Thanksgiving

This year we went to Josh's grandparents for Thanksgiving. Which just may be my favorite place to go because they are such wonderful cooks.

There is always too much food, so this year I wasn't going to take anything. But on Monday night, Jessica was telling me about all that she was taking to dinner because she wanted to use what she had learned form our cooking classes. So I decided to take ONE pie, a mixed berry pie like I made in class.

Then on Tuesday I woke up all excited and decided I wanted to show off. (That is so like me!) So I decided to take THREE pies, a veggie tray and a diet type drink for Melanie & myself since we have been working so hard on our diets.

I had to take a veggie tray because I saw the CUTEST turkey shaped veggie tray on Pinterest. Mine turned out so cute and everyone loved it.

Dinner wasn't until 2:00 on Thanksgiving Day, so I decided to make my pies that morning. At one point Heather started to chat with me online. She started with "Good Morning Beautiful" (that's why I love her). To which I responded, "Is it?!" She knew that meant I was in the middle of one of my kitchen disasters.

I really did enjoy my pie baking class. I felt so good afterwards that I could now cook pies. My one complaint was the directions didn't say how long or at what temperature to cook my crust that needed precooked. I follow recipes to the letter, so for me, this was a disaster waiting to happen.

I made a lemon meringue pie for the first time (thanks to Jessica for giving me a great recipe). It turned out pretty good, as long as you didn't mind it only had a crust on the bottom. When the crust cooked, the sides all slid down into the bottom of the pan. Hello my first kitchen fit of the morning.

I was going to make a German Chocolate pie, but after reading through the directions I found a 2nd list of ingredients needed for the topping. Enter kitchen fit #2. Why couldn't that website list ALL of the ingredients together! After panicking for a few minutes, Josh asked if I could just make something else. After I calmed down, I realized I had everything for a Coconut Cream pie, so I made that instead. Once again, my crust collapsed so its mostly only crust on the bottom, except one side seemed to stay up ok.

My Christmas list now included a pie pastry mat. I think part of my problem is I roll my crust out too thin because I want to be sure I have enough to go in the pan and up the sides.

A side note on the Lemon Meringue pie; When we got home that night, we were lazy and didn't put the pies in the fridge. When we got up the next day, there was a pretty good bite out of the coconut cream and ALL of the meringue was eaten off of the lemon pie. ALL. Gaby is having issues with boundaries and where she is and ISN'T allowed. She LOVES to get on the kitchen cupboards. She also apparently loves meringue. And pizza. And just about anything else we leave out for more then 2 seconds.

My 3rd pie was best one. The sides can't collapse when there is stuff in the pie and the bottom crust is pinched to the top crust. ;) I was going to do a mixed berry pie, but in all my excitement of showing off, I found a recipe for a Cranberry-Cherry Nut Pie. Josh loves Cranberries, so I decided to try this pie instead. It was so YUMMY!

I love the holiday punch that is always a part of Thanksgiving (and Christmas) dinner, but I've worked so hard on my diet, I was worried about how much sugar was in the drink. So I decided to bring my own drink this year, but make enough to share. I made Cherry Limeade from Better Than Burgers. I shouldn't brag, but at the end of the night my drink was completely gone.

The feast.

And my diet? I LOST weight that day! I was so proud of my self control. I only took a little bit of each dish I wanted to try and even then, I only had half of the dishes that were offered. Then I went for an hour long walk after dinner.

Later that evening an engagement was announced! Josh's little brother Dallon is getting married in the spring. We love Natalie and are so excited to have her as a permanent member of the family.