Over the past few days I have indulged. I've slept in. I've lounged in pjs. I've consumed extra cups of coffee in the morning and beers with friends in the afternoons and evenings. M. and I have had two Thanksgiving dinners. The first was a delicious meal hosted by some friends. There were about twenty people there, including our two closest friends in Anchorage. My friend and I were both attired in outfits that involved oxblood, as you can sort of see from the photo below. It was a fun evening spent chatting and eating. There was an array of dishes: ham, turkey, mushroom and rice dressing, cranberry ambrosia, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, and roasted root vegetables. My contribution was a sweet potato casserole. The selection of desserts was also impressive with pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheese cake, almond cake, a caramel tart, sweet potato ice cream with candied pecans, and chocolates. I tried a little of everything, including the dreaded brussel sprouts. I found out that roasting them is definitely the way to go. While I don't see them becoming a staple in our household, as M. doesn't like them, I enjoyed them and was able to cross an item off my 32 in 32 list.
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| Thanksgiving Dinner Take 1 |
I also wanted to make my own dinner since I knew that some of the dishes that I associate with Thanksgiving would not be on the table at dinner on Thursday evening. We had initially thought about doing our second meal on Friday, but we decided to meet up with some friends at Midnight Sun Brewery for a late lunch and a couple of beers and then to acquire our Christmas tree instead. So on Saturday I cooked a smaller scale meal at home including my favorite cornbread dressing as well as green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and some more sweet potato casserole.
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| Thanksgiving Dinner Take 2 |
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| Tree 2012 |
Although I've been indulging more than usual, I've also been continuing to hit my yoga mat and logging the miles. I have practiced yoga for 25 consecutive days now, and I have noticed that I'm making some gains in upper body strength. I'm still not as strong as I would like to be, but I can hold plank for a bit longer now and downward facing dog is becoming less intense for me -- though it is still not the resting pose that it is for more advanced practitioners. I've also noticed some minor gains in flexibility and that I'm becoming a little less Monty Burns-ish in my posture. A friend back in the Midwest convinced me to attempt the
2012 Holiday Running Streak that Runner's World is challenging readers to do from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. Initially I wasn't sure about starting a running streak while in the middle of attempting to maintain a daily yoga practice for a whole month, but at four days into running at least a mile a day I'm feeling relatively optimistic.
Are you participating in the holiday running streak? What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?
I think my FAVORITE is my sweet potato/yam casserole. But I also love the stuffing, the homemade turkey gravy, the homemade cranberry sauce, the pumpkin pie, etc etc. I mentioned at our dinner that it's pretty much all my favorite foods!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is pie, for sure. I am a dessert kind of lady.
ReplyDeletelooks like quite a feast, and i love the paisley plates.
ReplyDeleteChic on the Cheap
Both of those Thanksgiving meals look great! We did the same thing, but we had turkey dinner the Saturday before and then had it again on Thursday. I could eat turkey and sides every day, especially sweet potatoes!
ReplyDeleteI love it - doubling down on turkey and on streaks!
ReplyDelete(How's yoga going, by the way???)
PS - sprouts really are best roasted!
Wow, nice job on the yoga streak! But you are brave, starting another streak on top of yoga :-) I think I might like to do a running streak some time...it's one of those things I think about every now and again. When I ran in college, I ran six days a week for almost four months, and there is something nice about knowing that every day, you will run. It becomes a daily pleasure, I think.
ReplyDeleteNice work on the yoga streak! That is awesome! Downward dog is NOT a resting pose for me either and I am always glad when the instructor tells us it's the last one of the class. ;)
ReplyDeleteMy fave dish at Thanksgiving is the stuffing. My mom makes me my own little dish of GF stuffing and it's to die for with some gravy on it. Super healthy, too. ;) I also love mashed potatoes - I eat them year round, but only with gravy on T-giving and Christmas!