Thanksgiving Dinner

Dinner was at 4pm. We were home by 6:30 -- we got back into our lounging attire, Mark played his guitar for a bit, and I've just been online browsing around for Black Friday deals.
Then the tryptophan hits him..."I'm just going to lay down for a sec...." and a few seconds later, he was out cold.

Diego and Mark, doing what they do best: Snoring!

Michelle: ::nudge:: "Honey, it's only 8pm, when do you want me to wake you up?"
Mark: ::grunts:: Never! ::goes back to sleep::

SO MUCH FOR PUTTING UP THE TREE!

Ready, set... Eat!

Do any of you watch Stylista? It's a reality show that I watched once and keep seeing the commercials for... basically a bunch of trendy kids fighting to the death for a position at Elle magazine. There's one girl on there that has been driving me crazy -- she looks so familiar! Where have I seen her before? Was she on some other show? Ugggh! A google search later, I realized that her name is Kate Gallagher, and I went to middle school with her. No wonder! As a matter of fact, I remember being impressed with her eyeshadow in 7th grade...

Mark and I have decided to go to a Thanksgiving buffet over at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Sacramento. I've managed to completely ruin the prospect of eating turkey by reading about how smart these birds are and how horrible their lives are when raised for food. I recommend educating yourself about it AFTER Thanksgiving. Turkeys get a bad rap, man. I am going to have a pet turkey one day.

With the holidays comes weight gain... so I've been cooking healthier meals for both of us in hopes that we can maybe shed a few pounds rather than gain more. Mark will eat anything as long as it tastes good, so making him eat healthy food has been surprisingly easy. I'm trying to establish good habits for both of us so that when New Year's and it's optimistic resolutions come around, we'll have a fighting chance.

Here are this week's hits:
Spinach Souffle Stuffed Chicken: This is way easy and you can make your own variations; I didn't have the stouffers souffle on hand, so I just made my own souffle and sauteed the chicken breasts instead.

Pistachio Encrusted Chicken Salad with Avocado Dressing: A little more labor intensive, but super duper good. Probably my favorite! Make the people you feed clean up all the dishes afterward and it becomes less of a pain in the ass to make.

Kidney Bean Salad with Mediterranean Dressing: This was a big surprise... Mark loved it and I just tolerated it. It's pretty good, but it screams healthy... I may have to just develop a taste for it. I added Dijon Mustard to the leftover dressing and topped a chicken breast with it to make this a complete dinner.

In other news, we are trying to configure our Christmas plans. So far it looks like we'll be driving to So Cal, with the dogs, to see Mark's family. Then I'll pick up my sister, bring her back with me to Davis, then fly Danielle up to visit for a few days, since she'll be here from Brazil. Mark's staying down south for few days to hang out with friends, then driving up here with them. Hopefully the timing will work out so that we don't have 147 people here at once. This just means that I need to have the place unpacked and looking like a normal house by then. We're probably putting up the tree after dinner tomorrow... so I'd love to finally get pictures of this place up. 3 months to get settled... not too bad, right???

Now... time to find some stretchy pants to accommodate the delicious thanksgiving fare (sans turkey!) that I am going to consume tomorrow.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

Green Beans and Good Times

There's something terribly intimidating about writing the first blog post -- it's as if it will set the tone forever and ever. Of course this isn't the case; I'm pretty sure it's just procrastination masquerading around as intimidation. So I'll just write about what is near and dear to my heart: Food.
Last night we went to our neighbor's house for an early thanksgiving. They're doing the traditional thing with family next week, but they got a free turkey from the supermarket a few days ago and decided to have a pre-game Thanksgiving warm-up. Mark and I made a green bean casserole that was TO DIE FOR! This is going to be my go-to recipe from now on, until eternity: World's Best Green Bean Casserole.
So even though Mark and I aren't really sure about what we're going to do for the actual holiday, I would be just as happy not do anything at all. Last night was so great that it is as if we celebrated on the right day. ...and that's the point, right? But then again, any excuse to get a second serving of stuffing and gravy and cranberries and.... yeah, we'd better plan on doing something.
My neighbors are Laurel, a grad student, and Sarah and Blake, a Phd student and her boyfriend. I don't see much of Laurel, but Sarah and Blake are awesome. Blake plays guitar, so he and Mark automatically have something to talk about all the time. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of 10 other students from Sarah's Phd program. The conversation was interesting, and they were all so very nice. And appreciative of a good meal. Even when politics came up at the table (prop 8, anyone?) it was calm, intelligent discussion. And of course, I had a few aahhhhhh I'm in Daaaavis!!! moments throughout the night. We drank way too much wine, had great laughs, and staggered home.
And speaking of wine... the Winemaking class that I'm taking this quarter is making me obnoxious. I'm a nightmare to go wine shopping with; I read every label, recite the history and the characteristics of the region and the grapes, etc etc. It's all very interesting, yes, but I'm becoming a wine snob. For example, at dinner last night, Blake opened up a bottle of wine that was homemade by a family friend. Everyone drank it... but I couldn't get past the smell of it. It was as if it was bottled next to a dairy farm. And then it tasted like a sweaty horse smells. I immediately knew that Brettanomyces yeast had formed during the fermentation. Thank you, winemaking class.

But... if you want to check out a yummy wine, I suggest Yellowtail's Shiraz-Cabernet blend. It's delish. And I won't even make you listen to the history of it.

disclaimer: I'm a bit odd when it comes to wine flavors; I'm into fruitier, lighter wines. Girlie wines. So if you're into strong bodied, old school flavor, this might not be right for you.