May The Hungriest Dog Win!

One of our stranger Thanksgiving traditions is a giblet-eating contest between our three dogs. I think it's the highlight of their year! Once the giblets are cooked, cooled and cut--they are distributed evenly on three plates and then the fun begins!

When the contest is over they stagger to their kennel and spend the rest of Thanksgiving in a triptophan stupor. It's sort of a win-win for everyone involved!

We made a video of the contest this year and Andy did some fun editing on it. He is feeling better by the way--sort of got his appetite back but still has a really bad sore throat. I took him to the doctor and the rapid strep test was negative, but we'll see what the overnight one says.

Anyway, here's the video!

Turkey Day Recap

Whew! That was a fun Thanksgiving--but I've lost most of the feeling in my legs from standing nearly all day!

I got up bright and early to get the turkeys in--that's turkeyS plural. I do two turkeys so we have one for the dinner and one so we have enough leftovers for a couple of days.

Here's what I've learned from years of turkey-cooking experience--brined turkeys are the best. We have done taste tests with brined an unbrined turkeys and the brined one always wins hands-down. The problem with the brined turkey is that is retains so much moisture that there is literally NO liquid in the pan when the turkey is done so there's nothing to make gravy with. My solution is that I do one brined and one unbrined--so we get the best of both worlds.

Here's a look at one of my birds with Gooser peeking in the background. It's not all fancy-like on a platter because I had just taken it out of the oven.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before all the turkey fun started we had some pumpkin pie martinis--I got the recipe from Cathy of Noble Pig. They were VERY tasty!! Here I am (right) with my friend Muffin enjoying our pumpkin pies in a glass:
I know I showed you the flowers yesterday, but here they are on the table with a little more of the turquoise/orange color scheme.

Actually, you can't really see the colors in that pic--here's one of the whole table. This pics bugs me though because Teddy rearranged my blue/orange napkin pattern and they are out of sequence. The adults had blue napkins and the kids had orange. You can see how ginormous the table is--I actually had to reconfigure my entire dining room and add and extra table to make enough room!
Here's a close-up of the cute Pilgrim place cards and baby flower arrangement. The plates are my Grandmother's--the design is called "crab apple." I use them every Thanksgiving.
One more table pic...
Unfortunately, I took very few pics of the kids because I got to busy with the food and guests. Also, was super worried and preoccupied because Andy suddenly got really sick--I think he has the flu. Poor thing was totally fine and then it hit him like a ton of bricks--he aches all over and has a fever. And he didn't eat anything--which is unheard of for him--so I know he's really sick. Update--since I started writing this, it appears Andy has the stomach flu...
Here's Teddy and Patrick:
And here's Pickle. I wish I had taken more pics!
The only other pic I have is of my sweet potatoes with marshmallows!
We were going to go away for the next few days, but what with Andy being sick, we'll stick around here.

Stop back over the weekend--I'll have a video of the dogs' turkey-eating contest and the kids' little concert they put on for our guests!

Hope you all had great Thanksgivings!!

Please join Candid Carrie for some post- Thanksgiving Phriday Foto Phun!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Yay it's Thanksgiving!! I have been in my day-before-Thanksgiving-frenzy of baking, brining, flower arranging and table setting all day.

Here's a little preview of what I've got going on over here:

First, the baking. This is my "famous" gingerbread cake. It doesn't look too exciting in this pic--but just wait until it's served with the brandied fruit sauce and whipped cream! And the smell that fills the house when I'm baking this is amazing!!
Next, my orange spice pumpkin pie. This is always a big hit--there's a little orange peel in the crust to give just a hint of oranginess as well as some orange juice in the pie filling. See how I got all creative-like and made little leaves around the crust?
Now the flowers. I go crazy with my flower arranging--it's one of my favorite parts of preparing for Thanksgiving. This year, my color scheme is turquoise and orange which will be more apparent in the pics I'll show tomorrow. Here's the largest arrangement:
Then there's a medium-sized one:
And there are a few baby ones:
One more artsy flowery pic:
Here's Pickle sitting at the table in her pre-Thanksgiving dress!
Silly Pickle!
Tune in tomorrow for pics of the big day!

Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!!