The Adventures of Mrs. Muller: Let the Holiday Season begin!

Scott Babe and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time this year. My in-laws came up from Virginia to celebrate with us. This was a great excuse for me to use a few Williams Sonoma gift cards that I had saved up to get a gorgeous table cloth and matching napkins for the occasion. (Thank you, Jeff & Scott!) We put thought into the menu and I believe we had the most tasty feast ever! Scott was guided by the November issue of Bon Appetit and a few tips from Alton Brown. He mastered the carving years ago when he watched Jacques Pépin on TV. :-)

Scott's Grandma Rona's silverware from the 1950s and our Hungarian glasses, a gift from my beloved Austrian host mother 10 years ago.

We had a plan!

Scott babe doing the dirty work! He smothered the turkey with butter, herbs and lemon zest!

Ginger waits patiently for the bird to cook.

A couple of tricks to a moist turkey -- stuff it with onion, lemon and orange and let it rest for a full hour before carving!

Marcia's pic of us just before 6 pm as we finish up the gravy and side dishes to serve.

Another pic from Marcia -- Jim relaxing with Ginger. ♥

Master carving, don't you think?

I LOVED our feast!

Barefoot Contessa mashed potatoes and asparagus. Stuffing by Mark Bittman based on a wonderful recipe by James Beard; Canned cranberry sauce; homemade gravy; Marcia's recipe for the candied sweet potatoes.

Delicious pecan pie with a shot of rum and crystallized ginger!
Click here for recipe.

Too much turkey for Charlie!

Black Friday:

I don't remember the last time I worked on Black Friday but the positive was that the train was empty! Not even the fruit stand guy was working outside of Penn Station. I ended up taking a leisurely lunch up to Rockefeller Center to check out the skaters and the tree. Boy, was it crowded!

Everything seemed to be surrounded by scaffolding! From St. Patrick's Cathedral to the darn tree!