Thanksgiving Photos

Here are some pictures from our day. Enjoy! Ward waiting for his turn at the buffet.

Scotch dressing. My sister Cynthia tried to recreate a small batch in the oven (without a turkey). It worked out good. The only problem was....my dad kept asking people to try it so I only got a tablespoon or so on my plate. I will have Cynthia make some more tomorrow so I can have my stuffing & cranberry sauce sandwiches.


The 'piece de resistance'....Omid's cranberry rice. Yum!

Turkey.

The prime rib - BEAUTIFUL and Delicious!

Watching the game.

Watching Iron Man.

Carving the turkey!

Talking shop.

Enjoying the game.

Cynce & Mike - Mike came down specifically for the cranberry rice. He loves it. Omid gave Mike all the rice leftovers to take home with him (since it's a once a year meal). Enjoy Mike!

Smokin' Mornin'

We are preparing for today's festivites. First thing this morning, Omid brought out his smoker.

The Traeger.

Mesquite pellets.

Omid & the prime rib.

The p.r. went on the smoker at 9:00 a.m. It needs all day to smoke. The turkey will be put in at noon. I am hoping....Omid will change his mind and want to roast the turkey in the oven. I am still moping about the Scotch dressing and wondering....is this a plot hatched by the 'sons-in-law? I am still thinking about that one.

Turkey Day Prep

We are having approximately 30 people for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. This meant the kids and I spent the day cleaning. We took a break and treated ourselves to lunch at the new Olive Garden. It was delicious.

I ran to Winco to grab a larger prime rib. We had one that was about ten pounds, but Omid thought we needed a larger one. He told me to purchase the biggest one Winco had. I did, and when Omid came home...he was a little surprised at how large it was (17.45 lbs). We also have a 20 pound turkey. Omid plans on smoking both for dinner. This means one thing: no Scotch dressing in our turkey. :( I am way bummed about that. My dad and I are going to try & see if we can 'recreate' the dressing in the oven.

Enjoy these meaty picures:

Larger than life prime rib.

Homemade dry rub mix for the prime rib.

Finished & ready to set in the fridge until morning.

Another Thanksgiving Recipe

My friend Tammie is deep from the heart of Texas and makes a wonderful cranberry crisp. It's an old family recipe that belongs to 'her husband's side of the family.' I asked her to bring it to share with us on Thursday. Try it for something fun & different on your Turkey table this year.


CRANBERRY & APPLE CASSEROLE

3 Medium Apples
2 Cups Fresh Cranberries
3/4 Cup Sugar

TOPPING:
1 Cup Oatmeal (Quick Cooking)
1/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Cup Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 stick melted butter

In a greased casserole dish, place sliced apples and cranberries. Pour sugar on top. Mix all topping ingredients together, spread on top of cranberries and apples. Bake at 350 for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. May cover towards the end of baking to keep top from browning too much.

I usually double the topping ingredients because I like more topping.

Busy Saturday

Omid and I went to a wedding reception yesterday afternoon. We had a great time and even ran into some friends from long ago (when our kids were toddlers....Katie B. - keep reading!)....Bride & Groom

Look who we ran into! Chloe & Diane. Katie B. - this picture is for you!!!

snacks
Celebrating the COUGS WIN (oh...and a wedding too!)



Lin & Ward

An Irish band played at the reception. I asked them if they took requests and they said yes. So I requested the song from Napolean Dynamite. They didn't know which song was from N.D. I told him I would be right back. I called Nas, got the info and told him the name of the song. They said,' Of course we can play that song!" They played it and Omid danced a little jig for me (sorry - no video of the jig - but it was witnessed by several coworkers).

Serious

Dessert!

Say cheese!

Cougar Fans!

Ward was jealous he was left out of the last photo. This is a 'do-over.'

We were having such a good time, we decided to 'extend' the fun. So we invited ourselves & the Kelloggs over to Omid's parents for dinner.

Omid & I ran to Cash & Carry to pick up some rib eye steaks.
Right after I snapped this photo in the store, a rude employee yelled at me, "Hey! No photography in the store!" I was feeling brave and said right back to her (in my sweetest 'kill them with kindness' voice), "Don't worry! I wasn't taking a picture of YOU!" Hmmmph! Omid said in his best Tony Soprano voice, "fuggediboutit." So I did.

Remy - hoping for a handout.

Beefy goodness.

Cool 70's photo of Fari.

Try saying THAT 3 times fast.

Shibaba pof pofi, shibaba pof pofi, shibaba pof pofi.

Omid in Fari's tub (he was giving Lin & Ward a tour of the house).

All the time the adults were upstairs, the kids disappeared downstairs with my camera. Here's a sampling of what they were doing.

We hung out with our friends Lin & Ward last night. We haven't seen them in much too long and it was fun to catch up with them.

Kelsey, Lia, Amy, Nas & Matty. This picture was snapped while the Vh1 show, Classic Hair Bands of the 80's was on. The kids at one point were laughing so hard at the hairstyles & tight pants of Bon Jovi. I wish I had snapped a photo of their laughter. I think the kids would have preferred Mtv - but the parents wanted their 80's memories. At one point, Matty asked me if I ever wore my hair like Jon Bon Jovi. I told him no (but I am going to have to find a pix of my sister Cynthia - I am sure she had Jon Bon Jovi hair at some point).

This is later in the evening. Nas & Lia conked out on the couch.

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Amy spent a good portion of the evening in Remy's kennel (?) - here she had finally let herself out.

The only bad part of the evening was when the Kelloggs were leaving. Kelsey was on adrenaline and was running around the kitchen and play fighting Ward. Remy got very anxious when he saw that, he got between Kelsey and Ward. Well - Kelsey ran right into Remy and he went flying across the kitchen. I saw it about to happen, but couldn't stop it. I heard 'thwack" and Remy make a weird sound like , 'hhhpppwthksjph." Poor baby! He got lots of love & cookies after that.