Thanksgiving Prep

This year Rob and I were hosting an additional 6 people for our Thanksgiving meal.  Rob's family and a couple we are friends with and actually did Thanksgiving last year with.  The good news was this year, the food was more proportionate to the amount of people we had than last year. 

I took the day off on Wednesday to prepare a bunch of food for everyone and if I am being honest, avoid the traffic around the beltway.  I wanted to make a lot of this meal from scratch this year.  Call me nuts, but it sounded like fun.  I was able to make everything I wanted to without too much trouble.  My biggest challenge was to try to re-create my grandmother's bread.  I received a lesson with my sister last year from my older brother who makes it at Christmas for us, but it had been almost 11 months, it took a bit of recall to remember what I was supposed to do.  A couple of phone calls to my sister and a lot of kneading later produced this:

 

I thought 3 out of 4 loaves wasn't too bad.  It's not perfection, but it was a really good first attempt.  The best news was it all still tasted amazing and that part made me happy.

Of course, I had a great helper that supervised the whole process.  

Overall I was able to make the 4 loaves of bread, an apple pie, a pumpkin pecan caramel cake, home bread for stuffing, then the stuffing, some corn pudding, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, turkey and even pan gravy.  It was absolutely delicious but probably a bit much work for next year.  I'll let anyone else volunteer to do it all next time. :)

Ryan and Alina Get Married

In September my high school friend Ryan got married to a lovely lady named Alina and they invited Rob and me to partake in their day (along we a lot of other friends and family).  It was a wedding of a few firsts, one being the distance to it.  It wins for closest wedding I have attended and it was nice to just pop up to PA for a day and come back to my own bed at night.  It's also the first wedding I have attended where I knew a lot of people (from pre-Rob days) and got a chance to catch up with some I haven't seen in a long time.

The ceremony was and reception were both really nice.  You could tell the two of them put a lot of thought into it and it reflected them. And they were in the same location so that eliminated the chance to get lost on our way to the party.  Bonus.

They had lots of cake.  All different kinds and they also put donut holes on sticks and dipped them in chocolate.  They were tasty!

The guys, Shawn, Josh, and Adam.  Between them and Ryan, they were the gang I hung around in high school and when I was home from college.  I will never forget the ride back from the Carousel Mall where Shawn was begging me to go to Denny's (or Perkins) I can't remember which.  I said no because I was tired and I was driving.  We had stopped at a red light next to it and Shawn got out of the car and made a run for it.  Needless to say I was too shocked and had to pull in to at least retrieve him, so we stopped and had snacks before returning everyone home.  Lots of fun memories.

I also got a chance to finally meet Sterling, Shawn and Bonita's baby.  I have seen him in lots of photos, so it was nice to him for real.   He's a very well behaved baby.  And cute too. :)

Of course, the night wouldn't have been complete without some awesome dancing.  My husband and Josh and Shawn getting down with their bad selves.

It was a great chance to reunite with a number of people I truly miss.  They are like the extended family you only get to see every now and again with a huge family reunion (or wedding).  I know they will be a part of my life always. :)

New Stove!

*Disclaimer: I know it's been a while so let's all pretend like nothing happened and I just have a lot to share now.  :)

Some of you may recall our kitchen when we bought the place. 

Pretty drab and boring, but also kind of like a blank canvas.  We have since done a lot of work in the kitchen.  We painted the walls (twice) and ceiling and even replaced the lights.  However, we still had our old stove. 

Our old stove was no looker, but more than that, it was terrible to use.  It's really a double oven stove (the big black part up top is the second oven, not a microwave like I first thought) which sounds like it could be a great thing.  I tried to love it, but it burned everything I made in the top oven (aside from tater tots).  Not to mention the door swung out and would burn you if you touched anything other than the itty bitty handle on the bottom.  The stove top was not level and you couldn't really maneuver pots in the back very well because of the second oven.  So with much giddiness I said good bye to the old stove.

 The old sitting next to the new.  What a huge difference.

And finally we have our new stove sitting where the old one used to be.  I don't miss the old one at all.  The wall behind this one definitely needs some paint, but I couldn't very well tell the installers to wait while I busted our brushes and paint. :P  This one cooks way better and made the best cookies I have baked in a long time.  Let's hear it for new working appliances!!