Weekends are always too short!
Saturday
Sorry for not posting this weekend, but I just didn’t make it to the computer! But let’s jump right into it. Saturday morning, I went to another Bootycamp SB Class to take notes and learn more exercises and how to teach the class. Learned some cool new moves like Partner Push ups. For Brunch, James and I went to the Coffee Cat and I had a lovely Caramel Gingerbread Latte, and James had absolutely the most delicious Pumpkin Latte ever. It tasted exactly like pumpkin pie!
And then we headed down State St to go to Backyard Bowls, a new joint I’ve been wanting to try out. They have smoothies and Acai Bowls. I’ve never had an acai bowl before, so we ordered one of those. Good gracious it was yummy! I guess I would describe it as a super thick smoothie made of fruits and acai, and topped with granola and more fresh fruit. It’s served in a bowl, and you eat it with a spoon. It had a great, mild sweetness, and tartness from the berries. It was smooth, rich, cool, and healthy! It’s so yummy, and I most DEFINITELY want to go back to try new flavors! π
The rest of Saturday was spent on my bed. I was just soooooooooooo fatigued, I couldn’t do ANYTHING. Not even read blogs! (Gasp!) I was too tired to even nap. I just kind of sat/laid on my bed all afternoon until I managed to drag my ass out of bed to bake a batch of Non Fat Apple-Pumpkin-Banana Muffins. I just kind of made of the recipe from all the leftover food I had lying around, but they turned out PERFECT! So moist and flavorful. Yum. Sorry, no photos, but please use your imagination to visualize a brown looking muffin. π
Sunday
Now onto Sunday. Good Golly. What a day!
My house had it’s like, 8th Annual Thanksgiving Feast.
Apparently, it’s been a long tradition at our house. Since I moved into my house this June, it was my first time partaking in this gastronomical festival. One of my housemates is some sort of genius in the kitchen (wooooah, how come I didn’t know about this!!!! hello, new best friend! π ), and heΒ cooked up a Thanksgiving Spread for 20 PEOPLE. Yes, you heard it right, 20 friggin people!!! And he went all out, with a baked ham, a 24 pound turkey, yams, taters, green beans…. champagne….. Dang!
The day started off at 10am with some football and a cracker/cheese/salami/chips/coffee/mimosa spread.

Morning spread
It was amazing. I woke up to the smell of stuffing being made, and champagne to start off my day. Fantastic! Our hose was decorated all pretty, and I was just so excited to help in the kitchen and eat all this yummy food! I was in charge of the cornbread muffins (We used TJ’s cornbread mix, and added a can of corn kernels), the Caesar salad, chopping the taters for the world’s yummiest mashed potatoes (I’m not kidding. They were OUTRAGEOUSLY fantastic), chopping up the apples, and other odd jobs here and there. It was so much fun to have so many people eating, drinking, and cooking in our kitchen to some Bob Marley tunes. Nothing like cookin up good eats to some reggae! π
We set up a huuuuuge conglomerate of tables in our living room so we could all eat together instead of separating into separate tables.
And here is the biggest turkey I have ever seen

Huge effin bird
A little over half the bird fed 20 people. And here is the Master Chef and the man of the night carving up the turkey

Ridiculously moist turkey
I haven’t eaten that many turkeys in my life (we don’t do Thanksgiving in Japan), but this was quite possibly the most moist and delicious turkey ever. He had stuffed it with fresh herbs and veggies, and the entire turkey had this great Rosemary flavor going through it. It seriously did not need ANY gravy! It was so flavorful and amazing.
And since we had so many people we served gravy in pitchers (for those who wanted it)

pitchers of gravy
Here is my yummy spread before I went for seconds! π

so delicious
Other than the turkey, there were two dishes I absolutely adored. First was the cranberry sauce. My housemat had combined a can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce with a can of crushed pineapples. I never in a million years would have thought to put those two together, but I am so glad he did! It was out of control. So tart, sweet, and refreshing. And you know what the best part is? It’s horrifically good on top of vanilla ice cream.
My other favorite side dish was the yams. We baked half of it with some marshmallows on top, and the other half with this pecan pie-ish topping on top. Yowza. I lost all control. Seriously good. Too good. Drool….
We also had a great collection of some fantastic wines, courtesy of our guests. Here are two of my favorites

Red and white
And don’t forget the dessert. We had pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, ice cream, and hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps. Seriously. OMG.

heavenly
Clearly, everyone was STUFFED beyond belief after this feast. Some guys damn near passed out and James thought he was gonna have an athsma attack from all this food! Haha. It was so good. We all joked that we probably weren’t gonna be able to eat until acutal Thanksgiving becasue we were all so full! π
So anyway, that is why I had a huuuuuge food hangover this morning. I thought I would have a light, refreshing lunch, but goshdarnit. All the left overs looked so good, I ended up having another feast. Oh well. It’s only once a year. I’ll splurge π It’s so good it’s worth all the heart clogging calories. I’ll go on a run or something later, lol!
So sorry for not posting, I promise I will keep you updated better this week!
I hope everyone had a gorgeous weekend andΒ great Monday.
Oh! And today is James’ birthday. Wish him a good one! π
I want that aΓ§ai bowl and pecan pie!! π
Happy birthday to James!!
By: VeggieGirl on November 25, 2008
at 12:20 am
That acai bowl looks amazing. And delicious thanksgiving food π
I found your blog through Tina’s with your guest post. Lovely!
By: Maggie on November 25, 2008
at 12:41 am
looks like a great weekend!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Kelly Turner
http://www.groundedfitness.com
By: Grounded Fitness on November 25, 2008
at 12:43 am
Pecan pie is seriously my weakness.
By: marafaye on November 25, 2008
at 12:59 am
So jealous that you’ve already begun to celebrate thanksgiving~~
so many good food!!!!
By: coco on November 25, 2008
at 2:03 am
Happy hatchday James!
Gosh, that is an insane amount of food for thanksgiving. I haven’t eaten pecan pie in years and my country doesn’t celebrate thanksgiving as well. Although I was invited to a thanksgiving dinner last year and the host roasted a turkey along with potatoes cooked in goose fat.
That acai bowl looks heavenly and must be so cooling on a hot day.
By: Alicia on November 25, 2008
at 6:40 am
Thanks for all the birthday wishes! π
I relayed them to James, and he blushed and said thank you.
You’re all so sweet. π
Mara- Pecan pie=can’t stop!!!! Especially if there is ice cream to go on top…..!
Maggie – Thanks for stopping by!
By: Santa Barbara Dreaming on November 25, 2008
at 7:56 pm
[…] yeah, maybe I am easily impressed. Becasue when I got home, my housemate who had cooked us an amazing Thanksgiving dinner had made soup using homemade turkey stock! I was quite impressed by his culinary skills. Making […]
By: Mr Chiropractor! Thank youuuuuu! « Santa Barbara Dreaming on December 4, 2008
at 12:35 am