US readers, did you have a good Thanksgiving holiday?
I hosted a nice, quiet dinner with the honey bear – my Thanksgiving menu was a hit. Despite my being in full-on Thanksgiving stealth mode, the universe had other plans for me when I woke on Wednesday morning. At the last minute, I got notice that the water would be shut off in my apartment building from 9am-4pm, during my most valuable cooking time. Perhaps said universe wanted me to CTFO…and since there was no water I had no choice but to submit. I was pissed to the highest level of pissivity with tons of cooking energy and nowhere to direct it. So to distract (and feed) ourselves while waiting for the water to turn back on, the bear and I decided to make pizza. We took a pepperoni DiGiornio pizza and dressed it up with leftover veggies.

The pizza kept us satiated for a few hours until the water turned back on (around 3:45pm). After expressing thanks to the creator for running water (as a first world person, it’s something I’m guilty of taking for granted) I cleaned and spatchcocked the cornish hens, marinating them in a blend of Walkerswood mild jerk seasoning and my homemade jerk marinade. I stretched the Walkerswood with a homemade marinade since the Walkerswood is concentrated, and a little goes a long way. We also wanted to have sauce on the side for dipping.
While the cornish hens marinated, the bear and I went out for a teenaged-style date to In N’ Out for dinner. He got a double-double with fries, myself a cheeseburger and fries. All animal style.

Good thing I fueled up on burgers and fries, because I was in the kitchen pretty late into Wednesday night. I slept in on Thursday morning; when I woke up the first thing I did was bake. I took my time and had fun making French Apple Pie, getting my hands dirty while making the brown sugar crumble topping.

We ended up eating a few slices of pie before dinner, one of the great things about being an adult. And good thing we ate dessert first, because there was no room in our stomachs after Thanksgiving dinner.

All in all, I’m happy with how everything turned out. Despite losing valuable Thanksgiving-eve cooking time, the meal came together wonderfully. I didn’t get to make everything I wanted, and I know for next year to pad my pre-Thanksgiving preparation deadlines by 24 hours in anticipation of roadblocks. Or maybe we’ll avoid cooking roadblocks altogether by going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner next year.
xoxo,
Toi
Toi, I absolutely enjoyed reading your blog about your after thanksgiving dinner. It was very nicely written. I know where the fam & I will be for Thanksgiving 2016.
Love you much!
Thank you Julie! Love you too!