Our little Thanksgiving

I'm still trying to get caught up with the past here so that I can discuss the present! But I need to talk about Thanksgiving 2011!

My family was set to arrive at 9pm on Thanksgiving night so Scott, Sergio and I just pulled together a small little thanksgiving together earlier that day - We decided to not wait until the next day since my family had done a little celebration the weekend before in TX and since we had to hit the ground running with activities once they arrived.

Okay, I did most of the cooking - and what started as wanting to have a small Thanksgiving kind of exploded since I figured leftovers would be a good thing for my family on their way.
On the menu:
Grilled honey/soy glazed turkey breast
Florentine salad
Arabic meat pies
mashed potatos
Arabic Stuffing (hashwa)
hummus

This is the closest thing I have to a food processor - so I just load up this cup with the hummus ingredients and "blend it like beckham"

voila!

Florentine salad made of spinach, tomato, olives, sun dried tomato, orzo pasta

Turkey breast prepped for grilling - We went with turkey breast only since the full turkeys are way too expensive here and for just 3 of us - not really worth it. Plus we all like the breast best anyways. Marinade was soy sauce, honey, garlic, and lots of herbs

Making the dough for meat pies

hashwa in the making - rice+ground beef+nuts+cinnamon+salt and pepper

Meat pie filling - tomato+ground beef+garlic+salt+pepper+lemon juice

serg making the mashed potatos -

ok, they weren't the prettiest meat pies I have ever made and the dough was a bit too elastic but they ended up tasting great. I had trays and trays of these puppies - My family loved the leftovers - we ate on them all week.

Had a ton of dough so I made up some zaatar too

Cheers and beers!

Happy Thanksgiving! -aww but the main chef didn't even get a pic at the table ;-(

Our little spread..mmm..everything was delish - scott made pumpkin rolls that were so could - they might be the key to world peace..i swear

 Then we finished up and went to the airport to pick up my family!

we had this sign maker guy on the side of the road make a sign for us to hold up at the airport - Sergio went cowboy style to make the texans feel at home ;-)

Waiting at the airport and playing with the camera

Next post - I'll tell you all about their visit - I bet you can't wait!
Anyone need any recipes seen here? Just let me know.

XOXO