Family & Friends Thanksgiving Dinner 2010

Our Thanksgiving was really fun. We invited over Matt's cousins, aunt, and friends to dinner and they brought the desserts. On Wednesday, Matt started cooking around 4:00 and finished around 2:00 with clean up. He also prepped things that needed to cook on Thursday. I set up the entire house, the coffee/utensil area, the dessert/hors d'oeuvres area, and the bar, as well as the dining room and seating area, making sure that the bathrooms were clean and well-stocked with toilet paper, tissues, hand napkins (for drying hands), and breath mints.
Dining Room

Dessert Table

Living Room for hors d'oeuvres

Centerpiece of dining room table

On Thursday, we got up a little late, but everything worked out well. Matt was slowly becoming a tempered "Holiday Mom" because of the time limitations, but we kept to our tasks, and everything went off without a hitch!

Our menu
Hors d'oeuvres: two fruited cheeses & crackers, chicken lollipops, stuffed mushrooms, antipasto, and nuts.
1st Course: Poached D'Anjou pears with cranberry/almond stuffing (pictured below)
2nd Course: Escarole & appricot meatball soup (pictured below)
3rd Course: De-boned turkey, buttered mashed potatoes, carrots, roasted corn, green bean casserole (my recipe - Matt executed), heirloom sweet potatoes (pictured below), gravy, homemade (I made them!) and canned (jellied) cranberry sauce (yes, with the ridges!), pumpkin biscuits, and yeast rolls.
Dessert Course: Pumpkin pie, apple/cranberry pie, toasted coconut cake, pumpkin cupcakes, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing. (all pictured above on the dessert table)

For the first time I think in all the dinners we've hosted over the years, someone brought us a fruit basket! I don't believe anyone's ever brought a fruit basket till this year. Some people don't like them because they are the "last minute" thoughts, but, frankly, I think they can be pretty and I like fruit. We don't have a problem with them, but I've heard others finding them lack luster. This basket given to us yesterday was very pretty and I'm very happy for the basket - in the shape of a turkey! Thing is, there were no bananas, although the little tag said there were supposed to be. AND, just out of curiosity, since the bananas were missing, I weighed the grapes, which were supposed to be a pound. They were 1 ounce under a pound! So, I guess the moral of the fruit basket is, it's best to make your own as a gift rather than rely on the pre-packaged ones; you won't always get what you expect!

Our Thanksgiving was a success, it was fun, and we're full!! I don't think we'll want anymore food for a while. Except for tonight when we have a stuffed pepper at Bellmonte's in Asbury Park!! Looking forward to that! And a bowl of soup.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We're going to be at Santa Saturday, again - traditional party after Thanksgiving for 10+ years now!

See? New Jersey Doesn't Suck!

For those of you that never had the experience of the state, why we are the way we are....

New Jersey (NJ) is actually a peninsula.

Highlands, NJ, has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

NJ is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas.

NJ has more race horses than Kentucky.

NJ has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq mi.) than Havana, Cuba.

NJ has the densest system of highways and railroads in the US.

NJ has the highest cost of living, cost of auto insurance, and property taxes in the nation.

NJ has the most diners in the world is sometimes called the 'Diner Capital of the World.'

NJ is home to the original Mystery Pork Parts Club (no, not Spam): Taylor Ham or Pork Roll.

Home to the less mysterious but the best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w/peppers and onions.

North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major ones.

The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.

NJ has 50+ resort cities & towns; some of the nation's most famous vacation spots: Asbury Park, Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, Ocean City, Long Branch, Cape May.

NJ has the most stringent testing along it's coastline for water quality control than any other seaboard state in the entire country.

NJ is a leading technology & industrial state and is the largest chemical producing state in the nation, when you include pharmaceuticals.

Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.

NJ is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry production (and here you thought Massachusetts?)

The 1st brewery in America opened in Hoboken.

NJ rocks! The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah, in 1940.

NJ is a major seaport state with the largest seaport in the US, located in Elizabeth. Nearly 80% of what our nation imports comes through Elizabeth.

NJ is home to one of the nation's busiest airports (in Newark), Liberty International.

George Washington slept there.

Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on NJ soil, led by General George Washington.

The light bulb, phonograph (record player), and motion picture projector, were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ, laboratory.

NJ also boasts the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.

The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.

The first airmail (to Chicago) was started from Keyport, NJ.

The first phonograph records were made in Camden, NJ.

NJ was home to the Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City.

The game Monopoly, played all over the world, named the streets on its playing board after the actual streets in Atlantic City. And, Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world, not to mention salt water taffy.

NJ has the largest petroleum containment areas outside of the Middle East.

The first Indian reservation was in NJ, in the Watchung Mountains.

NJ has the tallest water-tower in the world (in Union, NJ!).

NJ had the first medical center, in Jersey City.

The Pulaski SkyWay, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.

NJ built the first tunnel under a river, the Hudson River (the Holland Tunnel).

The first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ (birthplace of Frank Sinatra).

The 1st intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889 (Rutgers College played Princeton).

The first drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden, NJ,

NJ is home to both of New York's pro football teams.

Maj. Edwin Howard Armstrong financed the construction of the 1st FM radio station, W2XMN, a 40Kw broadcaster in Alpine, NJ (1937).

The Great Falls in Paterson, on the Passaic River, is the 2nd highest waterfall on the East Coast of the US.

Jersey natives:
Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifah, Susan Sarandon, Connie Francis, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Joan Robertson, Ken Kross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Budd Abbott, Lou Costello, Alan Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Marilynn McCoo, Flip Wilson, Alexander Hamilton, Zack Braff, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Linda McElroy, Eileen Donnelly, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman, Jerry Lewis, Tom Cruise, Joyce Kilmer, Bruce Willis, Caesar Romero, Lauryn Hill, Ice-T, Nick Adams, Nathan Lane, Sandra Dee, Danny DeVito, Richard Conti, Joe Pesci, Joe Piscopo, Joe DePasquale, Robert Blake, Sal Martorano, Rich Echevaria, John Forsythe, Meryl Streep, Loretta Swit, Norman Lloyd, Paul Simon, Jerry Herman, Gorden McCrae, Kevin Spacey, John Travolta, Phyllis Newman, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Eva Marie Saint, Elizabeth Shue, Zebulon Pike, James Fennimore Cooper, Admiral William. Halsey, Jr., Norman Schwarzkopf, Dave Thomas (Wendy's), William Carlos Williams, Ray Liotta, Robert Wuhl, Bob Reyers, Paul Robeson, Ernie Kovacs, Joseph Macchia, Kelly Ripa, and, of course, Francis Albert Sinatra and 'Uncle Floyd' Vivano.

See? New Jersey doesn’t suck. You just have to get out of Elizabeth, Newark, Camden, and Paterson to see more of its beauty and discover what it’s all about.