Happy Black Friday!

How was your Thanksgiving celebration? Hope it was filled with joy, great company and good food! Boy, I was full…as always! This was mine and my son’s 7th year celebration of Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and just like the previous years, we celebrated it at my brother-in-law’s house together with his family. What made this year’s Thanksgiving extra-special though is it was also this day seven years ago when me and my son arrived in the U.S. so we also celebrated our 7th year anniversary of being here.

Thanksgiving isn’t a celebrated holiday in the Philippines but we have a lot to be thankful and grateful for since we arrived here in America. As it was, we celebrated our first Thanksgiving here just two days after we arrived those 7-years ago.

And as always, my sister-in-law prepared a feast…a superb feast at that. She is a phenomenal cook and she never fails to feed our tummies with great food. I still remember our first Thanksgiving and I was anxious on what to expect the first time as I saw all the food. More often than not, she prepares traditional Thanksgiving food which was all new to me, but she sure made a big first impression. From then on, the food is one of the reasons why I always look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with them.

Today I’m sharing all the goodies that was yesterday’s Thanksgiving feast. I know a lot of people always share the food that they feast on on Thanksgiving and it’s usually prettier than this. I chose to share the aftermath after everyone in the family got their plates full. So yeah, after I asked permission from my SIL that I could take photos of the food, she replied yes without second thoughts, but added that it’s not going to be pretty anymore. She was right alright, but the most important thing for me was…how the food tasted and not how they looked.

TURKEY

The queen of the celebration!

GRAVY

The turkey sure doesn’t taste as good without the gravy! Gravy was always my late mother-in-law’s specialty according to my hubby. Unfortunately, I never got to meet her.

STUFFINGS

There were two of them. Another of my late mother-in-law’s specialties, as well as her own mother; they both did this preparation on Thanksgiving’s past.

SIDE DISHES

Brussels sprouts with acorn squash, pecans and cranberries, glazed with maple syrup.

Greasy beans, a variety whose home is here in the mountains of Western North Carolina; one of hubby’s favorite vegetables.

Mashed potatoes, another of the hub’s favorites.

Cream style corn.

Sweet potatoes with pecans.

Gorgonzola red skin potato salad. We brought this to share.

DESSERTS

 Pound cake.

Pumpkin pie, made from the recipe that my late mother-in-law left behind.

TABLE CENTERPIECE

Let me just add this heart-shaped centerpiece with such a unique color. Isn’t that amazing?

Happy Belated Thanksgiving y’all!