Take A Bite

It's the countdown to the big day. My favorite holiday is just 3 days away! I'm getting anxious and can't wait much longer. I can't wait for family to get into town, to make pies on pies on pies, to drown myself in dressing and creamed corn and spend the rest of the weekend with a massive food baby. This truly is the best time of the year.

I skipped ahead a bit and let myself start listening to Christmas music last Friday! It's all apart of the season in my mind. And last night I had a taste of Thanksgiving with my 2nd annual Friendsgiving. You can see bites from the night down below, and read about the 1st annual here.

-Shared my tips last week on how I stay hydrated during the winter.
-My favorite salad in the city, is the grilled shrimp salad from Republic! Second location now open in Chisholm Creek!
-Loved have Madison & Peyton, formerly from Identical Ideals, soon to be from The Honeypot, here guest posting last week. Make sure to read their Book Club and Season for Senses posts!
-If you are in OKC, go try out the Provision Kitchen hot bar at lunch. It's so good and fueled mom and I all day while we started in on our Thanksgiving grocery shopping.
-Another spot you need to try is Goro Ramen + Izakaya (meaning Japanese pub). Their steamed buns and spicy miso ramen are phenom.
-I posted about it last week, but I can't get enough. I had the other half of my Burrata, Prosciutto, Arugula Trader Joe's flatbread and it's too good. Make sure to add some maldon salt and thinly sliced apples on top!
-We last minute needed another dessert on our Friendsgiving table, so instead of pie, I made my Pecan Pie Bars, a delicious recipe from the TAB archives.
-One of my contributions to Friendsgiving was the dressing. I love that this is a chance to venture out from our classic recipes a bit and try something new. I used this Barre3 recipe and LOVED it. I used their recipe for cranberry sauce too!
-Friendsgiving is starting to rival the real deal!

Annie

To be honest, I can't believe I haven't had a Friendsgiving before now. Friendsgiving has become pretty trendy in the past few years, but we all know I'm not afraid to jump on a trend bandwagon. Friendsgiving pretty much combines all of my favorite things. Friends, food and Thanksgiving.

Our first Friendsgiving was a success. It was potluck style so everyone contributed something making it very easy on myself. All paper everything made clean up so easy. I had a little too much fun planning for this night, I'm already brainstorming next years...

My contribution was this Pumpkin Galette. This is a recipe I pulled from the archives of my Pinterest. I've had it pinned for so long waiting for an opportunity to make it!

Not that I thought the food wouldn't be good, but I was extremely impressed with what everyone made. I love how most people brought old family recipes to share . There was Kathleen's ham, Bailey's sweet potatoes, Alex's stuffing, Madeline's green beans, Katie's cheesy au gratin potatoes, Sarah's butternut squash salad, Sarah Beth's brussels sprouts, Katie's corn casserole, Coralee's caesar salad, Sister Schubert's rolls (the best) brought by Kenzie!

Lindsay's date cookies, my pumpkin galette, Kathleen's apple cider cheesecake, Maddie's cherry pie, Lauren's pumpkin cookies, Alexis's chocolate candies, Elaine's pecan pie, pumpkin pie from Lauren, and Katie's caramel marshmallow popcorn! Not pictured was all the cheese to start the night courtesy of Stacia, Betsy, Trinian and Taylor.

Morning of I was nervous there wouldn't be enough wine. There was wine for an army, and then some!

10 Friendsgiving tips:

Make it pot-luck. Create a menu of what is needed and have everyone sign up to bring something. A well rounded menu of apps, meat, veggies, sides, rolls and dessert.
Use paper everything for easy clean-up. I ordered these kraft colored eco plates and wooden disposable silverware from Amazon and then bought napkins from Target.
DIY your decorations. Keep it minimal because the food will do most of the decorating. I kept everything neutral and stuck with a kraft and gold color scheme, and little pops of fall flowers. I made a banner from glitter scrapbook paper and little signs for the dessert, drink and food table. I rolled out kraft wrapping paper over a white table cloth for the food table and used chalk to decorate. Throw it away at the end and clean up is a snap.
Have wine, lots of wine. The perfect thing for people to contribute if they aren't comfortable cooking a dish.
Have oven space, for those dishes that need re-heating.
Make sure to have hot plates or dish towels to set the hot dishes on.
Have serving spoons and knives for the food and dessert.
Make a playlist. My Dinner Party playlist is my go-to for events like this.
Purchase to-go boxes so everyone gets to take home leftovers. I ordered these boxes, and everyone loved it.
Once it's party time, don't stress just have fun. All the work is done!