Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I saw a quote on Pinterest the other day that I thought would be lovely to say at the dinner table tonight, but the family didn't do the whole 'what are we thankful for this year round-the-table' thing. It was pretty much once the last dish was put out, a race to get to them. Jeez.

Anyway, the quote was, and I'd like to share it with you all, while pretending that you're all sitting here with me, so keep that in mind.

"I'm thankful for the food before us, the friends and family beside us, and the love between us." 

Awe.


I'm not really allowed to 'touch' Thanksgiving yet...no one seems ready to hand the reigns over for the biggest food holiday of the year, but I was allowed to contribute. I admit, I procrastinated a lot on coming up with what I wanted to make this year. It couldn't be a pie, we have 8 already. An appetizer would get lost among one of the 16 side dishes were going to have, so that was a no also. A drink? Well yeah, but what does that show? And everyone is going to be drinking anyway...lame. and then it hit me: chocolate. We don't have any type of chocolate anything on Thanksgiving. That was it. I came up with my dish, a Chocolate Peacan tart, sometime after 10 last night, and went to Stater Bros to get the ingredients. I didn't want to wait until this morning for a few reasons:

Late night baking session

1. Who wants to go shopping on Thanksgiving morning? The parade is on!
2. Even if I did make it to the store this morning, 99% of their stuff would be gone because of all those other last-minute shoppers.
3. Tarts require baking, cooling, and baking again. I want this to be ready to go when everyone is finished eating, not later.
4. We have TWO 15 lb turkeys and a 14 lb ham. All of our ovens would be in use all day, so if I wanted to do it, I'd have to bake the tart in the wee hours of the night. (see my other late-night baking creation, and it's outcome in my post, "Sco-nonos")

After being so frustrated with my scones, it was a breath of fresh air that this tart turned out nicely.

It was good. plain and simple.

The finished tart. PS, did I mention it's all Ghirardelli?

I cut them into bite size pieces for on-the-go hands.

Here's some Thanksgiving pictures, from my family to yours.

"Come on down, mommy! The parade is on!" - Emma

"Cheese!"

My Mom, Dad and Uncle at the carving station.

My plate. Turkey, Ham, Rolls, Gulliver's Corn, Harvest Potatoes, Deviled Eggs and a Dr. Pepper

My Dad's plate. That's some steamy goodness.