This year was my first attempt at hosting Thanksgiving. We emailed some friends (they have a son the same age as ours, the husband is in business school, and the wife is one of my favorite people in the area (oh, and they just got back from Italy as well!)) and they agreed to come even though it would be a vegetarian affair. The husband was apparently very hesitant at first, but he agreed to give it a try.

After a bit of debating back and forth, I decided to go with butternut squash lasagna as the main course. I needed something rich and heavy to make up for the lack of meat. It was a huge hit, and the baby could not stuff the leftovers in his mouth fast enough. I wish I had taken a picture illustrating the layers of spinach roux, lasagna sheets, butternut squash slices, and cheese. Very pretty! This is the recipe I used, and since I have some leftover squash and herbs but no more lasagna noodles I’m going to attempt to turn this into a pasta this week.

When my sister was here, she showed me the easiest green bean recipe EVER.

Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a pan. Snap off the end of your green beans and throw them in the pan, stirring until they turn bright green. Sprinkle a bit of salt/seasoning on top and pour vegetable broth on top (it can be chicken if you’re so inclined). I think I’ve been using about a half cup. Cook it down until the broth is gone and the beans are beginning to carmelize.

How did I not know about this before?

This is called Vadouvan Mac N’ Cheese, and I’m hoping the author (it’s a book I’m going to be reviewing soon) will let me share the recipe here, because it is a winner. I plan to impress guests with this dish for many years to come.

I used REALLY BIG elbow shaped noodles because they hold more cheese that way. :)

Our friend brought a few things, including this butternut squash soup with pumpkin and cream cheese. Anyone who uses cream cheese liberally is more than welcome to share diner with us as often as they please.

I splurged on flowers  for the table, and used a piece of fabric with ragged edges I picked up from Joann’s once.

The babies wore matching Ikea bibs (if you have a toddler and you don’t have these, get some).
That orange blob in the background? Mashed potatoes with sweet potato and cream cheese. See what I mean about the cream cheese? They brought pumpkin roll too, which is a childhood favorite of mine (and best eaten from the freezer if you didn’t know).

Dessert was the aforementioned pumpkin roll, along with my first apple pie (crisp). I used another recipe from the cookbook I mentioned above, but it wasn’t the grand finale I was hoping for. The crisp part overpowered the apple part. Maybe I didn’t use enough apples? I did find a whole wheat crust that I plan on using as my go-to pie crust from now on.

It was a lot of work, but I loved it all (especially the part when That Husband didn’t allow me to do any of the clean-up, letting me lounge around and digest while watching TV instead). I’m looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving in the future. As long as we can find more friends willing to go turkey-free on Turkey Day. :)

At the table we went around and said one thing we frivolous thing we are thankful for, and one deep thing we are thankful for.

My frivolous thing is my iphone. Deep down I know I could function without it, but superficially I can’t imagine how I would.

My deep thing is a husband with ambition and job security.

I am living an incredibly, deeply, overwhelmingly blessed life, better than I even imagined as a young girl. I spend time on my knees telling God how grateful I am for all of it, but it never feels like enough. What a lucky, lucky, lucky girl I am.

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