Thanksgiving 2011

I spent a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving in Portland this year with a great group of friends.  Drew's mom and nephew were in town from South Carolina and definitely brought the Southern cooking with them.  In fact it was a Southern Thanksgiving all around since everyone in attendance was from either South Carolina, Georgia or Texas.  We even fried a turkey (just like my Uncle Rufus used to do) and had sides of mashed potatoes and mac and cheese (both which are considered vegetables in the South), collard greens, biscuits and dressin' (not "stuffing").

I think I'll let the delicious pictures speak for themselves...

 

Josh (aka Turkey Doctor) carving the fried turkey

 

a nice presentation of the platter of turkey, Doc!

 

getting all of the extra meat off of this bird...

my mama taught me how to dismantle a turkey!

 

that's right, even Drewsky did a little cooking

(not without a beer in hand, though)

 

the most amazing spread of deviled eggs

Naylan and I are planning to open a deviled egg/cakeball cart

speaking of cakeballs... pumpkin cakeballs!

 

drunk cranberries... just substitute Grand Marnier for water

 

the whole group at the Thanksgiving table:

Naylan and his girlfriend Trisha, Sheila, Drew, Kate, 6-yr-old Grayson, me, Josh

Christmas Tree Lighting

On Friday, we kicked off the Christmas season with the lighting of the Christmas tree at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland.

 

bundled up for the tree lighting

 

and then we topped the night off at Rogue Brewery where Kate and I met (and harassed) a local celeb and got his autograph... in sharpie on our forearms (ask me about the story later)