3 Birds...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

We did 3 birds this year. Why 3? Because we partied...a lot. Here's the Turkey-Day rundown.

Bird #1

This was for the Gray's Thanksgiving feast. It was a moist and tasty bird. I not only rubbed the entire thing with complementary herbs...I injected it with a delicious mix of herbs, chicken broth, and butter. Pardon the hair and fugly outfit. I clean up nicely, I swear!

I contributed a few dishes. I made my delicious GF cornbread stuffing for the masses. This recipe is great, even if you don't do gluten-free.



I also did Brooke's famous creamed corn. Let's be honest--this thing is a hot bowl of cream cheese and butter with a side of corn. It's SO good!

I also did my GF chocolate cream pie. It's so tasty. I only made one--on purpose.

As I baked, I downed this stuff. Organic Strauss Family Creamery Egg Nog. It's $7 a bottle, and I can only find one bottle per year. It's totally worth the pricetag, and double chin. It's soooo good.


Lancer cheered me on while I baked and cooked away. He was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of ads for Black Friday. He couldn't stop talking about how many ads there were.

Beezie, on the other hand, had no problem researching the best deals as she ate waffles atop the stack of papers.


We packed up our trunk with all of the tasty delights, and headed over to Casa de Gray. I told you I cleaned up nicely! Mamma just needs a flatiron.

I wore my tiny pumpkin pie charm to celebrate the day. It's so cute!


Smooches to Lancer. Thanksgiving marks ten years together. Unbelievable! Thanksgiving 2001, baby. It was epic.

We played

We carved the birds--and made stupid faces. I think Yo's face is European for "This Diet Coke is delicious. Mmmm."

Giggled with friends


We feasted

We learned "new" and "helpful" tricks from Sarah--no doubt pointers on staying up late, escaping your bedroom, stripping down to your undies, and waking up sleeping household members. B soaked it up like a sponge.

"Beezie, clothing is for losers. Naked is where it's at."

Bird #2

I spent so much time whipping, shopping, blending, roasting, and then cleaning up for hours on end that I just couldn't do a "real" bird for the subsequent gatherings. Enter Jenny-O Freezer to Oven turkeys. These babies are a Godsend! No thawing, giblets bags, turkey necks, or poultry thermometers. Just stick the frozen bird in the oven, and retrieve it four painless hours later.

Not bad, eh?

Let's just pretend that it doesn't cook in this weird heat-resistant plastic bag. Look away.

The Andersens invited us over for a Post-Thanksgiving Veg-Out. Lancer kept calling it the "Gobble-Gobble" for some reason. I think this should be the new name for this lovely event.

The ladies of the Gobble-Gobble

The invite specifically stated that no showering was allowed, and that partygoers had to be wearing comfy sweats. We pooled together all of our leftovers, and feasted again. I wore clothing that was both sporty, and expandable.

See-sporty and expandable

Somewhere along the line, we all decided Lancer was the Master Carver. We made him carve all of the birds. He is a good man.

The tasty spread at the Gobble-Gobble

We played, chatted, and feasted like kings. Again.

Black Friday was less exciting than years past. I was planning on hitting stores at Midnight--yes, I'm one of those--but my cold was starting to kick back up again. I learned my lesson from the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn. No good comes after 12 if you're trying to beat a cold. So I stayed home and slept in. I did, however, snag a new Dell laptop online. My craptastic HP died a few weeks ago, and Lancer and I were sharing a laptop--until it broke up with me on account of dirty fingers and misfiled photos. It's for the good of our marriage. I also got a new Nikon camera. It will be my daily use camera that I can keep in my back pocket.

On Saturday, we took a break from turkey and headed up to SF. We stopped in at The Ferry Building--it's one of our favorite stops.

We dined at Gott's Roadside

Lancer and I both got the smoked pork carnitas tacos, sweet potato fries, and a grilled cheese sammi for Beezer. Thumbs up all around--though they changed the formula for the fries, and the old one was decidedly better.


I decided against my normal chocolate milkshake, because I knew the Ferry Building would hold other sweet treats. I was right. Behold...The Cowgirl Creamery Milk Bar.

We had a Goldilocks moment. My Ho-Cho was too bitter, and Lance's vanilla milk was too sweet. We grabbed a 3rd glass, mixed them, and the result was just right.


After we got our drink on, we headed outside to see the Bay Bridge. We decided that it's a majestic beauty, but it's sadly the ugly stepsister to the Golden Gate. No one gives it the respect it deserves.


The plan was to hit HMB on the way home to grab a tree. However, the weather turned, and we decided to just go to the crap tree farm around the corner.

But somebody wasn't having it. Two seconds before MELTDOWN.

So I dropped off those two, and went to an even worse place to get a tree...the Rite-Aid parking lot. It's a serious step down from our romantic adventures in HMB. But sometime you gotta do what you gotta do to just git er done.

I used my guns to load and unload the tree by myself. I drove so slowly people honked and went around me. I was paranoid that it was going to fly off my car and kill a small child on a bike. It didn't.

Our little tree. Before....

.....and after!

and After-After. We had to put up the protective dog gate after B tried to eat an ornament. She was also eying Mrs. Claus.


But, wait! What about bird #3?? Yes, I did a third and final bird tonight. We had the Andersens over for a Round Three. I cooked up another birdy-bird, and we feasted. Again.

Lancer was actually angry by this point. He wanted to retire his fancy Calphalon carving set, but we put him to work.

This is how I eat my Thanksgiving dinner--by creating mini turkey sammis. Start with GF bread, then add the potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, and dip that baby in gravy. So tasty!


And that concludes the roasting and eating of the three birds. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.