Thanksgiving 2006

to the naked eye, this turkey would look burned, but to the well trained southern eye you would recognize that this turkey has been deep fat fried.

Here is the low down on the incredible, wonderful day!

Our friends injected and deep fat fried our turkey in peanut oil for us this year. Scott is an expert and makes his own spices from scratch. The turkey was amazing!

here is what it looked like cut. it looked like a cinnamon roll with all the seasoning perfectly swirled inside. (doesn't this make you want to visit us for next year!!)


I made Barb's stuffing with the wonderful Bell's seasoning. I just love pulling out this box every year.

We did our Thanksgiving tradition of starting off the meal with three m&m's. We start at one end of the table and say something we are thankful for and then eat an m&m. We go around the table until everyone has said three things.
I love doing this to hear what everyone says, but most of all because I got this tradition from my friend Mindy (who will be on Oprah next Monday) and every year I think of her while we are doing it. Her family uses raisins... so me to use m&m's instead.

My friend Nicole had me come over to her house at 7:30 this morning so she could teach me how to make rolls. The gift she has given me.. oh my. I went back at 2:00 to learn how to roll them out. This is the first time I have made rolls in my life. I am so grateful to her for teaching me.

I made Michelle's yummy toffee apple dip. Our only fruit of the day. It was oh so good.

We also had the famous Cram Cheese ball to snack on all day.

I love making two things every year. The homemade cranberry sauce and the melting the butter into the celery for the stuffing. To me that feels like Thanksgiving!

We took a little break from cooking before dinner and went to Starbucks to get some peppermint hot chocolate. It was raining all day so our fun walk to the lake was foiled by the weather.

But the best part of the day had to be that we spent it with family. David & Lenessa have been here all week and it has been wonderful. They are newlyweds (see her incredible wedding photo here) and so much fun to be around! We have been exploring the city together and eating lots of food since they have been here! Thanks you guys for coming!
These are the Sausage phyllo cups we make for breakfast every year. David and Jeff got started on breakfast the night before.

Since we made so much food, I thought it would be fun to list all the things we made this year to remember for next year.

• Cram Cheese ball
• Chez Moi Apple dip
• Filo sausage cups
• Deep Fat fried turkey
• maple apple turkey breast that we soaked in a special brine all night
• cranberries
• Lizzy's orange butter
• Hunter Rolls
• Barb's Stuffing
• Carrot Souffle
• Candied yams, emphasis on the candied
• Garlic Mashed potatoes
• David's yummy gravy
• Raspberry Orange Jello
• Lime Coconut Southern Buttermilk Pie
• Pumpkin Pie
• Jumbleberry Pie (thanks to Marie C.)

Wow what a great day that ended with some of the family going to see Santa Claus 3.