Thanksgiving

Initially, I wasn't planning on cooking a big Thanksgiving feast.  We are far from family, don't really have friends, and the thought of cooking a turkey (and taking out... giblets?) kinds of grosses me out.

But, one night I found myself scrolling through recipes on pinterest and decided it could be a fun occasion to make a lot of food that's not necessarily healthy, but tastes delicious.  So I figured I'd buy a ham and make some fun sides.  

I found this creamed spinach, which was delicious and had gruyere cheese on top.  (Pretty expensive, but fun, since we actually visited Gruyere a few years ago.)

Asparagas wrapped in prosceutto.  (It was actually my first time buying prosceutto but I couldn't help but think of Giada, because she uses it in so many recipes.  It's basically snobby bacon.)

Pan-seared brussel sprouts with cranberries and pecans. You either like them or you don't.  But they were a colorful way to get cranberries in the meal without actually having to buy the canned cranberry sauce that jiggles kind of weird.  

I also made mashed potatoes*, candied yams**, stove-top stuffing (there's nothing better, in my book!), and last minute decided to buy a turkey breast to cook.  Plus rolls from the freezer section.  And... a Derby Pie.  

The Sunday before Thanksgiving I asked the sister misionaries in our ward if they had any plans, and they said no.  (Wasn't expecting that!)  So I told them they could come to our house (even though there might not be turkey.)  We attend a Spanish group, and I guess most of the latinos aren't big into the Thanksgiving holiday.  I'm glad they didn't have to go hungry.  (Hyrum isn't very attached to the holiday, either, since he just started celebrating it about 7 years ago.  That gives me some leeway.) 

The rest of the day we relaxed, started our Christmas decorating, and decided on a whim to venture out to Wal-mart to observe the black friday craziness.  (We hadn't left the house all day, which makes me a little crazy.)  In the end we only bought some socks and a DVD, and there weren't any lines to check-out.  

*I read somewhere that you could make mashed potatoes ahead of time, and freeze.  However... when I took mine out of the freezer they were pretty gross--- flakey, watery, blah.  So I put them in the mixer and just kept adding butter and cream until I thought it masked the texture.  I received compliments on how good they were, which made me chuckle a bit.  Butter and cream goes a long way!

**My grandma always makes candied yams for Thanksgiving, and we always joke about how much butter and sugar she uses.  Like we say, "Grandma, there's a whole pound of butter here!" And she says very matter-of-factly, "No, there's two pounds."  But for all the joking, it turns out we didn't actually know her method, so I had my mom call her.  So I got a recipe and started making them.  Then my grandma called back two or three more times with corrections, and I felt bad that she was so concerned about the yams.  I probably stressed her out on Thanksgiving morning.  In the end I had plenty of butter and sugar, and they were delicious.