Thanksgiving Weekend!

Welcome Back! I hope that everyone had a lovely long holiday weekend. Ours was pretty busy with Adams family in town for a week, but I am happy that I successfully pulled off the big meal! I was able to keep up my family tradition of Thanksgiving breakfast: polish sausage (we used to home make this with my grandmother but now we get it from a polish deli and my sister so kindly brought it up to me on dry ice on her last visit), eggs, rye bread and bagels. And I made a full dinner with twice baked potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, green beans wrapped in bacon, mushrooms and of course the bird. Heres a photo recap of the rest of the weekend:

 The Thanksgiving Turkey, The Bird, the Big Cheese! We brined this guy (although not long enough because we accidently forgot to defrost it up until the day before) in vegetable stock, herbs, salt - I topped the skin off with salt and pepper and then Stuffed it and baked for 6 hours at 325, removing the foil tent only at the last hour or so.

 Twice Baked Potatoes - I have always loved potatoes and this year I made it easy by prepping them the day before. I peeled them, keeping a little skin on, and chopped them into small chunks, all the same size. Soak them in a large bowl of ice water until the next day so that they dont brown. Then I boiled for 30 minutes, drained, put back into the pot with 1 or 2 tbsp butter and cover on low for 15 minutes. Add some milk and sour cream and blend with your hand mixer, or potato smasher if you like it chunkier. Pour into a casserole dish and top with cheddar slices -  bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

 Bacon Wrapped Green Beans - I liked the idea of this recipe - boil green beans and cook bacon until it just starts to cook but does not get stiff. Cut bacon in half and wrap 7 green beans into each strip and secure with a toothpick. The part that I didnt like was the glaze - butter, brown sugar, soy and garlic. I would have just done a butter overtop, or butter and brown sugar but no garlic and soy. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes.

 Pumpkin Pie! So easy I dont know why I don't make it every year. Store bought crust, pumpkin puree, sweetened condensed milk and some spices. Bake it the day before and take out of the fridge when yo userve dinner so that it comes to room temperature.

 Anyone go black friday shopping?! I went out at 12am and couldn't believe the lines. I have never seens anyhting like it - the approximate time to get into target or best buy was at l east an hour. No thanks! I went to Old Navy and then hit up target later in the day. I love this Santa shirt that I got!

 Baby was ready to start getting the house all ready for the Holidays

 We added lights to our staircase garland and put everything up outside - Ill need to get a picture to post because Adam really did a nice job on it!

And we got our tree!!! It's a tall and bushy one, I love it! There is just nothing like a lit tree to look at, and ours already has lots of present underneath :)

So excited that its the Christmas Season, officially!, and that my family will be here next week!!! Ill be back tomorrow with a weekly bump post - lets just say the sickness is not subsiding and I can hardly find anything to eat!!