Last Saturday, most of my family was at my nephew Michael's house for Thanksgiving dinner. From where I sat, we had a great time! My niece and her family came from New York state, my brother and brother in law came from Pennsylvania and those of us that are living in Ohio, well, we showed up too. I dearly missed my sister and her husband from California at the table. We talked about you Cathie, if that counts!!
I wish I would have taken more pictures because for 14 of us, you can't BELIEVE how much food was there! I was able to take home so many leftovers, I ate all week on it and finished the last piece of ham for lunch! I do love leftovers.
Out of all of the holidays that we celebrate, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite. When I still lived in Erie, I cooked Thanksgiving at my Mom's and there were years I had everyone to my apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite holiday, some of my favorite foods. With so many things in my life to be thankful for, this holiday has just always resonated in me. After my birthday, this is my favorite day of the year!
I wish I'd have taken more pictures but I think I'm out of the picture taking habit. I didn't even think about it until some of the family had left the table already! So, I'll post what little I have but trust me, there was so much more!
Let's start with the family! From the bottom right corner in the yellow striped shirt going clockwise is my brother Mike, his wife Mary Jane, my brother-in-law Bill, my brother Phil, my niece JoBeth, her husband Brad.
The other side of the table had starting with Mike again, Bill's shoulder, brother Phil, JoBeth, Brad, across the table is my niece Jenny, her son Evan on the couch, my brother Jim. Aargh, I wish I'd have taken pictures before the kids left the table! I didn't even get my nephew Mike in either shot!
On to the food! The stuffing before it went in the oven, and the carrots cut up and ready to cook! Oh my goodness, waaaay too many carrots! I should know, I took all of the left over carrots home. It's going to be a looooong time until I cook carrots again.
I sucked up to the host and made him a batch of my almost famous party mix! This stuff to some of us is like crack. One bite and you're addicted. I had to promise additional batches to other family members so as not to leave anyone out!
And my favorite part, the city chicken!! Considering how long it's been since I had made this, I thought it came out great! This was a piece of comfort food for me. The round patties on the top are the "breading patties". My mom took the rest of the beaten egg and the rest of the breadcrumbs from breading the city chicken, mixed them together and formed patties. They would also get fried and baked with the chicken. This was because my Mom never threw food away, so the eggs and breadcrumbs were made into SOMEthing. We didn't know that as kids. All we knew is the breading patties were awesome and we used to fight over them! Mom would end up with one or two small ones only. I purposefully had extra eggs and crumbs to make more patties. Like I said, comfort food and happy thoughts of my Mom.
And THIS isn't even a drop in the bucket! We also had a ham, two turkey breasts, backed russet potatoes AND baked sweet potatoes, cheese trays, fruit trays, pies, cupcakes, and gravy. Man oh man did we have gravy! As requested, I heated up six jars of gravy and believe it or not, most of it got thrown away. Go figure!! Four jars are put in the cupboard for next year. Or for the next TWO years! Yeah, two bottles would have been more than enough. Phht! And oh so much more food that I'm forgetting to mention.
Do you SEE why this is my favorite holiday? Aaah, this did my heart good. It was a great day filled with a ton of great food, hugs, kisses, stories, and lots and lots of laughter!
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