Thanksgiving....PBG Style

Yesterday I gave you a little taste of our Thanksgiving Day feast.  It looked good, didn't it?  Everything was so good.  We started the afternoon with a little bit of wackiness.

Then it was time to get down to business.  We started with cheese and crackers.

Homemade (by me!) Artichoke dip.  This was a fan favourite.   I will be posting the recipe soon.

A  close up of the Artichoke dip.

Tipsy olives stuffed with blue cheese.

Even after all those snacks we still had room for dinner.  The highlight of the evening was the turkey.  My brother was in charge of the turkey and he took it very seriously. 

Here is the beautiful bird before.  Stephen actually took the time to brine the turkey in salt, sugar water a spices for 12 hours prior to cooking it.  The brining process makes the turkey so flavourful and juicy without adding much additional spices during the cooking process.



There was a slight malfunction with the meat thermometer so we cooked the bird for an extra 20 minutes just to be sure we didn't all end up with food poisoning.  Needless to say, the bird was cooked perfectly and we all survived.  And here it is in all it's golden and juicy glory.  It was so tasty. 

Our side dishes included garlic mashed potatos...

carrot and turnip mash...

peas...

When dinner was finally over it was my time to shine.  Dessert!  We decided to make fudgey brownies to have with ice cream and whipped topping.  These were not healthy.  These were not whole foods.  But, they were yummy.



My brother and I had a good time getting everything ready.  And my mom was so happy to have someone else doing most of the work this year. 

I often get told how much I look like my mom (and NOTHING like my brother).  Can't really argue with that too much after looking at pictures like this.  But, just to clarify I pay a lot of money for that hair colour, my mom comes by her's naturally. 

My mom is Dutch.  As part of her genetic makeup is the cleaning gene.  So, even though we told her to relax and take a break she insisted on following behind us trying to keep up with the mess.

In the end it was a fun day.  We had a good time cooking, a better time eating and a great time just being together.  My (almost) sister-in-law is a budding photographer and actually took most of the pictures throughout the day.  She did such a great job, didn't she?  Thanks Melanie!

How was your weekend?  The BF should be back this afternoon and I have an Ultimate Frisbee game at 6:30.  We are short on players again so it could be another rough game of wheezing and running. 



Just a Taste...

The BF is visiting his family this weekend so I have the house to myself.  Just to be clear, this is a good thing.  Our dogs do not do well in large social gatherings (they have way too much love to give) so I decided to stay here with them so he could visit his family without us having to worry about the dogs bothering friends and family the whole time. 

 

We are having the most beautiful fall weekend.  The trees are starting to turn and the weather was wam enough to go out without a jacket.  I plan to spend the day outside tomorrow, soaking up some sun. 

This weekend has been a weekend of thanks and giving.  Who doesn't love a holiday where the focus is food.  Sure, there is football and fallen leaves and family.  But, lets be honest, at least for my family, food is king.  Most of us like to cook, some of us are good at it and ALL of us like to be involved.  This year, for the first time, my brother and I took the lead on the dinner.  The menu this year:

Turkey (of course!)
Garlic Mashed Poratos (of course!)
Carrots and Turnip mash
Peas
Dinner Rolls
Pumpkin Pie
Brownies and Ice Cream

It was all so good.  And spending time with the family is always a good time.

Here is a taste of what we enjoyed...

Stay tuned for some recipies and details from this weekends feast.

How is your weekend going so far?  A holiday weekend means I have one more day before I have to go back to work.  Yay!

Just a Regular Day

This morning started out cold and wet.  Gross!  I was planning to go for a run but the dark and dreary weather quickly changed my mind.  I decided to hit up the gym instead and do some ellipticalling.  But, before I could even think about driving to the gym in the darkness of 6am I had to fuel up.  Seriously, the sun is takings it's sweet time to rise these days.  If you are not familiar with winters in Ontario, Canada at it's worst the sun does not rise until after 7am and sets by 5pm.  I can not tell you how much I appreciate the long sunny days of summer up here. 

Now,  I am not one of those people who can grab a banana and head to the gym.  I am a breakfast girl, through and through.  So, I nice warm bowl of oats was my breakfast of choice this morning.

In today's mix:

1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup water
forgot the chia seeds...so sad!
Peanut Butter
Coconut Butter

After my breakfast of champions I headed to the gym around 6:45am.  Today was just a cardio day and I was planning to run but no dice with the rain.  And, because I am a suck and I hate cardio I wasn't gonna hit up the treadmill...soooo boooring.  So, elliptical it was.  I did 30mins of intervals and had a good sweat on when I was done.  Yep, that's me in all my "no makeup except for the eye makeup I didn't wash off last night" sweaty glory. 

After the glorious photo above was taken I immediately hopped in the shower and got ready for work.  I promise I clean up nice. 

I packed my lunch the night before so it was ready to go this morning.  A tasty mix of grilled chicken, brown rice and mixed roasted veggies.  There was also a serving of plain Greek yogurt with apricot preserves.

Are you looking forward to this Thanksgiving weekend?  I am.  For the first time ever my brother and I are going to attempt to pull together a Thanksgiving Dinner for the family.  Usually this is mom's domain but she has not been 100% lately so we are hoping to pull off something at least half as good.  My brother is the family chef so I will be looking to him for the big stuff - turkey, stuffing, potatoes.  He even makes his own dinner rolls these days. It's pretty impressive.  Even if I think he is just trying to buy my mother's affection with his culinary creations.  Whatever!

I have to confess that while I do love to cook I am really not that great at it.  But, when it comes to dessert I am all over giving it the old college try because bad dessert is better than no dessert at all.  So, with my brother's permission I will be in charge of dessert.  Hopefully I will remember to take some pictures of the kitchen tornado that will result from our attempt.

What are some of your favourite Thanksgiving dishes?