I hope that those of you United Statesians enjoyed your Thanksgiving yesterday! We truly did...it was a really lovely day. It was my first Thanksgiving on my own, and I think Josiah's, too. I read that people refer to these gatherings of misfits (who can't or just don't go home) as "Orphan Thanksgivings", and it struck me as very cute that there is a name for these things. Ashley and Drew came over to join us for dinner, and there was so much laughing, wine, genuine good cheer, and so very many carbohydrates.
This is some of what I made for the festive day (curiously, my photos seem to mainly be of desserts! Hmmm...)
Thanksgiving Macaro(o)ns! I couldn't help myself.
The opal-ly pink ones are filled with cranberry-buttercream. They were insane. Insane! I'm learning on my odyssey with these cookies that the less-sweet the filling, the better (because the cookies themselves are so sugary). The miniature ones jumbled alongside them are chocolate with orange-cream cheese filling (the chocolate mac recipe came from David Lebovitz).
I also made a little pinecone cheeseball like Heidi posted a few weeks ago. They're so flipping cute! Mine was just cream cheese + herbed goat cheese. It was meant for snacking before the big meal, but we ended up devouring it at 9:30 pm as we sat around the table and talked and talked.
I just realized as I was writing this that the little candle-centerpiece above includes a pumpkin from the trip the four of us took to Sauvie Island. And as you can see, both a regular-turkey and a Tofurkey graced our banquet.
Drew took this photo as the taper candle dwindled into one-ness with the pumpkin (that was around the time we finally ate the cheeseball).
We finished off the night with a pumpkin cheesecake I made Wednesday night. Those things are so good (especially for a non-pumpkin-pie-person), and there are so many recipes for them out there now! To make the pattern, I just dusted ground cloves over a doily I had laid on top. It was an easy little impromptu trick, and I think it gave it a sort of disheveled elegance.
Today I'm going to work on some little dolls for the upcoming update, and go to see Milk, which I've been excited for since I saw the trailer a few months ago. His story (this documentary tells it well) is so fascinating, sad, and virtuous all once. And goodness, Gus Van Sant could never have known what a timely movie it would be upon its November 2008 release.
Happy Friday!