WalkerMoments: My First Thanksgiving

I suppose I should post about Thanksgiving before Christmas hits and no one cares about me hosting my first Thanksgiving anymore. Or have we reached that point already? Nahh, never too late to discuss food and fun!

So, given the family circumstances, I decided I didn't want to travel far away from my grandmother. Then I also decided I should host at home to keep her from stressing over it all. Then I proceeded to invite random people. It was ThanksGIVING, afterall... or so I told myself and Victor who asked me every day "now who's coming to Thanksgiving dinner".

We had about 10 adults and 4 kids. My neighbors were going to be in town and were going to cater their dinner. Well, I wasn't going to have any of that! Everyone should eat home-cooked food for Thanksgiving, (burnt or not)... so here they all came!

On to the food...

While Victor and Preston left to "run errands", my lovely 5 yr old, Miles, worked tirelessly with me early on Wednesday with all the desserts. Here he is making cranberry sauce.

Such a happy, good boy! Don't let the tatoos fool ya! We decided we should call each other by professional names... Chef Miles and Chef Mommy.

There was only one mishap. Miles was helping add the eggs to the buttermilk pie filling and as he was adding the last egg the little sucker (the egg, not Miles) fell into the bowl, shell and all, while the mixer was going... dreadful. How can you even be mad? Well I was and I'm sorry. Makes TWO pies!!! And even my attempt at finding the shell (frantically diggimg my hand in) was for nothing. Down the drain it all went... hurt me deep.

After that we were all good... There they are all made and ready to eat... along with my homemade peach cobbler! Slap yo'self!

From that point we started on the homemade Tres Leches Cake courtesy of The Pioneer Woman! Let me stop now for a moment. If you haven't been to her site, then shame on you. If you haven't heard of The Pioneer Woman... well trust me when I tell you I'm staring and blinking at you blankly. Anyway, love her site and her recipes. Try some out, you'll see!

Ok, so onto my cake. My most worthy helper checking out the eggs as they form soft peaks... He thought it was "totally awesome", (so did I - who knew eggs could DO that?! well I did b/c I've done it before but it amazes me every single time.)

Stop. Photo time.

If looking at the picture below this paragragh... HOLD ON! That is not the eggs... Please don't let your kids lick the beater after mixing the eggs! *phew* Had to make sure that was clear. This is one of the last steps (see the cake over there absorbing the tres leches?). Miles is sampling the yummy whipped heavy cream topping.

A smile while licking? He's awesome! Now, attention you Weight Watcherers (like me!)... This cake is 13pts per slice (yes I am using the new PointsPlus calculator) so be very careful. Only serve when large groups are involved and eat only 1/4th of a slice... Sorry. I didn't do that and had to torture myself on the treadmill for hours to make up for it... and still gained .4! It's not worth it. Ok, it so is... DO IT! DO IT!

So lets discuss Thanksgiving Day! I got up at 5am! I had that 21 pound bird in the oven by 6:35am! I did a brining recipe from Ree (YES, the pioneer woman, again, I used several of her recipes!) that had to sit and soak all the briney goodness for 20 hours.

Before:

After: (Sheesh, we both look like we've been rode hard and put up wet... it was early, ok?!)

Mustard greens and sweet potatoes on the stove, in case you were wondering, oh yeah you were.

I managed to get everything cooked and warmed at the SAME time... pretty impressive, huh? We ate around 3pm after a little talking and champagne drinking to loosen up the crowd... What do you think of the spread?

See my table? Purchased JUST for the occasion... My grandmother gave me all her china and silverware. I'm thrilled b/c it's the real stuff not the usual cheap-o stuff I use every day. Thank you, Nawnie!

Make a nice "table-scape" and the people will come! Man, don't I look all grown up at the head of the table? My legs and feet were throbbing at that point. Oh and excuse that high-hanging mirror on the wall... my husband thought Shaq was coming for a visit.