My mom requested something low key for her birthday dinner, so I thought a fall pizza and some salad would fit the bill. I roasted a butternut squash at home the night before her birthday, and after work on Wednesday I planned to stop at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods to get the rest of the ingredients for dinner. I was in the birthday mindset, and had totally forgotten that it was also Thanksgiving Eve! Both the Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in Fresh Pond were absolutely packed with people finishing their holiday meal shopping. The hardest decision for me came when I had to choose some desserts. Whole Foods has the most amazing desserts!
My brother and I made Butternut Squash, Spinach, Onion and Ricotta Pizza (the same kind I made back in September). I love trying new things, but sometimes you need to have an old favorite. Here's the pizza before being cooked:
We also made a salad with organic mixed greens, mushrooms, tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, and apple. We drizzled a little bit of olive oil on top and added some Parmesan cheese. Lots of vegetables in this birthday dinner!
For dessert we sampled bites from the four desserts I selected at Whole Foods:
(Clockwise the desserts are: fruit and custard tart, espresso tiramisu, pumpkin spice roll, and flourless chocolate cake).
Thursday was Thanksgiving...Pat and I got up early to head down to the south shore to see his family. The first stop was at his mom's house, where we helped finish preparing the meal. She made turkey (covered in bacon to keep the bird moist and infuse some extra flavor), mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, pearl onions, butternut squash, and cranberry sauce. It was delicious! Unfortunately afterwards we pulled the typical "chew and screw" and rushed over to Pat's dad's house for our second Thanksgiving meal, which consisted of the same dishes, except he made carrots instead of onions. Everything was prepared a little bit differently, but it all tasted amazing. Pat's family certainly knows how to cook! And if you can believe it, after my two Thanksgiving dinners (in a two hour time span) I still had room for pie. Pat's dad made a squash pie totally from scratch using a family recipe, which was so good. I've had pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie, but never squash. This is definitely a new favorite! Pat took down the recipe for the crust and filling so we can make it at home. Of course I forgot to take pictures of my wonderful Thanksgiving feasts, I think I was a little bit too absorbed in eating them. It was a great holiday, and I hope everyone enjoyed theirs as well!
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