Thank You, Thanksgiving

Ah Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of the year. So much cooking. So much eating. So much laying around in food coma. I love it. Add to that, my birthday. How can it get any better?

It can't. But it can be marred by a horrible cold. Such cold hit me late on Tues. I suspect the 6 mile run on Monday (and probably all the work related stress) lowered my immune system and made me ripe for the picking. Damn virus/bacteria/whatever got me. Somehow, I dragged my feverish achy body to Whole Foods with Badge to pick up our 14 lb turkey and the ingredients for the brine. Luckily I had already done the majority of my grocery shopping the previous Sunday so we didn't have to stay there long. The rest of the night was spent nursing some Theraflu.

The next morning, I only felt marginally better. But hey it was my birthday so things couldn't be that bad. Plus Monkey flew in that morning. Definitely not that bad. After picking her up from the airport, Badge and I went into work. I meant to take the whole day off but had to go in for a meeting and then stayed the rest of the morning. Finally after noon, I came home and settled in for a 3 hour nap. Feeling refreshed, Monkey and I set about making beef vindaloo and aloo gobi. Overall, quite close to the original. Yum!

After dinner, we lounged and watched Life (just arrived from Amazon) and Sherlock Holmes (fun). It was pretty late but we summoned up enough energy to brine the turkey. Sadly, I didn't have a bucket so we had to jury rig a makeshift plug for the sink (real plug could not be found).


Monkey also proceeded to make a sweet potato casserole with toasted walnuts and lots of butter and brown sugar. Smelled heavenly. Couldn't wait to eat it the next day.

On Thanksgiving morning, I bounced out of bed ready to cook. My throat was still killing me but the excitement of cooking vast amounts of food made it easy to ignore.

First things first: gear up. Gingerbread apron, pajama pants, oversized Guiness slippers...check.


Next, husband sweatshirt, cat apron, pajama pants, bear slippers, misc utensil...check.


Ok, on to the cooking....we made 2 pumpkin pies and 1 pecan pie.



Then we made stuffing, corn pudding casserole, and mac n cheese.



Then we prepped the turkey and popped it in the oven. At this point, we took a breather and relaxed on the couch with our glasses of wine. Monkey did some cat wooing.


I admired the flowers Badge got me for my birthday and the monkey Spike got...for Monkey.


Sadly I wasn't very diligent about taking pics but trust me, the house smelled amazing. As things finished cooking, Badge shuttled them over to Spike and Frog's. Finally, we got dressed and headed over to eat.

The beautiful appetizer table.


The impressive buffet of food.





I'm a dummy and didn't actually get a pic of the turkey in all it's glory, but I did get pics of Monkey and Badge hacking away at it.



The ravenous crowd.





As always, Spike decorated the dining room beautifully. Straight out of a magazine!



After dinner, I was surprised with a delicious ice cream birthday cake! Whoo hoo!



As we all laid on the couch comatose, Adam serenaded us.


Monkey and I enjoyed posing with the cross dressing frog.




The next day, we went to the Carlsbad outlets. I'd never been before and thought it was the perfect opportunity to check it out. There was definitely a crowd but not insanely so. We hit up Barney's, Banana, Gap, Theory and many other random stores. I came away with a dolman sweater, cardigan, striped tshirt, and cotton blazer. Monkey picked up several items as well, including a super cute hugely discounted Theory dress.

That night we went over to Spike and Frogs for a game of Cranium. Very fun. I love how silly it gets. In the end, Monkey and I won because we have the same brain and thus make the ultimate team. Once back home, we continued to munch on leftovers and lounge.

On Saturday, Monkey and I went to Ranch 99 to pick up some items for Monkey to take back to Portland. Apparently there are no asian grocery stores near her apartment. Afterward, we got some boba tea and then went straight to Aqua Day Spa, where we settled in to be pampered (this was my bday present from Badge). Aqua is a korean establishment that looks very unassuming from the outside but is quite nice on the inside. The prices are very reasonable, probably because you receive your treatment in a big room with a bunch of naked ladies. Yup, don't expect a private room and for the love of god, don't come here if you're shy about your body. I'll admit, it was a little odd at first but I quickly got over it. Monkey and I started in the red clay dry spa where we sweated it out for 20 min. Then we took a dip in the jacuzzi and sat in the steam room for about 2 min before bursting out of the intensely hot humidity, gasping for air. We are wusses. Then it was time for our treatments. First, we were scrubbed within an inch of our lives. I'm telling you, no patch of skin on my body was left unscrubbed. If there was a spa prize for most vigorous scrubbing, Aqua would win hands down. Then we got an oil massage which was very nice. Their massages are more like sports massages. These women had hands of steel. Then we got a mini facial in the form of some sort of cucumber paste. Then (yes I'm still going) we got some sort of hair treatment. Finally, we had a seaweed concoction slathered on our bodies and were wrapped up in plastic to incubate. All that pampering took about 2 hours. Monkey and I emerged a little dazed but quite relaxed.

That night, we went to Cucina Urbana for my bday dinner. We got chicken pate and polenta with boar sausage ragu to start. I had pan seared cod, Monkey had short rib pappardelle, and Badge had spicy shrimp puttanesca. For dessert, we had a chocolate mousse like thing and a tart. DELICIOUS. Cucina, you do not disappoint. We also had cocktails and a bottle of wine. Maybe we were dehydrated from the spaing but Monkey and I both went down hard once we got home. We proceeded to watch 2012 (stupid movie) and then pass out.

On Sunday, we went down to Fashion Valley so i could finally get my rings resized (they were too tight and chaffing). We did a bit of shopping then came home. For dinner, we decided to go to Buga for Korean bbq. And to top off the weekend, we busted out Settlers of Catan.



Badge won after acquiring the largest army in the history of Catan.



We polished off the rest of the pie.


Thank you, Thanksgiving for proving once again why you are my favorite holiday. Till next year.

I leave you with this random pic of cinnamon rolls I made earlier this week.


Recipes:
Turkey
Stuffing
Corn Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole (ask Monkey)
Mac n Cheese
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Pie Crust
Cinnamon Rolls