Christmas Dinner

This is a little late, but back in December I hosted a pot luck dinner (I would have made everything, but with a 3 month old...I opted for help this year!) for our friends. I have wanted to post about it and share a few pictures for awhile, but I am just getting around to it now!

As usual, we all had a great time and Aiden was so good! He went to bed around 8:30 and the rest of the night I was able to share a glass of wine with my girlfriends! He is the only baby right now, but he gets a lot of love from everyone!

I made the turkey, stuffing, gravy and bread. Everyone else made amazing food, including a loaded lasagna (seriously this is probably the best lasagna ever, and I make a pretty wicked lasagna!), corn bread, meatballs, mashed potatoes, a veggie dish, ceaser salad, and much more!! For dessert a friend of mine made a tray including this fabulous pumpkin bread. I didn't think I liked pumpkin, but damn this bread was good!

FOOD!

Enjoying dinner

Dessert

 

Girls :)

My card display

Our tree <3

I seriously love my group of friends! We always have such a great time when we get together. In the summer we hang out all the time, but then the winter comes and we all become a little dormant! I am hoping to make this a yearly tradition and this first year went over really well. We already have our next big event planned. We are all going snowtubing at the end of January. And I am thinking we are going to let Aiden have his first sleepover at my moms. I am really looking forward to a solid 8 hours (he sleeps great, only getting up once...but I really want 8 hours!), but I am also really sad about leaving him. Hopefully it goes smooth!

Turkey:
I made a big turkey so I would have leftovers to make pot pie. I use a big roasting pan, stuff the turkey, season with seasoning salt and pepper. I put about 1" of water, garlic and onion around the turkey and cook at 350*F for 20min/pound of turkey. I also have a meat thermometer I keep in the oven to make sure it is cooked.

Stuffing:
I don't really have a recipe, I just mix everything together until I get the right taste! I break up a loaf of cheap white bread into small pieces, add chopped onion and celery, salt, pepper and sage. I then mix in melted butter. I seriously LOVE stuffing...even uncooked!! Whenever my grandma has turkey dinners she always puts some uncooked stuffing aside for me. AMAZING!!!! (yeah I'm weird like that!!)

Gravy:
Once the turkey is done I remove it and use the drippings to make gravy. I use Bisto (it is a dark gravy, but I love it with beef, chicken or turkey) and strain to make it smooth.