Thanksgiving: Round THREE!

Today we had turkey sandwiches for lunch. One of the best things about Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: Round Two!

We gathered at Cheryl's house today for another round of Thanksgiving!



YAY!



Ben and Vinnie.



Vinnie and Iris were being SO CUTE with this bone!! They were sharing it!!!






They would take short, separate turns for awhile.






And then they would go back to sharing!



Aw!






And then we had pie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Mer, Pete and Kate hosted us again this year! Cat and Bear had their own special table.



Mom made sugared cranberries. Yay!



Yang brought a RAINBOW veggie tray!



Dennis brought his famous chipotle dip!



Mer made a batch of delicious cranberry gin cocktails.



There were lots of fun beers on hand to taste as well!



MEN!



Cheers!



Checking on the turkey.



Gorgeous!



ROLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Mer said Kate had been looking forward to having Moss over since 8:30 a.m.



Kate and Grandpa get to carvin'.



Kate, Mer and Dad!



Cross those legs, you crazy Millers!



Mmmm.



Kate put on Mom's glasses and she looked so grown up!






Kate and Yang both drew me beautiful mermaids. Kate's is the one on top and Yang's is the one on the bottom.



We played Apples to Apples after dinner. Kate really hung in there with us, considering there are some pretty adult themes and hard-to-read words! We helped her a lot. I'm getting her Apples to Apples Junior for Christmas. (Shh, don't tell!)



I had both Clintons in my hand forever and it was impossible to get rid of them!



Time for pie!



Pumpkin and apple!



Handsome Buster.



Mr. Handsome

Cinnamon Roll Fairy!

Last night while I was at cooking club, I got a text from Kelly. She and Joey happened to have a bunch of leftover homemade cinnamon rolls, and were wondering if Ben and I would like a pan? UM, LET ME THINK ABOUT IT, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They were out and about delivering the rolls this morning, and boy were we excited to heat that doorbell chime. We inhaled half of them like a couple of wild pigs and only then did I stop to take a photo. These were the best cinnamon rolls of my life!! They are just what you hope that a cinnamon roll will taste like! Kelly said that she used the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe.

Nutty Cooking Club

Valerie hosted the November cooking club, and the theme was nuts and seeds! Nancy made vegetarian meatballs featuring walnuts! Look at how cute these are in their mini baking dish!



Two kinds!



She served them two ways. A meatball sub with marinara, and a sweet 'n' spicy glazed meatball.



I could have eaten a whole platter of these!!!



Valerie's centerpiece was edible. Get crackin'!



Yumi made roasted eggplants with tahini sauce. Mmm, sesame seeds!



We paired that with Summer's creamy cashew curry with green chutney. Both dishes were fantastic! That chutney was AMAZING. So bright and flavorful! The curry was a lot more attractive in real life than it appears in this photo, I promise.



I made peanut butternut squash soup!



The soup paired perfectly with Valerie's seed bread.



When I brought the soups out to the table, everyone leaned in for a sniff and it looked vaguely religious!



Perfect couple.



Valerie also made a batch of brussels sprouts with maple and hazelnuts!



These paired perfectly with Emily's pecan-crusted trout! The trout was crispy and amazing.



Yumi made a white chocolate tahini bark, too! This was a great little palate cleanser.



And last, but NOT LEAST, Valerie made a Mounds cake!!!!!!! Dark chocolate and coconut!!!! Look at that bad boy!!! This cake was right in the corner of my peripheral vision all night long and I could not stop sneaking glances at it. A masterpiece!



Oh, hi!



We tore INTO that cake!!!



By the end of the evening, we all noticed that we were WAY more full than usual. Nuts are freaking filling, man! Soooo much protein! I couldn't finish my piece of cake (going down on my list of life regrets), but I brought the leftovers home to lucky Ben. It was delicious delicious delicious.



What a great theme!