A Very Beachey Thanksgiving

For my first official Thanksgiving as a Beachey, we spent the holiday with the Beacheys. I am very lucky to have married into such a wonderful family. It makes it a million times easier when you have to be grown up and big and not spend every holiday with your own family - because, you realize, you are with family. This enables you to miss your loved ones in a happy, nostalgic, "I will be so happy the next time I get to see them" way - rather than a sad, lonely way.

Anyway, I love my whole family so very much, but I don't need to gush about them, because this blog is, after all, about food ;) So rather than writing about how I miss my mom (which I do) and how I love my husband and in-laws (which I also do), I will instead share pictures of the food we enjoyed on Thanksgiving. 

Since I was not the one cooking, I had fun documenting the dishes, as well as setting a festive table with Joel. I even looked up how to fold napkins that ended up looking somewhat like a turkey :)

 

The table we set - although, the lantern from our wedding with the pretty fall leaves was already there...it just brought inspiration into how we should tie things together :)

 

The napkins I folded that look turkey-esk.

 

These were the REAL turkeys that wondered into the backyard while dinner was being prepared - I guess they decided it must be safe since we already had a turkey (from the store) cooking inside. There were at least five of them wandering around at a time.

 

Another guy.

 

I think these two had an argument. Haha.

Ok, last picture of a live turkey I promise...I thought they were pretty, but I don't want to seem morbid.

In keeping with such, I will not have turkey be the first picture of food I show ;)

Some lovely wine and sparkling catawba we enjoyed with dinner.

Garlic stuffed olives. These are a favorite of Joel's.

Stuffing, but not the traditional kind. It was made with squash and cilantro to name a few things. It was light, and flavorful. 

Mashed potatoes, a Thanksgiving staple of course.

 

Gravy, with just a peak of the meat behind it.

And....the turkey!

Also, in this picture you see the asparagus and cranberry salad we had :)

Oh, but we can't forget the 3 pie options:

Pecan, which I don't know if I ever actually got to try.

Cherry, which I definitely did have.

And...pumpkin of course! Yum! This one had a hint of mystery given to it by a secret spice ;)

We also had other delicious meals, but rather than taking obsessive pictures of everything (like I often do) I just enjoyed the meals and the conversations :)

I did make some rosemary bread while we were there, and Joel and I made some really yummy hot cider for us to have while watching Christmas movies:

We heated the cider with spices and oranges and apples. Soo yummy!

We put a cinnamon stick in the mugs, and although we didn't include the fruit in the drinks, Joel and I did eat the spiced fruit later...and it was very good. 

Yum, yum, yum.

This time of year is filled with so many happy things :)