Friendsgiving

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I love that “Friendsgivings” are a thing. All year I am grateful to have friends who I love like family and taking a day to prepare a meal together is becoming one of my favorite traditions.

Something else I love? Going all out with cooking. Everyone in this group loves to cook so something like a Friendsgiving means added effort which takes their food from a The Food Network level to, I don’t know, a Thomas Keller/French Laundry level. These people are not messing around and my taste buds are so happy for that.

Ryan was on mashed potato and bourbon punch duty while I took on dessert. In case any of you have desserts on deck for this week, I did some prep-work for you and highly recommend doing an Apple Slab Pie and Pumpkin Bread Pudding with caramel sauce. This apple pie feeds a full group and is a lot denser than round pie. I added almond extract to the glaze because I love the sweet nutty flavor with the apples. Oh and totally make the pie crust. I did it for the first time last year and again this year, it makes such a difference and is so easy.

It’s my theory that people don’t actually love pumpkin pie but are tied to the idea of pumpkin being fall tradition so skipping the pie and doing Pumpkin Bread Pudding was my move…and it was a hit. I am not crazy about raisins so I did cranberries and holy cow, I can’t believe how easy it is to make caramel.

Our Friendsgiving meal was incredible but I think my favorite part was after leftover containers had been made, the table cleared and everyone curled up in the living room. Bottles of wine passed around, jazz playing, storytelling, a few people dozing off, blankets being shared. Like that quote from Walt Whitman, “We were together. I forget the rest.” Togetherness is Thanksgiving and I am so grateful for that.

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I am also grateful, and slightly surprised, that these sweet potatoes arrived on the table without the use of a fire extinguisher.  Last year, there were flames coming from the oven when the marshmallows caught fire thus earning this dish the name of “torched sweet potatoes” on the menu this year. While it was funny to watch everyone scramble to extinguish said fire, no one exactly complained that things were a bit calmer around the oven this time.

sweet potatoes

 

Slow Sunday Funday

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After 2 weeks of not having a conversation with my husband lasting more than 15 minutes because of his, um, robust hours at work due to a project (robust sounds better than insane because hard work is not to be trivialized), we spent yesterday doing all of the things.

9am birthday party for our favorite 3 year old? Check. Pizza, bourbon sangria and college football at Homeslice? Check. Golf lesson, running, shopping, more college football, more food, more drinks, Jeni’s Ice Cream? Check, check, check. It was like we tried to cram in everything we haven’t done together in the last 2 weeks into one day.

It felt amazing.

But if yesterday’s theme was “go!”, today’s theme is “slow”. Quite literally, in fact. There’s Asian BBQ slow cooking in the crock pot. I am still in pajamas. A third cup of coffee on the porch may be necessary. I think a long walk instead of a long run will be happening. The mile high stack of catalogues and magazines I have are going to be read. Yesterday, we were up to the serious business of fun and today, the serious business of a slow Sunday sounds delicious.

And like just the kind of Sunday Funday that we need.