Thanksgiving with Friends!

There’s nothing like having good, make that a great friend to invite you over for a big Thanksgiving dinner. That would be our host Gavin and here he is doing one of the things he does best, opening a bottle of Veuve as a kick off to our super cozy and totally fun Thanksgiving dinner! There were 10 of us total gathered on the blustery and somewhat drizzly Seattle day. Cheese, crackers mulled wine started us off with nibbles until Matt showed up with dates stuffed with goat cheese and toothpicks stacked with feta,cucumber, kalamata olive and cherry tomatoes (Barcelona flashback!). Also Kimberly’s delicious mini pumpkin tarts! Careful not to fill up before dinner but what the hell, it’s Thanksgiving! Pre-dinner Gavin handed out sheets of paper and asked each of us to write down 3 things about ourselves – one of which was not true. A great way to have a lot of fun while learning funny little things about each other! Everything was delicious – Kimberly and Robert cooked the turkey perfectly, Gavin and his mom roasted vegetables, commandeered the mashed potatoes and stuffing, I took on gravy and cranberries. I ad-libbed with this years recipe and they were my favorite to date. I’ll include the recipe at the end of this post. Pot luck entries included Anton and Lisa’s corn soufflé, Stephanie’s delicious yams and someone even brought the famous green bean casserole. I don’t think I’d ever eaten it before – I have to admit it wasn’t bad at all! Anton making some tough side dish decisions! Lots to be thankful for that’s for sure…where do you even begin to count…? Thanks Gavin and everyone for a really great day. No Friday off for us, tomorrow we were back at work (boo too) but we had a fun and relaxing day and after all, the weekend was right around the corner. Always something to be thankful for!
REALLY GOOD AD-LIB CRANBERRIES
2 12 oz bags of cranberries
3 medium sized pears (peeled and cut into medium size chunks)
about 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
splash of balsamic vinegar
1 cup sugar (or to taste)
2 cup water
zest of one small orange

place water and sugar in medium pot till it comes to a boil.aAdd cranberries, pears and ginger and cook until cranberries start to burst (this is at a gentle boil for about 10 minutes)
throw in a splash of Balsamic Vinegar
remove from heat and add in the zest of one small orange or to taste.
chill until sauce thickens.
I find serving this just slightly chilled, a little above room temperature, brings out all the fresh flavors.
The great thing about this recipe is how flexible it is – apples, raspberries, lemon zest – you can create your own yummy tradition!