When we first signed up to run a half on Thanksgiving Day, we figured we’d be spending the rest of the day eating Boston Market by ourselves. Luckily, Brad’s parents came to visit and helped us with the shopping, prepping and cooking, and even though we celebrated a day late, we ended up having our first real Thanksgiving in our new house.
I was thrilled to finally have a chance to use the china and flatware from our wedding registry. It’s seriously been sitting in our cabinet a year and a half without being used at all, and that ain’t right. I mean, look how pretty it is!
I believe this is the first time I’ve shared a picture of our new dining room furniture, too. Voila!
We had the table custom-made by Bassett. I’d had my heart set on rustic reclaimed wood, but we just couldn’t find a reasonably-priced one that we liked. This one has two leaves, so it can seat up to eight people (or maybe 10 – we haven’t tried yet), and it has a protective finish, and the dark wood does match our other furniture better. It’s for the best, really. We got the ghost chairs from Amazon, and I LOVE THEM. They are SO much more comfortable and sturdy than I thought they’d be – especially with the Ikea sheepskins.
I picked up the linen runner and napkins from Crate & Barrel, literally three days before Thanksgiving, because I am excellent at planning ahead.
The silver tray and the salt and pepper shakers are Michael Aram from our wedding registry. I love them.
You can tell I did a really good job ironing the runner.
Anyway, preparing the meal was a two-day team effort. Brad’s parents got us a new grill as an early Christmas gift, and Brad was massively excited to grill the turkey on it.
I had no idea you could grill a turkey, but it came out amazing, so um, I guess you can.
The stuffing came from this recipe, and it was delicious. We piled it onto our giant platter (another last minute Crate & Barrel purchase) along with the turkey.
We also made bacon-wrapped green beans, using this recipe. We made ours on a broiling rack instead of letting them cook in the bacon grease, and I think they suffered for it. But the bacon part was good!
The sauteed carrots with lemon and marjoram came from this recipe, and I thought they were pretty dank. (Do people still say dank?)
The corn pudding and potatoes were both from family recipes.
I was given permission to share the recipe for the corn pudding – which was SERIOUSLY INSANELY GOOD – so I’ll put that in another post if y’all are interested!
All this plus cranberry sauce (canned, duh) and gravy (jarred, duh) made for a pretty full table.
And of course, we finished it off with apple pie, which Brad and his mom made from scratch, and blueberry pie, which I made from a box found in the freezer section. Yuuuup.
It’s not Thanksgiving until you’ve Instagrammed a picture of your plate. Here’s mine!
We polled the table on what was the best dish, and while not everyone voted officially, I think the corn pudding may have won.
What was the best dish at your Thanksgiving table?
