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Thanks For Food + Family

It’s hard to believe this is how the table looked just a few hours ago…

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I set the table with a teal and orange theme using my grandmother’s blue glass bottles and some leaves from the yard

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Persimmons made good mock pumpkins!

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I made place cards and put a clementine at each place for color – and joked that they had to eat it before dessert for the nutrition 🙂

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If you don’t feel like ironing 8 napkins, just roll ’em!

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The wrinkles came right out

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Mom and Dad arrived!

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After settling in Mom and I polished the silver. Nothing works better than Wright’s Silver Cream

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It made a WORLD of a difference!!

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I remembered to get some of my jewelry that had started to turn black. I couldn’t believe how shiny it became!

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I put out a few Charleston benne wafers for appetizers that I got as a favor from my friend Mizzle’s wedding!

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And sipped on a few random drinks of Matt‘s throughout the day.

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We had two mishaps – burnt almonds and Matt accidentally put the green bean blue cheese in the mashed potatoes! But they ended up delicious so it was a serendipitous mistake.

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Matt got started on the turkey. He feels strongly about his meat-cooking techniques and cut the turkey into pieces for more even cooking. He brined it yesterday and then seared the outside in a pan today before he baked it.

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Seasoned with rosemary and thyme from our garden and clementines – it turned out perfect!! So succulent and not a dry piece on the platter.

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Slicing

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While everyone else drank wine I used my technique of waiting a while before my first glass (or I get too tipsy before dinner even starts!)

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When we had about 30 minutes to go I poured a little Red Truck Petit Syrah

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Around 3PM, dinner was serrrrrved

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Lurk.

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Karen’s super buttery and famous Oyster Pie

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My mom’s Cranberry Sauce and Corn Pudding

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The best stuffing we’ve ever made!! Guess what the secret ingredient was? OATS!!! Recipe to come in the next few days after Matt digests.

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Karen’s dessert-like Pineapple Sweet Potato Casserole

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Blue Cheese + Rosemary Mashed Potatoes with Parsnips

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Bacony Green Beans with Almonds

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Tastes of everything! The food tasted SO GOOD! I wasn’t terribly hungry thanks to my big brunch breakfast, but as soon as I sat down and started eating it was like the clouds parted and the food angles gave me a visit. I proclaimed the cranberry sauce my favorite part of my plate because it is so refreshing after all the buttery foods!

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Mid-way through dinner I had a second small glass of Granache

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My dad labels all of his bottles of wine with where he purchased it (or who he received it from as a gift) and the price. I noticed a $75 on the bottle and was agast. My dad is not the type to spend money on wine!! I questioned him about it excited to be drinking such a special bottle and he informed me that it was actually $7.50. LOL.

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And moved on to this!

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Started to get full at this point…but managed to eat more of it (sharing a little with Matt). You know, I really don’t care for turkey ON Thanksgiving, but I love it as leftovers!

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Dad was the only one to eat his FRUIT!

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The bears were very well behaved

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We went outside to digest and take some holiday photos for posterity

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My wild Thanksgiving outfit

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Then I burned off my dinner cleaning 🙂

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So I could work up an appetite for piiiiiies!

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Cheryl made the most delicious Snowflake Pie!!!!!!! Raspberry filling with a cream cheese almondy lemon filling. We found the recipe online (at least we think this is the same). Note to drain the pie filling so it’s not too liquidly.

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Karen’s famous Southern Pecan Pie

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And my mom’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

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With the pies Matt served some homemade mead

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Matt also whipped fresh cream

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I had a full plate – you know it!!

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However it took me a good 30 minutes to work through the pies and I took my sweet time. So, so good.

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We played our traditional Thankful Game where we draw topics from a bowl and go around the table saying what we’re thankful for.

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Annnnd a haap-py new year!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  15. Can I join you guys for Thanksgiving next year?! Holy moly that is a YUMMY spread! Blue cheese mashed potatoes… bacony green beans (!!!)… THREE types of delicious pies! The snowflake design is just beautiful. 😀 I love your table-setting design, too. So cute!

    Reply

  16. You and your family are beautiful! I’m happy to hear you had such a great Thanksgiving, and such amazing food – looks awesome!

    Enjoy your evening Kath!!

    Reply

  18. LOVED this post!! Happy Thanksgiving day sweet KATH! Those pies look amaaaazing. All your photos could be in a magazine, indeed. Cute outfit and loved the family pics. I am a weird, but the photo of your banana with nut butter was especially lovely. (this girl loves nanas and nut butter, can’t help it!) and PIE. 😀

    Happy weekend, sweetie. XOXO

    Reply

  30. do you remember by chance where you bought the long silver earrrings with the swirl? they are so pretty…

    thanks,
    linda

    Reply

  38. I knew I was in for a mind-blowing Thanksgiving post when I clicked on your blog. Oy, was I right. I don’t know where to begin. The snowflake pie looks beautiful. The pumpkin chiffon pie looks delish. The Turkey prep sounds like a savory, fail-proof method resulting in nothing less than succulence.

    Beautiful family photos, love your outfit!

    Reply

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