Monday, November 26, 2007

That's what Happens at 6:15 am

I left my lunch at home today. That's the sort of day it was.

Porkchop and I left early early early to get her to the airport for a 7:45 flight.

Murrrr. Murrrr because it was so early, but also because Porkchop was leaving.

We had a pretty full Thanksgiving break with hardly a spare moment...

Tuesday
Porkchop flew into St. Louis in the afternoon for a much anticipated haircut. We met up at the CWE metro stop and proceeded home. Porkchop rode the bus with me, and it was appropriately crazy.

After dinner at Stellina's Pasta Cafe, we made pistachio-chocolate-orange biscotti (see this post for the recipe) to take to my parents.

Wednesday
We left St. Louis around 11:30 and rolled into Jonesboro around 3:30. Straight away, Porkchop and I started preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, which leads to...

Thursday
Here is the menu I planned for Thanksgiving. Porkchop and I made all of these dishes:
  • Herb turkey with apple-raisin stuffing
  • Squash-apple cheddar gratin (see here for the recipe from Beth)
  • Buttermilk mashed potatoes
  • Roasted brussel sprouts with thyme
  • Cranberry-ginger relish (YUM!)
  • Cranberry-apple-almond salad
My family added the following:
  • Fruit salad
  • Pumpkin pie
  • Apple pie
  • Whipped cream
And our neighbors from Kennett contributed these items:
  • traditional green bean-french onion casserole
  • the best pecan-chocolate chip pie ever
It was a lot of work, but good times and food were had. Here are some pictures....

My mom and I working on getting the neck out of the turkey:


Porkchop stuffing herbs under the turkey's skin:


My dad and I working some more on the turkey:


Fun! Porkchop and I stayed at my parents until late Friday afternoon.

Saturday
We started the weekend with a leisurely breakfast at the Bread Co. Later that morning, we went to Suzi's for Thanksgiving II.

More food. *so full*

Porkchop and I hung out at our apartment that afternoon, and then it was time to watch the Mizzou-KU football game.

Yay.

Porkchop had been talking nearly non-stop about the game since a couple of weeks ago, and she decided we should go to St. Louis's #1 sports bar to watch the game.

We arrived at the Sports Zone around 6:30, and my head nearly exploded.

Obviously, people had been drinking and waiting for the game since at least 3:00. The place was PACKED.

I hated every single person as we pushed our way around the bar a few times, looking for a couple of empty inches. The atmosphere was incredibly horrible, and all the guys reminded me of assholes who would verbally harass me during undergrad.

If Porkchop had wanted to stay, I was going to leave and pick her up later. Fortunately, she didn't like it either. So, we ended up watching the game in comfort at Suzi's.

Mizzou won, which made Porkchop feel relieved. Maybe she was happy, but she wasn't showing much excitement.

Sunday
We started with a great brunch at La Dolce Via. Porkchop had the Italian sandwich and beef & barley soup, while I went with the duck and gruyere egg scramble with potatoes. Yum.

After we finished the crossword puzzle, we stopped at the Craft Alliance's annual sale. Porkchop found a little bowl, but nothing really sparked my interest.

However, our next stop did.

Jilly's Cupcake Bar! Yum! And, overwhelming with cupcakes!

Here's Porkchop with her vanilla-vanilla-vanilla cupcake (officially called Missy-licious) (note the Mizzou sweatshirt...one of three Mizzou garments Porkchop rotated over the holiday):


I had a Ja-Love cupcake...vanilla with a ginger key lime curd filling. This is me, all sugared up and ready to go:


After cupcakes, we participated in some post-Thanksgiving consumerism at the mall and a couple of other stores.

And Now
Back to being Porkchop-less and tired.

Time to count down the days until December 14.

Also, I made this banana bread recipe again. This time I added chocolate chips instead of walnuts. Seriously, this is the best banana bread recipe ever.

8 comments:

Porkchop said...

YAYAYAYAY!!! What I great trip that was! I forgot how many things we did while I was there.

Thanks for taking me to the airport. Where did you end up leaving your lunch this morning?

Anonymous said...

nice scarf!

Carrie said...

Yeah, isn't that scarf pretty?

I wear it all the time! Thanks for making it!

7-letter Deborah, never a Deb said...

So what's Dec 14 besides my birthday? :)

It is a nice scarf.

Carrie said...

Happy early birthday!

December 14 is Porkchop's winter break return! It's also a friend's PhD graduation! And, I get a tooth filled!

Anonymous said...

Enjoy reading your food recaps --

Your food recap sounds good !

I did ...

Turkey with pomegranate & black pepper glaze
Rustic Italian bread stuffing with pancetta, dried cherries, and goat cheese


Only mess up was that our that turkey drippings from the pomegranate glaze made the gravy sweet like candy :-)

Carrie said...

Mmmmmm....that sounds awesome! And fancy!

BethD said...

Can't wait to see you two!!!