Two Days of Cooking; 20 Minutes of Eating

This past weekend we had my Dad and younger sister with us since my Mom was in Texas with another of my sisters who just had a baby. So cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner is exhausting but Dad watched Eve and between Scott my sister and myself we pulled it off.

Scott did the turkey which turned out really well and made the most amazing gravy. I used new recipes for the pumpkin pie and the yams which is always a little scary since those are two of the favorites. For the yams I just sliced them about 1/3 of an inch thick (skins on), tossed them with oil, salt and pepper and then roasted them in the oven. I did them on Wednesday but they were so good that Eve ate half of them and I had to make another batch Thursday morning.

The pumpkin pie recipe I used was interesting. It had yams, fresh ginger and maple syrup in it; all of which I love so of course I had to try it. I thought it was a little on the sweet side but the flavor and texture was super good. And as long as you got a good bit of crust (whole wheat and butter recipe) it tasted great.

Enough about food. The rest of the weekend was really fun. We went on walks (Arboretum, Seward Park) enjoying the lovely gray weather and did some Christmas shopping for my Mom taking advantage of her absence. I won't go into any more detail in case she reads this but let's just say that we did our part to help out the economy.

My Dad wanted to get us a house-warming gift as well as a present for Eve so we decided to head to Pottery Barn Kids and settled on a little table and chairs set. I don't know which Eve was more excited about: her own table and chair or being able to help Grandpa screw the table legs on.

While at Bainbridge Island we made a stop at the Black Bird Bakery (of course) and had some hot chocolate and toast and jam. Grandpa, bless his heart, insisted on having Eve sit on his lap the whole time. You know you're loved if someone will
share their hot chocolate with you.