Aside from the potatoes…

It was a great Thanksgiving!!!

WEEEE!!  All the things I’m most thankful for are in the picture above.  This time of year is very reflective for me (and probably most everyone feels the same) and I just want to pinch myself when I look around at my life.

We didn’t go over to my parents’ house until later in the morning, so I worked out and ate breakfast in Davis.  Gotta start the day off right with some Nourish bread and almond butter…get ready stomach!?  You have no idea what’s coming your way…

To my left and right my minis were playing with play doh (since they’d already finished eating).  After that, we packed up and hit the road.

Lots of cooking going on all day.  Fortunately my dishes were already done.

Kyle got some special time with baby blue eyes while V took a nap.

My dad made crab cakes from scratch (he shelled all the crab meat himself!).

I kept lunch lighter and made a salad with avo, pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries, and poppyseed dressing.

Later on, more family came and we showed the kids a clip of The Sound of Music from youtube.  MINDS.  BLOWN.  You couldn’t have peeled their eyes away if you’d told them there was a room full of all you can eat bacon to their left. DO RE MI FA SO LA TI DO!

This is the salad I made, which had baby kale and mixed greens, roasted butternut squash, goat chevre, avocado, pomegranate arils, dried cranberries, roasted pecans, and a champagne vinaigrette dressing.

I mean.  C’mon.  Do you even need turkey??

My sister made a roasted carrots dish with sesame seeds, pomegranate, and parsley and chives.

Oh, we will get to you later.

The same green bean dish as we have had in the past.

Here’s my other dish, roasted brussels sprouts covered in a walnut crumble, which I warmed and then broiled right before service.

And as promised, here’s how I made them…

Brown sugar and Balsamic Brussels Sprouts with Walnut Crumble [vegan, dairy free, gluten free]

Ingredients:

• 24 oz Brussels sprouts
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 -2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp balsamic glaze
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 cup raw walnuts

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Wash Brussels sprouts and then trim the stem off and quarter or halve them (halve the small ones, quarter the big ones).  Toss in olive oil until well covered, getting in and under the leaves as best you can.

Place onto greased baking sheet with cut sides down as much as possible.  Sprinkle brown sugar over them.

Roast for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the balsamic glaze and olive oil in a 2 quart baking dish.  [If you don’t have balsamic glaze you can probably use 2 tsp balsamic vinegar + 1 tsp sugar].  Next process with walnuts in a food processor or good blender with a pinch of salt, until they are mixed to varying amounts.  You want some chunks but lots of smaller parts.  Don’t go too long or you’ll get walnut butter (which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s better if it’s mostly larger crumbles).

 

Once the sprouts are done in the oven toss them in the baking dish with balsamic/oil mix.  Cover with the walnut crumble.*

Broil for 2-3 minutes (keep an eye on them because ovens are different and the nuts will burn quickly).

*If you want to make this ahead of time, you can delay the broiling step until the day of and just store it covered in foil from this point.

It may seem immodest to say this, but it was my favorite dish of the day.

And look at everything we had!

I think my parents over estimated on the turkey a bit. Although, I actually didn’t end up having any myself that day.  There were too many other veggie dishes I wanted more!

My mom made this wild rice salad with butternut squash, dried cranberries and goat chevre.   As you can see, we all have similar food palates.  Hence the family cookbook club.

We had a LOT of problems with these mashed potatoes, and they turned out pretty weirdly textured.  I tried a bit that day but wasn’t a huge fan…my kids, however, loved them!

The good news is they got better as time went on and so for the next few days we had them.  I think because they had time to dry out they got to a more normal (less paste/cake batter) consistency.

My plate!!

My girl!

After not much time to digest, we got out allllll the desserts.

My mom went overboard, per usual, and made everyone’s requests.

But mainly the birthday girl’s, which was lemon meringue.

Yes, she made this from scratch.

My mom is amazing.

Obviously you all know how I feel about her chocolate pecan pie.  When I put that into the search engine of HHH, about 20 posts come up!  It’s the most requested – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays – we all want that pie!

Hope you all had a great day too – filled with family and food and all that awesome stuff that makes Thanksgiving special.

We certainly have lot to be grateful for this year 🙂