For Thanksgiving Day, my husband and I headed over to his parents in rural New Jersey. It was utter mayhem in New York Thursday morning as we ran across town to get to the train station. It was a futile attempt as we were competing with a crowd of spectators and performers in attendance for the Macy's Day parade. Several times my eye brows raised and scrunched from being bumped, jabbed and just downright assaulted from surrounding directions, altogether way too rapidly for me to know what was happening. I'm sure my face indicated that I was suffering from some sort of spasmodic attack.
I was glad to be out of the chaos. So when we arrived, we joined in on a trend that is sweeping America, eating Thanksgiving dinner earlier and earlier with each year. This year was the first year that Ma S. brined the turkey, which created a wonderfully juicy and flavorful product in a shorter amount of time, hence the early dinner.
The table was decorated in a beautiful autumn theme. Acorn squash were hollowed to serve as candle holders. Tiny and cute pumpkin candles were sprinkled on the table and surrounded the room.
Matching the decor was the butternut cranberry and spinach hash.
My favorite of the festive dinner was the roasted brussel sprout with walnut and arugula, which is one of Ina Garten's recipes. Barefoot Contessa always has reliably crowd pleasing recipes. Also present at the table was stuffing, roasted fingerling potatoes and cranberry sauce, which I did not take snaps of, I was too busy eating.
Topping of the dinner was an apple pie made from apples that Ma and Pa S picked in Vermont. It was a rather short visit, my husband and I had to return to our sweet home in New York that evening as he had to head into work on Friday. Nonetheless it was nice to have some respite and watch my husband be ridiculous for a day. I don't have clear photos, but when everyone had their backs turned, he stuffed two fingerling potatoes in the front right and left of his mouth and pretended to be a walrus. Thank goodness I don't have clear photos! I think he suffers from attention deficit disorder, but not in the traditional sense of the ailment.
Any funny/interesting stories over Thanksgiving at your table?
Oh my, what a fabulous feast!! Definitely can't go wrong with Ina's recipes.
ReplyDeleteHaha, love the walrus-imitation story :-D
I would love to see the 'walrus' sounds funny and you were either nuts or brave to try and travel on thursday!
ReplyDeleteThat apple pie of yours look great.
ReplyDeleteI wish i could cook pies and cakes nicely.
doggybloggy - We were nuts, probably looney tunes to have thought that we could just walk 5 blocks across town without a hitch. Looney Tunes!
ReplyDeleteEverything looks delish :D
ReplyDeleteEveything on that table, from the decor to the food, looked fab. That's a Thanksgiving dinner to remember!
ReplyDeleteNisrine
I agree thanksgiving dinner seems to get earlier every year! So glad you had time to spend with family! My husband and yours would get along brilliantly. :)
ReplyDeleteThe decor is gorgeous and the apple pie looks outstanding!
ReplyDeleteChristine, your in-laws Thanksgiving spread looked amazing. I know you are glad that you braved the crowd for such a wonderful family dinner.
ReplyDeleteWhat an incredible spread! Hope you had a great holiday!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a feast! We had a couple good bottles of wine, which enhanced our meal. And our friend brought an excellent squash soup.
ReplyDeleteshame you didn't get a picture of him, what a lovely spread, and great decor
ReplyDeletethose pumpkin candles are really cute!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I was at the in-laws as well and we had a lovely time. It was our nephew's 1st birthday and 1st Thanksgiving, so he had his 1st turkey and stuffing all mashed up together. =)
ReplyDeleteGreat recap and wonderful looking meal! I would have loved to be a fly on the wall watching you walk those 5 blocks too!!
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures, the food and the pie...everything in this post :D
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a lot of fun. The table and dishes look beautiful. I agree, you can't go wrong with Ina.
ReplyDeleteNo funny stories here just a quiet day. Glad your husband got to be silly!
Wow that Turkey looks great-as does your butternut hash-I did a variation of your sweet potato hash using butternut instead-I was going to post it later this week-I did an apple pie you may like apple cranberry pecan pie using agave-it is on the blog-it was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThe kitties were in rare form this weekend-I must have spent about 30 minutes taking photos of them yesterday. I need to have my good camera charged and ready to go.
So how did you end up in NY?
what a great looking spread...we just had lots of family time. our contribution was prime rib roast!
ReplyDeleteSo fun! We had a crazy travel time too, but are back now!!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a delicious gourmet dinner. I'll have to try out some of those next Thanksgiving, especially the hash.
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful setting! everything looks so good! we went to our friends for Thanksgiving but they don't have a dinning room...so we ate in the garage....with a pineapple as the center piece. The food was great and the friends are like family...so thats what counts. but you gotta love the atmosphere LOL
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner! I love the autumn theme...
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had quite the feast. Glad to hear you escaped the city relatively unscathed. I didn't leave my place till about 5pm and the city was totally dead.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!!! We don't celebrate it here in Spain but it reminds me so about our Christmas get together. Your table looks wonderful and the dishes great :D.
ReplyDeleteBelated Happy Thanksgiving Christine!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any funny stories but oh my goodness! The butternut cranberry and spinach hash sounds soooo delightful! Gosh, you got me craving for something this late! hehehe. Thanks for sharing your wonderful Thankgiving.
oh what a wonderful feast!! Must be a wonderful drive too :)
ReplyDeleteI went to Queens for the holiday, so I didn't exactly get out of the city but it was far enough away that there were no crowds! I definitely needed the break as well.
ReplyDeleteAll of the food looks delicious. I think next year I am going to work on convincing my parents to brine their turkey. Brining just makes everything better.
Your husband sounds super cute. Glad you had fun!
Wow, your entire meal looks fantastic...especially that pie!
ReplyDeleteLooks like an amazing feast! I'll bet the hash was great, and those candles add a nice touch!
ReplyDeleteWow, this dinner looks so good! The butternut squash cranberry hash and the Brussel sprouts especially! Glad you made it out of the city alright :), and had a happy turkey day!
ReplyDeleteYour thanksgiving looks great. We had a wonderful southern thanksgiving in Memphis
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar sweet potato hash... yum.
ReplyDeletewow everything looks sooo good... glad u had a good thanksgiving!!! =) see ya friday
ReplyDeleteOh Thanksgiving mayhem in NYC! I am so thankful that I did not have to go through what you did to get away from the city. Tourists make it nearly impossible!!
ReplyDeleteWell, alcohol seems to play a factor in the truth coming out in our family, and so it was, as always, an absolute laugh-fest and hysterical time as we argued over when the bathroom was actually painted.
Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
My boyfriend and I endured the exact same madness Thursday morning at Penn Station! I've never seen such a jungle! Great job on snapping photos of the Thanksgiving feast. I was way too hungry and didn't even bother :)
ReplyDeleteYour feast looks gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I embarrassed my sister by tap-dancing around in my world's tackiest dress.
What did you bring to the table this time?
ReplyDeleteMy Thanksgiving was not, actually, a Thanksgiving per se, being in France celebrating my grandmother's birthday. But I ate so much for three days I felt like I had 3 Thanksgiving days. One day we had foie gras, then guinea fowl with morrels and fresh pasta + dessert for lunch, ended at 4.30 and at 7 pm, she looks at us and says "let's do a light dinner. I have oysters, then sweet bread in a pepper cream sauce, then veal, cheese and dessert". I think I passed out at that time!
Ina has so many fabulous recipes- I can't get enough of her! Is there a recipe for that incredible looking butternut cranberry and spinach hash somewhere? YUM!
ReplyDeleteDelicious looking Turkey and Sides! I love the autumn themed table too. What a great idea to scoop out the squash to use as a candle holder! I must remember this when I host my first Thanksgiving!
ReplyDeleteWow, nice decoration, like the candles...everything looks so yummie! Makes me feel having another Thanksgiving dinner :-)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! The food looks great -- I would love to try the brussel sprouts with arugula and walnuts. And I totally commend you for being so patient during those crazy chaotic crowded moments. Many times I will just start yelling at random strangers so they will stop bumping into me hahaha, but being 5'3" most people do not notice me :(
ReplyDeleteHappy (belated) Thanksgiving!
What a great day you had, well after the traveling was over. Everything looks wonderful. I think we are eating earlier, so that we can have another thanksgiving meal of leftovers on the same day. >:-)
ReplyDeleteLaura
Such a gorgeous table and that apple pie looks incredible. ;-) Glad you had a nice day!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous dinner! I can't even imagine living in New York City, but I do love learning all about it through your posts! I'm glad you made it back home in one piece :)
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