I’m totally not in the holiday spirit this year. I thought I was kind of blah about this last year, but after Sandy, it’s been kind of depressing and sad and a bit selfish to be spending all this dough (*kneeslap*) on presents when some people barely have basic food/water/shelter/clothing =/ I’m so incredibly grateful that we were lucky, but ever since Halloween, I just haven’t been into it, and it’s tough b/c I LOVE the holidays. I’m one of those weird people that gets her Christmas gift shopping done before November 1, and this year I’m just having a complete brain fart when it comes to anything holiday-related. The only thing we’ve done is ordered Christmas postcards, and that was somewhat half assed because Vin designed them, they’re postcards, and I’m only sending them out to you if I already have your address on hand. I don’t know what presents to get anyone and I don’t feel like decorating and I don’t feel enthusiastic about baking. Thanksgiving is in T minus 3 days from the time I’m starting to write this post and I still have no clue what to make for the T house dinner and when I see my parents on Saturday. I’m just… blah and frustrated.
I spent the 2 days leading up to Party Time Wednesday (apparently Thanksgiving eve is one of the biggest nights out of the year and clubs and bars are ridiculously stuffed *ba DUM tsssss* with people gearing up for that mega dose of family time), flipping through food magazines and clicking on a bunch of sites to try to spark any ideas. Bread? Cakes? Cupcakes? Tarts? Maple syrup? Pear? Cranberry? Apple? Bacon? Pumpkin? Chocolate? ALL OF THE ABOVE??? It just fizzled. I didn’t want to make any pies because Vin’s other relatives always bring them, and his sister makes one of THE best cheesecakes, so I steered clear of those desserts. I scribbled all my potential pastry prospects in my cake notebook and it looked like the musings of a madman, an Einstein that inhaled too much sugar, perhaps, but definitely not the plans of a sane, organized chef. AND I still had to work on Wednesday, so I wouldn’t have time or energy to do anything elaborate, like a cake that looked like a turkey. (Maybe next year, if I had a day off before Thanksgiving.) My indecisiveness had bested me yet again!
Vin had taken the day off on Wednesday and already prepared delicious tomato, olive and cheese bites for the next day, and being that he and I are pretty much the best @ everything =D whatever I brought to the table (*zing!*) had better be excellent, too. On the lovely train ride home in the suburban sardine can known as the LIRR, I looked through my recipe idea scribblings again and pretty much decided I’d combine as many flavors as possible and make two things. I didn’t want to bring just cupcakes to Thanksgiving, even though they’re my specialty, but since I wasn’t making a cake and there were birthdays to celebrate, I decided to kind of make some anyway. Muffins… cupcakes… close enough. I thought I’d be pumpkin’d out from the pre-Sandy weekend, but I was kind of indifferent. Plus, I knew the pumpkin-cream cheese combo was a winner with the pumpkin-cream cheese-caramel frosting, so eh, I might as well make more. It just really really irks me to repeat something again so soon. Bah!
So I made 18 whoopie pies for the T house dinner and the rest of the batter was scooped into cupcake wrappers for my family. After gorging on the delicious buffet Vin’s mom prepared (turkey, pasta, salads, artichokes, chicken, mashed potatoes with mozzarella, stuffed mushrooms, omg I can keep going…), the long-awaited dessert table was set up. My scribble of cream cheese topping looked like “M”s and little birthday boy Matthew got excited and thought they were all for him (ahhhhh he’s so cute, I love him!). I got nods and thumbs up for it =) After everything was cleaned up, there were 4 whoopie pies left… which is not a bad showing considering there was a TON of dessert spread out on the table, and each “pie” is the equivalent of 2 cupcakes. That’s a LOT of dessert.
Thanksgiving at my parents’ house was more low key and less hectic since there were only 2 little tikes, as opposed to the 293509 babies at Vin’s parents’ house. haha My mom had turkey, but also egg rolls and sticky rice and random dishes and sides my family was comfortably used to. The cupcakes were brought out after dinner, and I made JUST enough for everyone. (Unfortunately, no pics were snapped before consumption.) Everyone watched “The Avengers” in a comatose state after eating, and then Vin and I embarked on the 4+ hour drive home. It was a nice way to end the holiday weekend, and I didn’t feel so “bah humbug”-y after all…
