It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving was over a week ago!? Time flies, especially this time of year! We had a lovely time with family and friends celebrating on Friday. It was our first time hosting a big holiday and I think we did a pretty good job pulling everything together. My Mom was a huge help when it came to logistics…she’s hosted a few Thanksgivings over the years and was a valuable resource. She even let me borrow some table linens for the event!

The Turkey Bird!

The star of our Thanksgiving celebration was certainly the turkey! The Renaissance Man tended to that bird all day long, and he was certainly rewarded for his efforts. I’m not even a big fan of turkey, but that turkey was fantastic! I was told the key to success was basting along with all of the veggies cooking under the bird that kept it super moist.

In addition to the turkey we also had ham…I’m a ham girl! Our wonderful guest brought all sorts of yummy side dishes. We had fresh salad, deviled eggs, quinoa salad, green beans, brussel sprouts, stuffing, corn flake mash potatoes (a family favorite made by The Renaissance Man’s Grandma), regular mash potatoes, rolls, and sweet potatoes with maple syrup from my friend who lives in Michigan!

My Mom even gave The Renaissance Man a quick cooking lesson…the two of them made some of the best gravy I’ve ever tasted out of the turkey drippings! The Renaissance Man used his special made Garlic Rosemary Orange Zest Butter to make the rue and it made all the difference in the flavor.

I did my best to fit a little bit off everything on my plate!

And after about an hour or so, people were ready to go back for more and serve up the pies. We had Marionberry Pie, Lemon Sour Cream Pie, Apple Pie, and two versions of Pumpkin Pie. The Renissance Man was concerned about the variety in pie options, so he ordered a Lemon Sour Cream Pie and a Pumpkin Pie from Red Hills Market.

I had a thin slice of the Lemon Sour cream Pie and Marionberry Pie, and the two together were the perfect combination!

Turkey Broth

I have a feeling that after most people finish a turkey dinner, they’re ready to be done with the process all together. However, The Renaissance Man made sure that we saved all the bones and left overs from the turkey and on Saturday morning they went into a pot to make turkey broth.

The pot was filled with water to just cover the turkey pieces and then set on low heat to do it’s thing…

Three hours later (thanks to the clock on my oven) we had turkey broth!

We let it cool, used a strainer to pull out the bones, and then poured it into mason jars for safe keeping.

I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll be having turkey noodle soup or perhaps some fancy risotto sometime in the near future. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!