Friendsgiving 2011

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions outside of my family traditions is my annual "Friendsgiving" with my sorority sisters, typically the weekend before Thanksgiving weekend at our house. I must say, our spread every year is rather impressive. Everyone brings their A-game, and it's safe to say that we all are on various levels of the Betty Crocker housewife-in-training scale. (I happen to be on the shorter end, but hey that's just fine with me.)



This is the 10 lb. turkey (12 people=10 lbs!) about 2 hours before dinner. Roomie L is the Turkey queen-she brined this baby the night before and tended to it all day while writing one of her law school papers. She takes this responsibility and I am very appreciative of all of her hard work every year-this turkey is beyond delish.

Due to the large number of attendees this year (yes, we hosted 12 gals.....), we made the executive decision to split into 2 tables. This did involve borrowing a few chairs and covering a patio table with a tablecloth, but at the end of the day everyone had a comfortable place to sit-WIN.

Don't be fooled-this is a very important event in our group of friends, and there is a Google Doc created well in advance of the actual date so people can plan their dishes accordingly. The appetizer spread (pictured below): Deviled Eggs, Artichoke Dip, Brie and Cheese (that appears to be completely gone by the time I remembered to snap a picture), and a goat cheese/cranberry/celerey/sweetpotato appetizer. This was just the appetizers.

This is also a good time to point out that we have nothing short of about 15 different serving trays/bowls/etc. which makes hosting at our house super easy. Plus, it's the one time a year we can use all of our serving dishes! (Realization of the night: we don't have any serving spoons...I am sure by this time next year we will have about 10....any excuse to go to Homegoods! )

Oh-everyone brought at least 1 (most brought 2) bottle(s) of wine as well. (What can I say, it was a Saturday night and we like our wine). Estimated alcohol consumption of the night: 15 bottles of wine, 1 crock pot of Bourbon Cider and 3 bottles of Champagne. Cheers to us!

he best way to describe our Thanksgiving decorating style is "Anthropologie"....we have 8 place settings of Anthro China, multiple sets of 4 placemats (another bad habit of mine), and a hodgepodge of wine glasses. We like to think of it as our eccentric 20-something Thanksgiving--none of us have registered for full place settings of China, so the fact that we can pull this off is pretty impressive. Not to be overlooked was our ability to have a water pitcher and gravy boat (okay, one was a coffee creamer dish but it is the same concept....) at each table AND each person had a wine glass, water glass and most people also had a mug for their cider. Not too shabby, huh?

Table 1 (sorry for the TERRIBLE photog skills.....my camera is on its last leg)

Table 2

Now....onto the menu. If you are hungry, I recommend getting a snack and then coming back. For our feast we had (in no particular order): Turkey, Pioneer Woman stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Mixed Vegetables, Scalloped Potatoes, Pasta Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, Ham Biscuits, and Cranberry Salad.

Table 1 (aka the cool kids table) before dinner.

My favorite part of the night comes after we say grace (both the Catholic and Hebrew version, naturally), when we go around the table and say what we are thankful for. It's a good mixture of fun and serious (exactly how life should be, right?) and reminds us just how lucky to not only live so close together and get the chance to do this every year, but how thankful we are for everything in our lives.

Of course, after that meal we had to have dessert! Homemade Apple Pie, Skinny Pumpkin Cupcakes, Champagne and Trader Joe's Pumpkin Cheesecake. That Cheesecake is only $7 and is delicious-I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.

What do you and your friends do for Thanksgiving?