Thanksgiving 2014

On this, Luke's very first Thanksgiving, we actually had two Thanksgivings. My parents were in Utah on company business and I begged them to come to Boise and so they did and we decided we'd have our own, small Thanksgiving. I don't get to see my parents often, though this year has most definitely been an above average count for visits with them. I'll take every minute I can get! It's always fun to have them in our home. I was very excited to cook my first turkey ever. Our pre-Thanksgiving actually landed on a Friday. On Thursday we went shopping for everything we'd need the next day. My mom put her part of the meal together that night. We were also able to take them to see The Village at Meridian, which has such a nice ambiance. The next day I slaved away in the kitchen making turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and gravy. It sounded pretty simple beforehand but it was a lot of work. I will always appreciate the work that goes in to Thanksgiving from now on. My dad made all his pie crusts from scratch. He made a pie with pumpkin pie filling and another he made from real pumpkins so we could compare tastes. The homemade pie definitely won out but it was so, so much work I'm not sure he'll make the endeavor again.

Luke really enjoyed these sweet potatoes-- my mom's classic recipe.

He got a bath immediately following this picture.

On Friday we mostly relaxed before my parents had to get their flight back to Maryland. We gave them their Christmas presents and they gave Luke his birthday present early. It was a V Tech Sit to Stand Learning Walker. He loves it-- the way is lights up and makes noises and all the different things there are to do. It was so fun to see him playing with it for the first time.

He can also push it around from the back but mostly enjoys the front.

"Playing" with Callie.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa. Luke was so smiley all weekend but when it came time for them to go he wouldn't smile for a picture. I'm guessing this is because he was very sad to see them go, as were we. We had such a good time with them!

The next week we packed up our car and drove down to Utah for actual Thanksgiving. This year we had it at Shelley's house rather than at Bryan's mom's house.

Whitney cousins enjoying some play time together before dinner.

Bryan heading up the turkey fryer with a little help from Grandpa Vern and Dustin.

Bryan fried the turkey and it was delectable-- as was the rest of the meal. Though, I do have to say that I'm ready for a break from turkey for a while after this. Bryan's mom asked me to be in charge of decorating the table this year and it was so fun to do. We had a simple centerpiece-- a wooden bowl with candles and fall berries. I even made a table runner from burlap and used my Silhouette Cameo to make leaf stencils and spray painted those on. I used my Cameo again to make place cards, though they can't really be seen. We also made place mats from art paper with the words "I am thankful for:" on them.

Here is the table setting all together.

Of course to finish the evening off we had some delicious pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

Dessert for Luke.

We had some other festivities as well but they will follow in a coming blog post. We had a fun Thanksgiving and now we are so excited to bust out all the Christmas decorations and music we want. This won't be Luke's first Christmas but he'll be able to be more a part of the traditions this time (and I won't be so out of it!). I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!

Thanksgiving

Well, I meant to post about this like a million years ago but I kept getting an error about my photo quota being reached. I'm pretty sure that's untrue but now we're back so all is well. I was determined to get this up before it was actually Christmas. Anyway, I hope everyone had a delicious Thanksgiving! We went to Utah to Bryan's mom's house and had a great long weekend spent with family.

Here is Ella being a beautiful princess while we talk and wait for the food to finish cooking. In addition to the Parks, Bryan's Grandpa Vern and his wife Karen came.

A while back I teasingly said to Bryan, "You should learn how to do more manly things-- like carve a turkey." Well, that challenge was accepted and Bryan carved our turkey this year!

As you can see, he did a really amazing job. I was so proud of him!

We ate very well!

I made pies again this year. I made apple, chocolate pecan and pumpkin. I tried to make the crusts fancy but in transport from Boise to Morgan they got kind of destroyed... Sigh, oh well! The apple pie was probably the best again.

All dressed up in our autumn attire for Thanksgiving!

We decided to start a new tradition this year and celebrate White Friday instead of Black Friday by going to the temple. It was really neat to go to the Salt Lake temple for the first time.

After, we went to the City Creek shopping center and grabbed some lunch at the Blue Lemon. It was so delicious and a nice break from leftovers. Then, we walked around and did a little Christmas shopping/browsing while enjoying he decorations.

Browsing in Restoration Hardware-- I love that store. Bryan really liked these steam punk goggles.

We really enjoyed this fountain and all the lights. It was a nice transition into the Christmas season. When we were done shopping, it had gotten dark and so, as we walked back to the car, we were able to enjoy the lights at Temple Square. 

 On Saturday we celebrated Bryan's birthday with his family. He got a milkshake maker! That was a great investment-- we've had a lot of delicious milkshakes since.

He even got these really cool milkshake glasses that were the perfect final touch.

Callie came with us and got a lot more comfortable in the house but Cranberry the cat, who lives there, was not super happy sharing her domain...

 

On Sunday we headed back home. All in all it was a wonderful and mostly (besides the cooking!) relaxing holiday. Now we are looking forward to Christmas and after that I think we'll be kind of glad to have the holiday season behind us and get back to normal life.

The Whitney Whisk

I was just going to make a little add on to our blog with a page full of recipes that Bryan and I each grew up with. When I decided I wanted to add pictures I realized this would be one long page! So, {drumroll please} I'm proud to introduce The Whitney Whisk. I never really thought I'd make a food blog because I'm mostly good at following recipes, not creating them! I just wanted a place to share our family favorites. I also decided it would be a great opportunity to review great recipes I find online and share them with all of you. Maybe some day I'll be a good enough cook that you'll see something posted up there that I've invented all on my own.

Adventures in Making Ravioli

I have always loved to cook but since I have been married and had the chance to do it every day for dinner my array of meals has dramatically expanded! I have learned that I loved to cook even more than I thought. Right now I am a stay at home wife while we're in Boise. It gives me a lot of time to spend experimenting with different foods. I've begun straying from recipes and making things my own.

Lately, I have really enjoyed making foods from scratch. It started when I saw a tutorial on Our Best Bites for making your own flour tortillas. I was like, "I could totally do that." Well, it wasn't as easy as I thought. I hate to say I found a better recipe elsewhere when I love this site so much... but I looked it up YouTube and found a very good video for it. They turned out almost perfect! You know how tortillas are supposed to be, well, round? Well, mine weren't quite round... but they sure did taste good! I used them to make taquitos and I ate several just plain... they are way better than store bought tortillas. I am making some quesadillas this week and sadly bought store bought tortillas because I have a cup less flour than I need and I'm definitely not going to buy and whole new sack of flour for less than two weeks left in Boise! Anyway, tangent over. The next time I made something from scratch it was Pierogies filled with mashed potatoes (served with sauerkraut and kielbasa) because the store didn't sell them and I was set on the meal. I was like, "Wow, making pasta isn't as hard as it seems!" So then I decided to try my hand at ravioli.
I wanted a meat filling so, after looking around on the internet a bit, I found one using ground beef, garlic, onion and parmesan cheese. Well, I know I bought an onion but when I went to make the meal there was none to be found. I was very frustrated and had images in my head of it rolling out of a bag into the parking lot of the grocery store and me, none the wiser, walking away and leaving it there behind to be run over... So I made due with what I had. The filling was okay. Next time I think I will make half the batch with a ricotta cheese filling and half with browned Italian sausage, seasonings and fennel seed (an idea I got when we went out to a delicious and authentic pizzeria one night.

The dough is very simple. Mix flour and salt and add a whipped egg yolk.

...but then it wasn't really making a dough. The recipe said to add enough water to make it a stiff dough.

Voilà! It needed to rest for about half an hour after this.

I don't have a pasta machine yet so I had to roll it out with a rolling pin. This is hard work on your arms! I've definitely added a pasta machine and ravioli cutter to my Smith Family Times gift registry for my birthday or Christmas.
I needed to roll it out paper-thin, so that I could see my hand through it.

A lot of people will take one sheet of the rolled out dough, put dollops of filling on it, then put another sheet on and use a ravioli cutter. I don't have one yet so I used an upside jar to cut circles. This took as long or longer as the rolling out!

My meat filling dollops.

Folded over, with the edges crimped. I used an egg yolk to effectively glue the seams together.

Then they boil for 4-5 minutes.

You can freeze these for later use but, since I was just going to use them that evening, I put them in the fridge in a covered container (you don't want them drying out!). As it was, they kind of stuck together. I also wanted to make homemade sauce but couldn't find a recipe that looked good to me. So many of them called for tomato chunks in addition to paste or sauce. I do not like chunky things. Especially tomato. This is why I generally like traditional bean and ground beef chili from a can... too many people make it with chunky tomatoes. I also added some leftover ground beef and seasoning mixture from Our Best Bites.




Here is the finished product on Bryan's plate. I would say it was pretty good but not mouth-watering. It wasn't something I'd look back on and say, "That was so good. I need to make it again." I need to keep experimenting with fillings and sauces and one day maybe it will be so.