a fanciful feast

Think about it. The entire Thanksgiving celebration is centered around food. Well, and football here in the Heartland. I could hug whoever decided thankfulness and family togetherness should culminate around delicious culinary masterpieces. (Imagine if instead of the feast in that traditional First Thanksgiving story, they chose to center on the ship landing? What would our tradition be like in that case?)

For the last few years, my grandparents have come to town for Thanksgiving, but they were unable to make it this year. But my parents invited two replacements, The Noshery and the Spousal Figure themselves. My mom was so excited about them coming that she planned a meeting between the three of us just to make sure everything was perfect.

And it was.

Key players:

beautiful tablescape by my mama

brie with cranberry pomegranate chutney
(made by Whole Foods (YOM!!)

Pioneer Woman stuffing

     

cranberry goodness

 

Pioneer Woman mashed potatoes

  

Paula Deen popovers

the star of the show herself
(mi madre totally rocked it!)

my plate of yummies

sad, drooly yellow puppy had to stay outside

I didn’t take any pictures, but in normal family tradition my grandparents bring Italian sausage from a little Italian supermarket in Dallas. It’s delicious. We walk/run a 5K not far away from the house and then eat big juice sausages with tangy cranberry sauce wrapped in a slice of bread.

Though my grandparents (and the delish sausage) couldn’t make it, JT made sure the tradition lived on and picked up some Italian sausage from Siegi’s in Tulsa. It might not be a tiny Italian supermarket, but it was awesome! We have always loved the quality of their meats.

Just in case you couldn’t tell, our tummies are still recovering from this wonderful meal. Meseidy rocked the sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin bread pudding (Bobby Flay’s recipe from Throwdown with Ree’s hard sauce, if you can stomach how awesome that would be!) The turkey was plump and perfectly seasoned, the potatoes creamy and buttery, the popovers perfect with a touch of raspberry jam. And the dessert was perfect once I made more room by switching to stretchy pants.

But would you believe me that the company was even better?

Happy Thanksgiving! And don’t forget to be thankful the other 364 days of the year for friendship, beauty, and of course, food on your table!