I've been a little absent the past few days... (I don't even want to talk about how my Google Reader is filled to the brim right now). But I'm here to catch you up on how my Thanksgiving went.
Thursday morning, I got up bright and early to help mom get things ready, since we decided to host her family for the first time in a LONG time. This included the turkey.
I'm talkin' a 23 pounder here. Which apparently is kind of big...? Anyways, I did my research (thank God for the internet), and found that it would take anywhere from 4 and a half hours to 6 hours to cook this bad boy. So I was aiming to get 'er in the oven around 9:30. I rinsed it off and took out all the gross stuff. Then I used a whole stick of butter and put little pieces all over under the skin so it would keep a nice moisture. Throw in some sage, thyme, and garlic powder, and she was a beaut!
Here is the final product (after I took it out of the oven, obvs):
Be warned, this is the only picture in this whole post.
After doing the prep work, Chad and I headed to his grandparents for round one of eating. There was a nice big pot of my favorite mashed potatoes, which I discussed here, as well as ham, veggies, salmon dip, and of course the stuffing, turkey and REGULAR mashed potatoes. It was DELISH. But, I was good this time and only had one plate, knowing I would be eating again in an hour.
Then it was back home to finish up with mom and get some food on the table. My aunt and cousin (who went to culinary school) showed up a little early, which was perfect because they were able to help us get things organized. We ended up with a really great spread once the rest of the family showed up. I didn't end up eating much of the "real" food, since i had already eaten. But I did fill my plate with devilled eggs, and desserts.
After dinner we had a little bit of fun playing Skip Bo (the card game) and going through the Black Friday ads to see where the best deals were. Great family bonding, ha.
Anyways, that was pretty much it for Thanksgiving Day.
As for Black Friday, I was supposed to be going out that night to hit up the door busters at Walmart and Target with my friend Hayley, however as I was getting my shopping list ready to go, I really didn't have much of anything that I needed to get at those places, so I couldn't really justify heading out and battling the crazies (and possibly getting shanked up in the ghetto where Walmart is) for one or two things that weren't even listed in the ads.
Instead, I go up kind of early and headed out. First I made a pit stop to take a co-worker a coffee (caramel egg nog latte, to be precise) because she was the ONLY person at our whole company that had to work on Black Friday (we close the branches... but she processes all direct deposits and whatnot, so she had to be there). She was really appreciative of that. Then I journeyed on. I went to Target first, thinking it would be a MAD house. But it really wasn't. I found parking right up front, and went in and grabbed the few things I went there for, and left again.
Then I walked across the parking lot to Kohl's. Holy shit. BAD IDEA. That place was a cluster frack if I've ever seen one. I turned around and left, ha.
Then on to the mall. Redmond Town Center... not quite a REAL mall, but close enough. I got some great deals at Victoria's Secret and Bed Bath and Beyond, and was able to escape without too much trouble (aside from spending a couple hundred dollars... whoops).
That was pretty much it for my holiday. Ate good food, got good deals, relaxed... now it's Saturday so I get to extend the weekend even more!!
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