Food Coma

I’ve already mentioned how much I love Thanksgiving (here and here), so now you can catch a glimpse of what our Turkey Day Fiesta looked like. Hang with me, because there are lots of yummy photos ahead. I should warn you that they may want you to run to your fridge and break into your leftovers. Okay, less talking and more pictures!

First we have the turkey:

Kenny busted out his mad carving skills for the occasion:

Our guests brought some outstanding honey-smoked ham:
Mike, one of my oldest friends—we’ve known each other from high school and he’s now going to school in Atlanta—thought the ham was to.die.for:

And then there were the sides, starting off with the potatoes:
Stuffing:

My grandma’s recipe for a seriously scrumptious cranberry sauce:

A sweet potato souffle our guests brought. (I hate sweet potatoes and thought this one was so good that I got seconds!)

And then there was my absolute favorite side dish…my grandma’s Green Bean Casserole. Kenny saw how excited I was getting while making it, so he took a picture of me and the green beans:

Here’s the final product:

And then, once everything was good to go, we piled our plates high.

(I forgot to take a picture of the homemade rolls Kenny made, but they’re up there in the top right corner)

Here are all of our guests:

The food was so good that we all went back for seconds, but not before Mike took a mid-meal stretch…

Then last, but certainly not least, was dessert.

We went traditional, with a classic pumpkin pie:

Talk about a Thanksgiving feast! It was a really great day from start to finish. Then to top it off, today Kenny and I got to enjoy a day off, and I got to sneak in a little bit of Black Friday shopping! Check out the new dress I bought at Kohl’s for only $30!

If I didn’t already have a rehearsal dress picked out, I’d totally wear this one.

For dinner we knew we needed to start tackling the leftovers, but the thought of eating more turkey wasn’t very appealing. Luckily, the Food Network was featuring different recipes to make with leftovers and one of them, the Turkey Bolognese, looked easy and tasty. I should preface this by saying that I’m really not a fan of turkey, and I’d rather eat sides than turkey, so mixing turkey into something I love, like pasta, just sounded…blah. But I tried it anyway, and you know what? It was so unbelievably delicious! Seriously, if you like pasta you have to try this. I’m thinking of making it again sometime soon.

Ah, okay. I’ll try to wrap up this novel of a post now. Kenny and I are waking up tomorrow (or today, depending on when you’re reading this) to continue a Thanksgiving tradition we started when we first started dating. For the third year in a row, he and I are heading to Pine Mountain, Georgia, and spending the night at Callaway Gardens. We’re going to enjoy walking around and enjoying some fresh mountain air, then we’ll check out their Fantasy in Lights event.

Woohoo! Have I mentioned I love this time of year?