A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

This week we stocked up on all the items we would need for our Thanksgiving. I know what you're thinking - we must be super efficient or super excited. Well, possibly a little of both but mainly it was because we live on an island, and once an item is gone, it's gone. We didn't want to risk having our turkey without cranberry sauce or that green bean casserole without french fried onions.

We had to go to a few different stores to get everything and while at our final stop, there was a deal for a $4 turkey if you spent over $20. Glancing at our cart, we had over $20 worth of ingredients so we picked up another turkey. We'd already bought one earlier that day, but we couldn't pass up the deal. Two turkeys... and a week to go till Thanksgiving. What would you do?

We had a pre-Thanksgiving meal. Yep, we cooked a full turkey dinner complete with stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, candied yams, Molokai sweet potatoes and apple pie. I don't think of this as detracting from next Thursday - I consider it more an extension of the holiday. :)

My favorite part - the apple pie. I love making desserts but this was my first time making a pie. It came out great!
And even though it was my first time making a pie, I decided to be adventurous and do a fancy top. Next time I know to space the strips out a bit more so they are all even. I'm kinda missing one on the end there but not bad for a first run.

The pastry recipe was from my mom and the apple pie was courtesy of the hubby's grandmother. I was a little concerned when I called her for the recipe as she just said it was a bit of this and a bit of that. She does it all by eye and doesn't measure anything anymore. But I must have done pretty good cause the pie was delicious. I just have to remember what I did for next time!