Thanksgiving

Wow, this year's Thanksgiving was amazing. It was my first Thanksgiving stateside in three years so we decided to celebrate full force and go all out.
So Mom and I cooked together... ish. I am very thankful we did not kill each other seeing as we're both so opinionated in the kitchen. We took shifts. She started her prep in the mornings and I prepped the nights before.
Here was our delicous menu. My dishes are in blue and mom's are in red. Joint efforts in purple. 

THE MENU

Appetizers

• Baked Polenta with Pumpkin Hummus
• Stuffed Mushrooms 
• Iceberg lettuce with carrots, tomatoes and avocado with a balsamic viniagrette
• Apple and Sausage Stuffing Muffins 

First Course

• Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy
• Stuffing 
• String Beans with Purple Potatoes with a light drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper
• Biscuits (from a can) 
• Homemade Cranberry Relish (made by my friend Grace) 
• Sweet Potatoes baked with butter and brown sugar 
• Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes 

Dessert

• Apple Pear Compote with a Graham Cracker Crust 
• Marble Cake (made by my friend Andrea)
• Pumpkin Pie (bought by my friend Ang) 
• Pumpkin mousse cheesecake (made by Andrea and Grace) 
• Vanilla Cupcakes (made by our tenant Reina) 
• All served with fresh whipped cream (made by Andrea and Grace)

We had a FEAST! And we were even civilized and ate in courses with little breathers in between. There was so much food that breaks were necessary. We stated eating at around 4 and then finished eating at probably around 10? Maybe 11?  We are totally ridiculously Italian. It was wayyyy too much food for the 8 of us. 

But we had a really great day with food and friends and we were able to really focus on the good things in life. 

This Thanksgiving we had a lot to be thankful for. After Sandy, a week with no power, and a snowstorm I think we were able to appreciate the good in life. I hope that everyone out there managed to have such a good day but I know there are still plenty of people with no power and others who have no home to go home to thanks to the largess of the hurricane.  

This year I can honestly say that I was happy to be home, thankful to be back with friends and family alike. And I'm thankful for all of the friends who I couldn't be with, my friends in Florence and all over Europe. I missed them but am so grateful to have them. 

-Raspberry Truffle

p.s. I'll be adding links for all of my recipes soon