thanksgiving feast pt.2

My second Thanksgiving experience this year was slightly less gluttonous.

And I mean slightly.

Hosted by none other than Zack’s mom and dad down in North Carolina, I was in for a treat at the Baginski household.

There seemed to be a shortage of cheesy, starchy casseroles and I was thankful for that! Instead, we had turkey (marinated in home-grown herbs!) and gravy, stove top stuffing (the best there is, in my opinion), balsamic roasted veggies (unexpectedly yummy with cauliflower and brussel sprouts), homemade pesto biscuits (the pesto, not the biscuit), German potato salad (a tangy, bacon infused potato casserole made with vinegar – delicious!)…it was such a good meal I went back for seconds.

And as if one pie wasn’t enough, we had two to choose from: pumpkin and apple, cranberry streusel. Yum!

It was truly a meal to be thankful for. Singlehandedly made by Mrs. B, I was so impressed by the tender and juicy turkey meat.  The secret, I learned, was cooking the bird at a higher temperature for less time.  This “school of thought” known as high temperature method, claims the resulting turkey will be crispier on the outside but juicier on the inside. I’m a convert!

Check out my plates…

All of that (and then some) went in my tummy. Yep, believe it!

thanksgiving feast pt.1

In the most American of American traditions, Thanksgiving came and went this year leaving a trail of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce in its wake.

This year, I was lucky (or not so lucky, depending how you look at it) enough to have two Thanksgiving meals.  The first took place at work, with a unique twist…

A “white trash” Thanksgiving meal was hosted by Hall & Partners on November 20th.  After some unease with the not-so-politically-correct theme, it was renamed to a “kitschy” Thanksgiving meal.

Call it white trash, call it kitsch, call it what you may, I think we ended up with an honest to goodness American Thanksgiving that day…

An array of various yellow-colored, cheese-sauce, starch-based dishes and casseroles lined our makeshift kitchen table.  We all heaped spoonfuls of the mysterious green bean casseroles, pasta casseroles with veg or with meat or with cheese onto our flimsy plates.  In the midst of all the yellow was some red (cranberry sauce, of course) and some brown (either representing something fried or something chocolate – delicious either way).

Stopping for one (or all) of many desserts at the end of the table, we managed to glut ourselves out at work that day – scrambling to get an extra hour or two of productivity in before slowly regressing into food induced comas.

Here’s a look at the food

A cornucopia, indeed!