Thanksgiving.

Well friends, better late than never on our Thanksgiving meal.

First, here is Matthew's first post-deployment beer:

The fridge was well-stocked for him.

Here is Matthew taking the Dutchy out for a little walk.

And wrestling with the beasty.

A better picture of the first beer.

Even though Matthew was really pretty sick, he still had an appetite, so we did the full Thanksgiving meal. It was so fun! Here is our little table.

Now here are the requisite food pics:

My chocolate pecan pie (pretty much for me and me and me since
Matthew doesn't like pecans...)

Our raw little turkey... we actually just did turkey breast since it was the two of us.

This, out of order, was our Thanksgiving morning monkey bread.

Matthew requested potato casserole instead of mashed potatoes and I happily said yes since they are muy low maintenance.

rolls.

Matthew carving up the bird!

Me making gravy... and may I say, I totally impressed myself. I read a bunch of different recipes for gravy and then made up my own conglomeration, and it tasted GREAT! Honestly, it was the best turkey gravy I've ever had. For serious. Mmmm.

We were recommended this wine at our local wine shop so we tried it out. It was decent, but we tend to like more dry wines and this was very sweet-- it help up well for the Thanksgiving meal but didn't do well with leftovers. The wine was Pacific Rim Gewurtztraminer (guh-ver-tss-tram-in-er) and it is much like a Riesling if you've had that, but I think a bit more complex as sweeter German wines go. I believe it is also an organic which is kind of fun- I think it was about 14.99.

I made my mom's cornbread and sausage stuffing- it's fabulous and unbeatable-- yep, I said it! Matthew tried it and actually really liked it! Score one more for me broadening that palate!

And of course, green bean casserole... kind of looks grody up close but is naturally delicious.

And so friends, there was our thanksgiving meal. We had a nice morning relaxing, cooked, and then enjoyed our meal. I also made a French silk pie for Matthew-- don't worry, he wasn't neglected. I completed it with fresh whipped cream (uuughhhgmmmmdrooollmmmm) and we enjoyed that baby QUITE a bit.... unfortunately I spaced getting a picture of that. It was surprisingly good.

And so, our first holiday with just the two of us. We missed our families but really loved cooking and eating together in our own home-- pretty great feeling!

So... Happy late Thanksgiving!