Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Gobble til you Wobble

So this Thanksgiving I made pies from scratch! (for the first time EVER!) As many of you know - my Thanksgivings consisted of FLAN for dessert until I started dating and married Ty. The years we dated though his mom and family made the amazing traditional American meals and when we got married well we lived abroad so we ate pasta in Italy or turkey & mash in London! (Actually thanks to Angela & Selfridges we did manage one traditional Thanksgiving meal one year)

This year our friends Rachel and Don were wonderful and invited us over to share Thanksgiving with them. Ty was up at 5am studying for the CFA exam (which is December 4th- so PLEASE PRAY for him!) and I was up early filling a last-minute cakeball order for that morning. So going over to their house and getting to relax and share an amazing meal was so wonderful! We spent it with them and their new precious son Liam.

We also spent it with our other wonderful friends Stacy, Craig and their beautiful new daughter Evelyn & Stacy's parents (Patty & Scott).  It was such a great day!


Here I am practicing! Liam was trying to hold his bottle with one hand and had his other hand on his belly! A few years later and it'll be tucked into his waist band. What a typical guy! ha!



Evelyn & her current boyfriend Liam (she hasn't met Gabriel or Tabor yet, but there IS competition coming!)


The babes enjoying a sunset Thanksgiving dinner together. ha!





Let's rewind though to the day before when the pie making went down at the Touchstone house. Rachel was very sweet to provide me with the recipes, ingredients, supplies and tips! Even Sarah who wasn't in SoCal for Thanksgiving shared ingredients with me - I have such amazing friends!


 Using Sarah's pastry cutter - Ty walked in while I was doing this part and asked "What is that step called?" I looked at him and with a slight giggle replied "Making the dough" - he's too cute!


After chilling the dough for several hours I moved on to the next step. This one was called "rolling the dough" - with my new rolling pin (thanks to my wonderful hubby!)


3 pie doughs were then rolled.


and layed into the pie pan followed by folding the edges. This was fun! 


I even used pie weights for the first time! I enjoyed this part ! This step finally had a cool name: "Blind baking" - although Ty renamed it to "Empty baking" because the blind part didn't make sense to him.


Ty helped with this part. We cut out leaves out of pie crust and layed them around the edges of each pie. Again thanks Rachel for the tips & tools!


The pumpkin pie in the oven. Want the recipe? Click HERE

 Here are the other final products:


The staple Touchstone Apple Cake. If you want this recipe you'll have to email me!


The Coffee-Toffee Pecan pie. This was sweet but very tasty! Click HERE for the recipe.


Rachel did a great job with the place settings. So pretty! Each leaf had someone's name on it.


No Thanksgiving is complete without stuffing...YUM!


Don carving the Turkey! It turned out delicious!


Only my 2nd time to ever have creamed corn. What a treat!


Had to take a picture of the cranberry sauce because it wasn't in the shape of a can with rings around it. That's the only way I knew how to make it! ;) This one was made from REAL cranberries!


Patty's specialty - Cranberry wild rice. I'd LOVE to have this recipe! (hint hint)


A sad little Ty because his wifey was taking pictures and not filling her plate with food. He was tired of waiting!


The delicious mashed potatoes...ok enough food pics. I think you get the point. The food was delish!


After eating & sharing our favorite Bible verses and being grateful for our friends, family & food we went on a Turkey Trot at the beach. It was a beautiful day and the dolphins came out to entertain us!


Here's almost all of us. Ty's probably off playing with his football, Liam is in the stroller under the camera and Don is behind the lens. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We missed our families, but thanks to our SoCal friends for making this such a special and memorable Thanksgiving! We definitely gobbled til we wobbled (well maybe I was the only one wobbling but that was Tabor's fault!)




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