We peaced out of work early on Wednesday and headed for Gig Harbor, WA where my parents house is. They just got back from Mexico (check out their sweet blog here) so we spent the evening relaxing and catching up with them (briefly banishing Matt to the bedroom for studying). Thursday was a whirlwind of food and cooking. While the men went of to the gym for their morning workout my mom and I started slaving away in the kitchen at 8am. Nah, we had a lovely time. My mum let me take over menu-planning this year, which I enjoyed immensely so I had picked out some fun dishes for the day, plus a few things I was bringing the next day to my 'other' Thanksgivings.
Matt was once again making the turkey (deep-fried of course!) and this time decided to use a homemade injectable marinade, which turned out to be delicious. The weather cooperated and he didn't get too wet standing watch over the turkey.
Dad & Matt, getting ready to drop it
The happy turkey fryer
Grandmama can't believe whats happening :)
My brother Ryan, Aunt Lynn and Uncle David, Grandmama & Grandaddy were there and some lovely unexpected guests Jim + Phebe! My amazing sis Adrienne was sadly missing. We will drag her back next year! Matt's turkey was a roaring success, deemed 'the best turkey I've ever eaten' by at least a majority of the guests, so he has sealed his fate. He will forever spend Thanksgiving Day outside with the deep-fryer. Luckily, I convinced my mother that my dear husband might enjoy his task more were he to have some company (everyone else was frantically running around the kitchen this year) so it has been decided that next year they will bring out the propane heater, a keg (or at the least, a case of beer), and send all the gentlemen outside to supervise the turkey roasting.
The finished product
Mom's yummy salad
We had a lovely time seeing everyone on Thursday and enjoying good food. Friday morning we were up bright and early, and on the road heading for Portland, OR where all of Matt's family congregates for the festivities. First stop was Aunt Sal & Uncle Dave's house for brunch. The Sullivan family is huge (Matts dad has 7 brothers and sisters), fun, rambunctious, loving, and out-of-control. We had a delicious meal (after the French toast/crab incident), some wild foosball, and some serious pinballing. And some great catching up with the fam...there are so many of them that we rarely all get together.
Friday evening was spent with Matt's moms side of the family, as they always do their Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Everyone was in attendance at Aunt Diane + Uncle Barry's house and we had yet another delicious feast. Yum yum yum. More great food, conversation, and catching up.
Saturday much of the family headed home, and the rest of us spread out for various activities in the Portland area. We all took a nice walk together at Tryon Creek Park, which is a huge wooded area. (Well, Matt and Andy took a run, but they are crazies.) :) Then Diane and Barry took Matt and I down to the Willamette Valley wine country which is amazingly only about 35 minutes from their southern Portland home. First, we went to Freja Cellars which is a small operation run by a friend of Diane & Barrys, Willy Gianapulos. We had the amazing opportunity to have him give the four of us a tour of his facilities and do our very first barrel tasting! Good wine! Then we hit Baren, and Ponzi. Ponzi was delicious, though a bit too expensive for us. Thanks Diane & Barry! Then some more food (T-day leftovers, of course), hang out time, and a quick drive back up to Seattle on Sunday morning.
There was tons of good food this weekend, but I'll share just one recipe with you. This is from my fellow BofA co-worker Maureen, and was a HUGE hit (as in, gone within 5 minutes) at the Sullivan brunch. Works as breakfast, app, dessert. Eat up!
**I'm not a big baker (more cooking) so this recipe was a little intimidating. It didn't turn out looking quite as pretty as I wanted, but it tasted wonderful, so maybe next time I can work on the aesthetics. My mom didn't have a jelly roll pan, but she is great at improvising so we took some aluminum foil and made our own jelly roll pan. It worked perfectly! I got powdered sugar all over her kitchen, but she was nice about that too.
PUMPKIN ROLL CAKE
CAKE:
¾ Cup All Purpose Flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cloves
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup 100% pumpkin
1 Cup chopped walnuts (optional)
FILLING:
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees. Grease 15 x 10 inch jelly-roll pan, and line it with wax paper. Grease and flour the wax paper. Sprinkle a kitchen towel (large enough to put the 15x10 cake on) with powdered sugar to prevent sticking later. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in large mixing bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture and spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.
BAKE for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off wax paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end…like a jelly-roll. Cool completely on wire rack.
BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixing bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake, remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.
Makes 10 servings
*Disclaimer: Consumption of this cake may lead to family members asking you to make it every year…prepare to be in it for the long haul!
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