squeeze of lemon

dash bitters

Shake with ice and strain into ice filled glass and top with soda water. Garnish with a slice of apple.

*Boiled cider or apple molasses is an old fashioned sweetener made by boiled apple cider to one seventh the original volume. I made my own as a way to preserve some of our excess apple cider this year, but if you're on the east coast you may be able to find it. Out here on the west coast, you'll either have to order it online from the one or two places that will ship it, or make it yourself out of the freshest apple cider you can find. Don't use apple juice, but if you're limited to grocery store stuff, just try to find something unfiltered/as little processed as possible.

(I'll try to update this next time I make this drink and actually measure stuff.)