I hope you all had a wonderful holiday yesterday! My Thanksgiving gift to myself and to my family, was taking the night off to enjoy good food and great company. This was my first Thanksgiving ever spent away from my family, and I’ll admit it was a little strange. But it was fun to start some new traditions with Casey’s family, as well as bring some of my old ones with me (hello DOG show!).
You may be surprised to find out that instead of slaving away in the kitchen, I actually spent most of my holiday relaxing on the couch and spending time visiting with family. We had a HUGE Thanksgiving dinner crowd, and I was only in charge of a few dishes, most of which I got out of the way on Wednesday.
Casey’s mom made delicious vegan pumpkin cupcakes, and on Thursday afternoon I made fresh vegan pumpkin spiced buttercream and brought it over to Toby’s house to pipe it on when we got there.
I used one of my favorite time saver baking tricks – making a piping bag out of a big Ziploc! Just fill it with icing, and cut a small whole in one corner, then squeeze gently and pipe on. I couldn’t resist shooting some straight into my mouth.
They were goooorgeous. I made the buttercream with coconut oil and Earth balance this time, because I couldn’t find natural vegetable shortening and I couldn’t bring myself to use the Crisco. It worked out great, although a little bit less stable than the shortening version.
While I piped frosting, my gorgeous new sister-in-law made delicious kale and green beans, while our wonderful hostess prepped the rest of the food.
While we waited for the rest of our guests to arrive, I snatched the baby. I probably need one of my own, don’t you think? :)
I feel so lucky to have married into such a wonderful family of gorgeous, strong women. Along with a great husband, I got an entire set of best friends. We have so much fun together.
It is also a very good looking family. Three handsome fellas…
While the light was good and the food was still cooking, I demanded various family members come outside for a photo shoot. Malone boys – perhaps the best picture ever taken of the three of them.
Finally the girls are ALL Malones too!
The whole gang. :)
Cutest photo ever.
Newlyweds! <3
And the old married folks. :) It was SUCH a gorgeous day – close to 70 degrees and sunny!
And our fabulous hosts for the evening. Many many thanks to Toby and Kevin for having 18 people at their Thanksgiving table.
Back inside, it was finally time to EAT! Of course there was turkey…
And my favorite dish of all – the cranberries! I made these on Wednesday and cooked them in orange juice and cinnamon – absolutely delicious.
Tracey made vegetarian stuffing that was to die for – one of my favorite dishes of the night. It was so nice of her to make two stuffings just for us!
My quinoa dish, with dried cranberries, pecans, green onions, lemon juice, sesame oil, white vinegar, and cilantro. YUM!
Roasted carrots and herbs – soooo much flavor.
Creamy mashed potatoes that melted in my mouth. I don’t even want to know what was in these…
Katie’s delicious (and SPICY!) green beans with kale and mushrooms…
The counter was filled with food, and it was time to DIG IN.
The next time someone asks me what vegetarians eat on Thanksgiving, I will show them this picture. Soooo much delicious food!
And despite stuffing myself sick with entrees, I pushed the limits and shoveled down dessert. Vegan cupcakes, pumpkin pie, and a little bit of So Delicious coconut milk ice cream.
Millie was very interested in my dessert plate.
After dessert and a short food coma, we all retired into the living room for relaxation and family games.
And before the night could end, we had to get the annual family photo…
It’s hard to get a group of 17 people organized and all smiling for a photo.
There we go! Four generations of family all together giving thanks.
I missed my mom and sisters, and it felt weird to spend my first Thanksgiving away from them. But at the same time, I was totally full of love for the other side of my family. I am so unbelievably thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday too! Safe travels home this weekend. :)
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Totally impromptu blogger/reader get together tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 10:30am at Bethesda Le Pain Quotidian. Any and all are welcome! :)
40 Comments so far
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Looks like a great time! Love your sweater :)
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I love your sweater! Where did you get it (if you don’t mind me asking)?
I don’t understand why people think vegetarians are so deprived on Thanksgiving. I’m not a vegetarian and I am always more interested in the side dishes than the turkey.
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Emily @ The Front Burner Blog Reply:
November 26th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Old Navy – last season! Thanks :)
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Bronwyn Coyne Reply:
November 27th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I was about to ask the same question! Gorgeous sweater, I must check out old navy. :)
Those cup cakes look awesome. And I definitely do the zip-lock pipping bag.
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Sounds like you had a wonderful time!! The dogs alone would have sold me on the whole event! :)
Loved your “vegetarian Thanksgiving plate.” Looked AUHMAZING!
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Ditto on the cute sweater!
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Your spread was huge! Looks like you really enjoyed your feast.
Pretty sweater!
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Such fun photos… a most gorgeous family indeed! :)
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what a fabulous thanksgiving! So glad you got to take a little break :)
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Everything looks delicious! It looks like a great day of food and family.
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Yay for the blogger meet up! I can’t wait to meet you and everyone!
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Looks like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
The photos are just lovely, thanks so much for sharing them! :)
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What an awesome day!! The food looks outstanding. Your photos are lovely..and way to go getting the final group family photo! Gorgeous family. :)
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Wow all that food looks simply amazing.
What a great new family you have!!
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What a gorgeous family (you included)! It sounds like such a warm and lovely Thanksgiving. :)
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Oh my gosh, gorgeous! I wrote down your quinoa dish ingredients. And word on the street, Santa might be bringing me your highly recommended rice cooker!!! :-) I can’t wait for things to cook beautifully and stop burning into my pots, haha.
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I totally forgot you are vegetarian! Remind me why? Your plate looked great though. The pie looked really good, too. I used to love the coconut milk ice cream by Turtle Mountain until I learned about agave and how it’s just the HFCS of the health food world. I understand the whole missing family thing. Since I am a college student I haven’t had Tgiving with my family for three years now!
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The food and company looks awesome!
Have a great weekend! :)
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I love the outtake pix. Awesome. Yay, in-laws!
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Wow–there are some many beautiful pictures here of food, family, and friends. I love happy blog posts like this one :)
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Happy Thanksgiving :) I am very lucky to have married into a great family too – unfortunately they live on the other side of the country from us. Wish I saw them more.
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wow :) what a lovely holiday of togetherness it looks like you enjoyed!
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Looks like a great time. It’s always a bit odd to spend holidays with the in-laws instead of your “own” family, but I’m lucky that I have some great ones, too! :-) I really knocked some meat-eating socks off this Thanksgiving, by the way. I made an AMAZING squash soup that went over really well, even with the carnivores!
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What a fabulous day! So glad it was wonderful. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. ;)
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Looks like you had a great thanksgiving with amazing food and great people! So nice that you love the family you married into so much!
Your quinoa looks so good and fluffy – I can never get mine to turn out that fluffy!
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Gosh that looks homey, warm, and inviting! It is always weird spending your first holidays away from your family, but as we grow up we’re creating new families and new traditions, and eventually it all just feels right :)
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YEA! I love, love, love all the pics! Especially the outtakes of the chaos. Ahhh…I wanna relive it. Miss you guys already.
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For a girl who doesn’t think she has much fashion intuition, you pick out the cutest outfits! Dinner looks fantastic and so yummy.
Ps. The only way to ice cupcakes is to shoot some icing straight into your mouth. You know, just to taste test and all ;)
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Definitely nice to have options you can eat.
The only vegetarian item at my thanksgiving was mashed potatoes and luckily I made and brought a bean salad.
Oh, and when I went to grab my water bottle out of the fridge I saw some baby carrots and asked if I could have some. They said yes, so I scored some of those too. :)
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I’ve been wanting to try the So Delicious coconut milk ice cream. It sounds delicious. And your plate … nom! ;)
Your family pic out takes are great.
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Cranberries are one of my favorites too!
Great pictures and it looks like you had a great time :)
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Sounds and looks like a wonderful time. You look stunning! Where on Earth did you get that sweater?!
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Emily @ The Front Burner Blog Reply:
November 28th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Old Navy!
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Your family gatherings always look like so much fun :)
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I don’t know how anyone could say that vegetarians can’t eat anything on Thanksgiving – there is so much!!!
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You look so sweet and comfortable in that sweater! Your family is so beautiful! I’ve wondered what vegetarians do! Your plate looks tasty as well.
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Would you mind sharing your recipe for that coconut oil frosting? I’m interested in replicating the same w/ some of my leftover pumpkin filling!
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Never mind (post #36)…I see you posted the recipe a few days prior!
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Emily @ The Front Burner Blog Reply:
November 28th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Hi Courtney! Yep – you found it. I didn’t have the shortening in Atlanta, so I just replaced it with a 1/2 cup of coconut oil. I recommend putting the frosting in the refrigerator to help it set up a bit before piping. The shortening version was a bit more stable, but the oil version was just as delicious. Enjoy!
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Will you be sharing the recipes for your quinoa salad? It sounds delicious!!
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