A Thanksgiving Weekend with Family

My parents made a tremendous sacrifice to come to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. With a 16 hour drive both here and back, they didn't have a ton a time here but I cherished the little time that I did have with them. They arrived Wednesday evening and headed back for home on Sunday Morning. I had a lot of things packed into that time that I wanted to do with them. Arkansas has such amazing restaurants and food that I wanted my family to experience a little of. So before they arrived I gathered menus from a few of my favorite restaurants along with brochures for a few of the sites that they might be interested in seeing.

Thursday was all about Thanksgiving and relaxing and visiting as a family. I had prepared everything that I could Wednesday before they arrived so we wouldn't have to worry about it on Thursday. My favorite part of Thanksgiving (besides the whole "thanks" part of course) is planning the menu. As most of you know, I absolutely love to cook! I love to try new things and challenge myself with difficult recipes.

This year, my parents brought the Turkey so I didn't have to worry about that aspect of the dinner (when I do the turkey, I usually use some sort of brining solution along with injecting the turkey- it makes the meat very juicy and flavorful). My dad works with a guy who does a special recipe and cooking process on the turkey to give it amazing flavor so we signed up to have his families business make our turkey this year. I must say it was the best turkey I have ever had in my life! And the best part- it was one less thing I had to worry about.

As for the rest of the meal, we enjoyed garlic and Romano cheese mashed potatoes, sauteed green beans with portobello mushrooms, sweet dinner rolls, sausage, apple, and cranberry stuffing, Sparkling apple cider, garlic herb butter, pumpkin pie, and walnut streusel pumpkin pie. It was my most successful Thanksgiving dinner thus far (my forth Thanksgiving that I was in charge of since we have been married). I have included a few of the recipes in the "What's Cookin" section of the blog. You are welcome to try them out for you Christmas dinners.

Although I love to cook, baking is a whole other story! This was the third time I have attempted to make a homemade pie crust for pumpkin pie. The two previous times were slightly unsuccessful- not bad, but not good! This Thanksgiving, I am happy to report that I have finally mastered the perfect pie crust! It was flaky, buttery, and soft. The secret is to chill the Crisco before you add it, use ice water, and don't over mix (you want pockets of the Crisco in the crust to create the flakiness). Once ingredients are mixed, roll into a ball, wrap in Saran wrap, and chill before you roll the crust out! Those are the secrets to the perfect pie crust. So don't be afraid to tackle a completely homemade pie this Christmas.

Friday was filled with lots of black Friday shopping (a family tradition). We all went non-stop for a good portion day until we stopped at a "Relax the Back" store. Of course we all had to try out the massage chair to ease our shopping pains!

For dinner we were able to take everyone to one of Dave and I's favorite restaurants here in Arkansas, Larry's Pizza. Friday is buffet night at Larry's so we were in luck! Normally I am the type of person that likes the furthest thing from a buffet, but I must say Larry's bring s little something different to the table! First of all, their pizza is some of the best I have ever had, not to mention the enormous amount of creative pizza's they offer! On buffet night here in Arkansas the line often proceeds out the door to get a seat. There is certainly nothing high class about the experience or process, it is definitely straight up Arkansas and the people come out in full force to enjoy all of the goodness!

Instead of going up to a bar and filling your plate with an unimaginable amount of pizza they bring it to you fresh out of the oven! We almost have the process down to an art, so when bringing my family to the best pizza in town, I gave them a quick run down of the Larry's Pizza rules. You will want two plates-one for regular pizza and another for dessert pizza, don't waste your time getting a salad at the salad bar- there are too many good pizza choices to fill up on your veggies, don't get pizza from the bar area- they will bring around fresh pizza as it comes out of the oven, don't get a bunch of one kind-there are too many good pizza flavors to fill up on one kind, and last but not least, prepare to eat pizza like you have never eaten pizza before! To get the true Larry's Pizza experience, it is really as simple as that!

The most entertaining part is to hear all the waitresses go around the restaurant calling out the name of the pizza flavor they have in hand in their deep southern drawl. My favorite is the baked potato pizza. Now I know it probably doesn't sound that appetizing, that's what I thought the first time I heard it too, but it is absolutely amazing! It is basically like eating a loaded baked potato. It has slices of baked potato, perfectly crispy bacon, sour cream, cheese, and some sort of special buttery sour cream ranch sauce. Dave's favorite is the Buffalo chicken pizza. It has a Buffalo wing type sauce with Buffalo chicken and lots of cheese. Some of the other creative varieties include (but are not limited to) the cheeseburger pizza (including the mustard and pickles, and really does taste just like a cheeseburger), taco pizza, fajita pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, chicken and spinach, chicken ranch mushroom, chicken Alfredo, steak Alfredo, chicken honey mustard, margarita pizza, BLT pizza and all the regulars as well. And every one of them is surprisingly good! Now for the dessert pizzas they have an amazing Bavarian cream (my favorite), chocolate peanut butter (Dave's Favorite), peach cobbler, apple cobbler, cherry cobbler, blueberry cobbler, cinnamon sticks, and more. I think everyone enjoyed the Larry's Pizza experience. My Dad said he couldn't remember the last time he eat that much pizza!

Afterward we all went and played games in the game room of the restaurant. I had a blast playing games I haven't played since I was in high school! I couldn't resist playing my two old favorites, skeeball and air hockey. We all had a few good laughs, especially playing air hockey. Dave said he was surprised at my mad air hockey skills (he had never seen me play before) and was afraid to play me. First round I killed him, and when I say killed him, he literally couldn't stand that I beat him that bad. Round two and three I took it a little easier on him, letting him leave with some dignity and allowing him to beat me (in all reality, after the intense rounds with my brother and Dave my arm was so tired and sore I couldn't hardly do much the last two rounds- that just shows you how out of shape I am right now!).

To end our long day we pulled out the Christmas tree, turned on some Christmas music, and started to light the tree. I am the type of tree lighter were I have to go up and down each branch with lights rather than just run the lights around the tree (it drives Dave crazy- maybe someday it will be motivation enough to get me a prelite tree-hint, hint). We were all so tired from our exhausting day we didn't even finish the tree that evening.

We set the tree up in front of our 12' dining room window that faces the front of our house. It is the perfect spot for a tree and we don't have a table for that room yet anyways. The only problem is that we have a 7.5' tree in a 14' tall room. It looks a little dwarfed to say the least. But it is so nice to have a tree up, it just makes me smile and it gives the whole house that holiday glow!

Saturday we took few family pictures. We haven't had a family picture since right before I got married so it was long overdue. My dad wanted us in our Sunday clothes so we all got dressed and ready for pictures. The pictures turned out all right, but most of them were a little too formal and posed for me. We didn't have alot of time to do them or to go anywhere exciting to take them so we just did it at our house.

Afterwards, I made everyone change and take a few in regular clothes. My favorite picture out of all of them is the one I captured while no one even knew I was taking pictures. Everyone is just being themselves and laughing about something (I am not even sure about what). The best part is that it includes my four favorite people, my family, the ones who will love me now matter what. Seeing this image just brings a big smile on my face, a sense of peace, a sense of home, a sense of love!

It was so nice to be surrounded by family during this Thanksgiving holiday. We had a wonderful time. It was just what I needed to get my mind off of everything that has been going on medically with me. At times, we crave family because we have been so far away from both of our families throughout our marriage. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Cort, for your visit. It was deeply cherished. We are glad you were able to see Arkansas and our new house and we hope you will come again soon, maybe you can stay a little longer next time!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Dave and I are both aware of how much we have to be thankful for. We have been so blessed in our lives and throughout our marriage. This Thanksgiving were were especially thankful for a visit from family! Happy Thanksgiving!