Thanksgiving Day

Ryan & I celebrated our first Thanksgiving as the "Nastase family" cooking our 1st feast! And looking back, I feel safe to say it was a success!

We did take photos of some of the events, but being I purchased a new computer (thank you, Black Friday)...I don't have the energy to upload photos. I'm tired of "uploading" stuff!

But I will recap on the great day!

Let's start with the prep:

Growing up my mom hosted Thanksgiving nearly every year. She has a giant family (8 kids) -- so Thanksgiving was very, very plentiful with lots of family, tons of food, and great memories!

I remember she was always a little.....tense....the days leading to this holiday. I always thought, "Gee, Mom. What's the big deal?! It's just Thanksgiving. You're family will love you no matter what!"

Now I hosted my first thanksgiving, for a much smaller crowd. And let's just say I was also....tense. This week I officially became My Mother's Daughter!

I cleaned, and prepped, and clean more. At one point on Wednesday evening, I found myself yelling at Ryan stating "If you're going to walk on our floors in those slippers you use to walk to the mailbox, you better think AGAIN! Either TAKE. THEM. OFF. or spray them down/wipe them with Chlorox! I just scrubbed the floors!!!!!!" (yikes....Cue the morbid, scary music, please)

He didn't even argue. He just looked at me in utter amazement. I could read his mind. He was thinking, "Who is this crazy woman in my kitchen, and what did she do to my wife?"

I just wanted everything to be perfect. I was entertaining for my Ryan's Dad, step-mom, and 3 kids. They are a family who are professional entertainers/host-extraordinaire s!! I would be mortified to ruin their Thanksgiving. It only comes around once per year!

Now let's move on to the disasters that occurred in the preparation:
The bread:

• I love to bake home-made bread. It's a great hobby of mine.
• So I planned to make home-made buns.
  
• I mixed the ingredients diligently, kneaded powerfully, let rise, and baked!
• However, they didn't rise like i realllly wanted.
  
• I didn't care. I baked anyways.
• The buns didn't grow at all. They just looked like lumpy balls of dough after 20 minutes!
• Ryan, my faithful food-tester, tried one to make sure.
• Ryan almost vomited. He proclaimed, in a shocked tone, "This tastes like Playdough!!!"
  
• Yep. I put 1/2 cup of salt in, instead of 1/2 sugar.
• I cried.
  
• Ryan consoled.
• I headed up to the grocery store in the Wed-night madness to buy buns from the bakery
• All worked out in the end!

The Stuffing:

• The stuffing was not a disaster
• ....but it could've been
• I was preparing it early Thursday morning.
• Browning the sausage, boiling the giblets, sauteeing the vegetables.
• I had already dried out my bread
  
• To be prompt and ready, I poured my bread into the crock pot while I was doing to cooking
• I kept saying "Hm! Something smells like it's cooking! Yummy!"
• This progressed to, "That sausage smells funny."
• Which finally lead to "HOLY SHIT! Something's burning!"
• We soon realized, I UNKNOWINGLY put the bread in the crock pot which was plugged in and turned on high.
  
• Last time I used my crock pot, I forgot to turn it "off".
  
• We QUICKLY salvaged the bread, and removed all burnt pieces.
• After a good lecturing about "Turning off appliances when finished with"
• All was cool and kosher.
• This was NOT the first time Abby has received this lecture, by the way....

Now we can move past all disasters, and get talkin about some thanksgiving feast!

We served:

Hors d'oeuvres (wow that's not fun to spell)

• Hummus & Ranch dip with fresh veggies and Pita Chips
• Shrimp Cocktail
• Deviled Eggs (generously made by Ryan's family)
• Pickled Herring (also brought by Ryan's family)

The meal

• Turkey (brine recipe by my Mom, cooked by my wonderful husband, Ryan!)
• Stuffing (My mom's recipe)
  
• Mashed Potatoes
• Yams (with toasted pecans and marshmellows)
  
• Gravy (make-shift recipe by Team Ryan-Abby...turned out alright!)
• Green bean casserole (brought by Ryan's family)
• Cranberries (Thank you, again, Ryan's family!)
• And my poor, sorry store-bought rolls :(

Dessert

• Apple pie (brought by Ryan's family)
• Pumpkin pie (my first ever! It took 2 attempts to do the crust. I tried going *healthy* the first try and found it to be very unsuccessful. My 2nd try was a success, however!)

Overall, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving! Filled with a great abundance of delicious food, a Dallas Cowboys football game, and most importantly wonderful family!!

I have many many reasons to be Thankful! I hope all had a blessed holiday!

Let the Christmas season begin!!!! :)