Thankful

While I was in the kitchen, Steve (and Jon) decorated the house. As soon as the lights were up, a storm hit with rain and wind. So, the lights on the fence didn't get in place til a bit later. I don't have a 'lit' photo, but it does look rather festive! 

Jon did a great deal of CL on our Thanksgiving day (Cat Loving). Mittens was very interested in what that guy was doing on the ladder. 

 We had a yummy menu, even if most of it was common. Jon was happy to have cheese spread (he could have made it himself!) again. He was more impressed I added bacon. He was also glad I made broccoli salad, with bacon and onions. We decided the vinegar might have gotten bitter after two years in the cupboard. I've replaced a lot of old foodstuffs, I hadn't scrapped the vinegar yet. Thankfully, the salad was better the next day.

 The rolls were my idea. Jon wanted cheese biscuits, so I made those the night before. It took him til Saturday night to realise when you 'pull' the rolls apart, they end up in three sections. I felt they needed a smidge more flavor, nor did the poppy seeds end up on top of the rolls, but they were good. The turkey was perfectly perfect. It looks dark, but that is cuz I put a ton on seasoning on it and it baked on. I even baked a pumpkin pie and the crust was phenomenal. Hmmmm......I think there are more photos from this day on my cell phone-I didn't load those onto the desktop. I reckon I'll need to learn to do that!!!!!

Dorothy came over for dinner. She brought us her delicious deviled eggs. 

Moses was pulling on Steve's arm, napkin, and utensils in case someone forgot about this particular feline's liking for turkey nibbles. Steve eventually succumbed to the meow of the beggar and dropped him a morsel or two.

 After dinner, we played a traditional game of Triominoes. Dorothy was rolling right along, pulling ahead quickly. The rules say to play to 400, but we stopped at 300. In the last hand, I broke away and in a completely untraditional move, won the game! Steve and Jon barely broke 100, Dorothy was just over 230, and I ended up with 309! Absolutely amazing. (I made a LOT of points in the last hand)

 With the game, we had dessert. There was chocolate spice cake, the pumpkin pie, whipped topping, and then Jon got out ice cream. We were ready to be unimpressed. None of us care much for pumpkin spice. But this stuff was phenomenal! Much better than my pumpkin pie. This ice cream tasted just like pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream and crust. We weren't certain if it was right to scoop Umpqua with a Tillamook ice cream scoop........I reckon we paired awesome with delicious.

Probably the best thing I learned on Thanksgiving was this amazing hack. I do not like making greasy gravy. I've had separators and they are inefficient. I had some slightly cooled drippings and couldn't wait hours for the stuff to congeal and be removed. Online I found a method I will use again and again. This first time I could have removed more of the good stuff, but was in a bit of a rush and well, it was the first time! The picture is after the fats solidified and could be photographed better. Even Jonathan was impressed. Although, to be fair, I think most of that was cuz you don't end up with dirty dishes! Or maybe it was the title on the link. 

Truly a day to give thanks!