Our first thanksgiving as mom & dad + all the food details

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope your bellies are stuffed if you celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. The best part is enjoying the leftovers without cooking the next day! It was our first Thanksgiving as parents, so I wanted to make sure it was one to remember. I started cooking the night before, woke up at 3:30 am to finish the desserts (I got to bed at 7:30, to be fair!), and cooked all day until it was time to eat around 4 pm. Baking desserts, cooking, and entertaining are one of my favorite things to do, especially with family. 

Before it’s officially Christmas and all things fall and go out the door, I wanted to share some of our photos from our Thanksgiving dinner! I have a few recipe details on the desserts that some of you over on Facebook were asking for! I hope you enjoy these photos! Our little bug loved the potatoes, smashed carrots, shredded turkey, and a few pieces of macaroni and cheese! We kept his normal diet throughout the day but mashed up a few things for him to try, and he LOVED it. He’s super good at chewing now, so it’s fun to experiment with food. I’m still sticking to mostly purees, though. 

Let’s talk about the cake! I used Sally’s Baking Addiction vanilla cake, added almond extract, cinnamon, orange zest, and made it a double layer instead of a triple layer. For the filling, I made homemade mascarpone buttercream. I mixed three sticks of butter, 1/2 cup plain mascarpone, eight cups of powdered sugar, 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, one teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of cinnamon. In the middle layer, I added fresh orange cranberry sauce that I had made the night before. I decorated it with sugar-coated cranberries, powdered sugar, and sugar-coated rosemary. It was DELICIOUS! Serve it chilled 😋 It’s a perfect Christmas cake as well. I think I will make it a tradition always to make a cake during the holidays. 

For my pie crust, I used my pumpkin pie recipe! And for the pecan pie, I used Sally’s Baking Addiction pecan pie recipe, and it was amazing. This was my first time making a pecan pie, and it was so easy! I got creative this time and braided the edges of the pecan pie. I want to get better at pie dough! 

Pies are great for Thanksgiving because you can knock them out the night before!

I always place my produce on the hillside for the neighborhood deer, and it was so cute to see my little deer friend waiting for me! I put it out there every night. I think I’m going to get a deer cam. 
 
Sparkling cranberry juice ♥️  
 I used all of the candles from my wedding!  
We had so much food! But, it’s the leftovers we do it for. 

Roasted vegetables
Roasted potatoes
green bean casserole
cranberry sauce
sausage stuffing
dinner rolls
Mac and cheese
deviled eggs
turkey
shrimp pasta salad
cranberry sauce
brussels sprouts
pumpkin pie
pecan pie
 I brined the turkey 36 hours in advance. I used the whole foods turkey brine kit and added brown sugar, fresh thyme, rosemary, dill, lemons, and oranges. I stuffed the turkey with garlic, celery, oranges, thyme, rosemary, dill, lemons, cranberries, and onions. It was one of the best turkeys I made. 
 

We always do dessert after the kitchen is cleaned. It’s fun to play a board game, put a Christmas movie on, make coffee, and have dessert! 


   
 The cake was a hit!
 Thank you all for stopping by to check out the Thanksgiving photos. I’m going to make some tea, watch a Christmas movie, and relax after putting Bugs down tonight! I hope you all had the best day, did some Black Friday shopping (can’t believe I didn’t buy anything yet!), and spent some time with your family!

Questions for you!

1. What is your favorite Thanksgiving side?
2. Did you go shopping today?
3. Are you already in the Christmas spirit?