Our Thanksgiving Feast

Chad, Nicole and Addie came this afternoon. I think they got here about 1. They came in their big pickup because Vince needed Chad to go with him to the storage building and bring home some big metal table – not sure where it’s going to be kept but I know where it’s NOT going to be kept . . in the house!

They went to the storage building and Chad rummaged through some stuff and found things he wanted so they brought the big table back here, then Chad, Nicole and Addie went to the flea market, then they went to a tree farm to get their Christmas tree, then they came back here. Nicole and I finished up the meal. We ate, then Chad and Vince went back to the storage building (it’s probably less than 2 miles from the house) and Chad got the things he saw that he wanted. I have no idea what all he got but we had the dining room table we bought in Kentucky, used in MO and in TX and don’t need here. They need a bigger table so they’ll be happy to have it. The back of the pickup was pretty full – stuff we’re happy to get rid of and they’re happy to get.

For the meal, I had cooked turkey using the sous vide. I made cornbread dressing and placed that meat on top of the dressing. Vince “fried” in the Char Broil Smoker/Roaster/Grill. It was so easy to use and almost no clean up. The funny thing is that when I checked at Amazon to see what it’s called, it was 11/25/21 that we bought it and the first time we used it was today, 11/25/22 – exactly one year later.

I thought about making mashed potatoes or a sweet potato casserole. Addie doesn’t like sweet potatoes and I didn’t want to be saving mashed potatoes to have ready at an exact time so I baked sweet potatoes and regular potatoes and everyone got to pick what they wanted. I fixed green beans, gravy with giblets and gravy without giblets; Watergate salad, rolls using the Japanese Milk Bread recipe (they were perfect!). I made pumpkin pie and the pinto bean pie. Chad brought the pinto bean cake. Chad also brought smoked salmon.

Chad had made two pinto bean cakes – one to bring here and one to take to Nicole’s family yesterday. He had already warned us that the pinto bean cake was awful. It was not good! The pinto bean pie was delicious and everyone liked it better than the pumpkin pie. Addie turned her nose up at it but then we were all talking about how good it was and she wanted a piece. Then she wanted to bring the rest of it home so I sent most of it home with them. Vince loved it.

I’m tired but it was so nice to get to spend a few hours with Chad. I see Nicole and Addie often but with him being gone so much, I don’t get to see near enough of him.

IF I do anything else tonight, it will be sitting in my chair stitching. Otherwise, it may be an early night for me.