Thanksgiving 2011

How great is Thanksgiving!?! Great food, good people, much to be thankful for! I love Thanksgiving...and TURKEY!!!

Casey and I had a good time cooking this year. We tried some new recipes and included some traditional ones as well!

We brined our first turkey this year. I saw a show on Food Network where a woman brined the turkey--kind of a rosemary and citrus brine. I was intrigued by the possible flavor and so we gave it a shot. Here is my 30 lb. turkey getting all happy in the brine!

I don't brown and crisp up my turkeys like most people do. I like them to be crazy juicy and moist...it ends up that they look like this when you take a picture and not so pretty. But it tasted AMAZING!!!

I'm glad I tried the brine recipe, it was definitely good...I don't know that it was worth the extra work though. I already made a pretty perfect turkey that was half the work.

Our friends brought a gorgeous spiral ham and it tasted SOOOO good!

MmmMmmMmm! Gravy! It was DELICIOUS!

Broccoli and Cheese Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing (Casey tried a new homemade recipe and it was DELICIOUS!!!), corn, homemade rolls...

We tried a new homemade cranberry sauce...Pomegranate Tangerine Cranberry Sauce. HEAVEN!!! We made it the night before and when I tasted it I was so-so on the flavor, but after it sat in the fridge overnight and chilled...on Thursday it was amazing! This is definitely being added to our permanent Thanksgiving menu.

This is another new one we tried--Autumn Branches Punch. It is Pink Lady and Granny Smith apple slices, Apple Juice, Pear Nectar, a little bit of lime juice and Italian Apple Pear Soda. It tasted like fall...such great flavor!

We ended up with many, many desserts--pumpkin pie, brownies, banana bread, cheese ball & crackers, chocolates, nut bread, pecan pie and a tangerine cake.

This is the Tangerine Cake that Casey and I made, garnished with sugared cranberries. OH.MY.GOODNESS! This recipe is amazing!!! We love, love, love it!!!

We had my parents to share the holiday with and our good friends the McArthur's! It was such a great day!

The big kids sitting at their own table and eating a whole lot of food! They ate a lot!

Later in the evening the kids were piling up on my dad in the 'most comfortable chair in the world'! The McArthur kids pretty much adopted my dad and it was too cute watching them snuggle up with him!

And on a side note...it was SOOO much better a day when the Dallas Cowboys won their football game AND my Texas Longhorns beat Texas A&M too!!! GOOOOOOD football day as well!