Highlights of Home.

I'm back! I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving...I sure did :) I was a little worried at first since I was sick last week, but I ended up getting better and enjoying my time at home.

So...

I took the train home, which was great. This picture was taken at Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA. See straight across to the other side of the valley? The train tracks curve around to there. If the train is long enough and you're sitting in the front car, you can see the end of the train out the window. So exciting.

My mom picked me up, and after I took a nice long nap, she made us white pizza on her homemade pizza crust. Sooooooo good. I wish I was brave enough to make my own pizza crust.

The crust was so crispy and flaky, and the pizza itself was amazing! Thanks Mom :)

On Wednesday night, I met one of my best friends, Brie, for a couple drinks. We never really get to see each other, so this was really great. We enjoyed a couple of girly drinks - a pineapple spritzer, and...crap I forget the second one!

We picked up Emily and went to the Caddy Shack  to enjoy some of PA's finest brews.

We had a great time :) and sadly, at 23 and 24, we are still all about the potty humor.

Onto Thanksgiving! Emily was in charge of desserts, so I went over to her place and watched :)

She decided to make Pioneer Woman's Nantucket Cranberry Pie and her Pecan Pie. Excellent choices. They were both simply amazing.

She started off with the pecan pie - those are my fork imprints along the edge :)

The goopy stuff that gets poured over the chopped pecans...

The finished pecan pie! Slightly burned, but still very delicious.

The cranberry pie was super easy...just dump cranberries in a buttered pie pan...

...then layer on chopped pecans, some sugar, and then a super easy cake batter.

The finished product! This was so amazing. The cranberries were so tart, and everything else was sweet. Emily added only about 2/3 of the sugar the recipe called for. It just seemed like a lot.

The table was set before everyone got there thanks to my dad's impeccable timing skills.

 Emily and I were ridiculously excited when we found out that my dad was using Bobby Flay's recipe for Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pomegranates and Vanilla Pecan Butter. 

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I loved it! My dad even found the pomegranate molasses to use in the recipe.

 It definitely looks like Thanksgiving in here.

 

The beautiful pre-dinner spread that kept us all quiet until dinner was ready...delicious.

I enjoyed a bloody Mary during the pre-dinner stretch thanks to Lee.

I think Maggie hates having her picture taken :(

Dad used Martha Stewart's cheese cloth soaked in butter trick for the turkey. It looked deeeelicious and smelled like heaven in the whole house!

That's all for now! More exciting Thanksgiving activities later :)