ThanksGivings Past

Once upon a time, we had this really great idea. We thought we would try to take advantage of the Thanksgiving Vacation days and travel somewhere warmer...

And it was a good idea and all.

But.

The condo we wanted was booked for the actual week of Thanksgiving, so we opted for the week starting the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Which didn't really maximize the days off school. But whatever.

Another but.

If you need to be somewhere the day AFTER Thanksgiving and it's an 11 hour drive and you aren't sure your 3yrold can hold up that long and you think you may be stopping over in VEGAS for the half way hotel stay....then...how do you do the ACTUAL Thanksgiving day?

These were our options:

• Get up early to cook and eat turkey at 10AM and on the road by 2PM? NO. That sucks for obvious reasons (the get up early part mainly--but leftovers? cleaning up after the mess in order to LEAVE, indigestion in the car for 6 hours..)
• Get up early and drive to In-Laws for Turkey dinner there, bringing only the rolls? No. Similar reasons (the get up early part, the convince them to eat earlier part, the part where it's 2 hours the other direction from where we were headed??)
• Get up kinda early and eat early lunch/dinner at local restaurant? No. First of all SERIOUSLY expensive unless you want Turkey ala Dennys, second...you need reservations 3 weeks in advance? IN ADVANCE? Who are all these people eating Turkey dinner OUT?? Good grief.
• Cook Turkey dinner at the condo in warmer clime only do it a day or so AFTER Turkey day? Now that was sounding good.

And it worked pretty well too. The um.. kitchen utensils and supplies were quite lacking...hard to mash potatoes without a masher ya know?


This is us at the Condo, last year. With swim hair. And a little boy who fell asleep and missed the dinner altogether.

The funniest part, was on Thanksgiving day while driving through Las Vegas (stayed in a hotel overnight...)we needed to eat dinner after being on the road a long time. Just ANY dinner would do, right?

Um? McDonald's? Closed. IHOP? Closed. In-N-Out? Olive Garden? Burger King? Closed, Closed and Closed. 7-eleven was open and we were considering our options there. For our real/fake Thanksgiving dinner! Hot dogs and Big Gulps!? And then...we saw it. A parking lot full of cars...surrounding...

a Black Angus restaurant! WhoHoo!
Never been to one before, but who cares...at least it wasn't a hot dog eh? (They barely squeezed us in-- a late cancellation, whew!) They were so confused when we opted to order off the menu and not eat their Turkey meal! Oh well.



Now this next picture is more like it. Turkey Day 2006. Always pull out my fancy Williams Sonoma tablecloth. First year I got to use my mother's china. And the first course.

Roasted Corn and Red Pepper Soup.

My absolute mostest favoritest. It's what I can't live without on Thanksgiving Day. Well that.. and my family of coursers!


That soup btw? I first found it in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook....Seriously worth the effort of clicking this recipe and stashing it in your online recipe folder...I know you have one...

I promise...those other recipes are coming. I almost have enough really terrific recipes submitted to even hand out the Hot Chocolate Recipe...I could use a few more though?