One of the things about living in NYC that I’ve found hardest to adjust to is not hanging out at people’s apartments. We all either live in places too small to hold more than two people at a time or places too out of the way for anyone to want to travel to. If it’s not one, it’s the other.
But this year, my friend Ash was determined to have a practice Thanksgiving at her apartment and went all-out with impressive invitations, a massive menu, and promises that she would hunt us down and stuff us if we didn’t make it worth her while to take up her entire refrigerator with a brining turkey for two days. So we took cabs or spent three hours navigating weekend subway construction to make it to her and her husband, Michael’s, Queens apartment last Saturday night for a pre-Thanksgiving feast our families will have a hard time topping tomorrow.
Michael and Ash got rid of about half of the furniture in their place to make room for this new dining table they bought especially for the occasion. Well worth it, I say.
Ash carved a turkey for the first time and looked smokin’ doing it.
The turkey was about the moistest meat I’ve ever had in my life. The stuffing was fruity, the sweet potatoes spicy, the twice-baked potatoes bacony, the cauliflower casserole creamy, the green beans smoky, the apple pie belly-warming, the lemon cheesecake rich.
There was gravy, too, but I never eat gravy. Am I the only one who thinks it’s tooooooootally weird stuff?
Michael was in high spirits,
Ash was being Betty Sue Homemaker,
Jack was his usual pleasant self,
Jeff was complaining that the ice cream was regular vanilla and not vanilla bean,
Gizmo was pretending to innocently play with a ball under the table while secretly waiting for dropped turkey,
and Penny, the cat we found in the Hamptons, was acting like all of us would be about two minutes after dinner:
Success!
16 Comments
You seriously don’t like gravy?! Dude, I could SWILL gravy.
I’m with you, Ett. Gravy … gross.
This looks like a lot of fun. Every once in a while you have to bite the bullet and head out to a friend’s who lives to far away . At least your friend TOTALLY made it worth your while, this sounds delicious.
Oh it sounds SO delicious! Now I’m hungry. And I want to have Thanksgiving here!
No gravy?! It’s like I don’t even know you.
Yay for moist turkey! Dry turkey is such a buzz kill… you’re all hyped up for a feast and you can’t even swallow a mouthful of turkey. All you can do is croak out, “More gravy please.”
That has to be the second cutest dog on the planet (after mine, of course). Adorable. :)
Sounds like an awesome meal. Looks delicious, and I agree about the dining set. Gorg.
You are suspiciously absent from the pics this time…
Happy T-Day!
OMG. That dog is so adorable.
I swear the commute will be easier when the 7 resumes service on weekends (which would be next week whee)! Or I could do it on a Friday so there’s no crappy weekend service. I’m preemptively trying to convince you it’ll be easier to get to our place so I can invite you to practice Christmas dinner haha! Or maybe I’ll entice people with souvenirs from the Philippines…
Thanks for all the pretty photos, that one of Gizmo is my favorite one of him ever.
Looks SO good!
And… I’m fairly certain my blood is at least 35% gravy. Give or take. :)
You guys and your tiny living quarters… how do you do it? It seems so claustrophobic!
But the food looks lovely and I would probably have casually walked out of the apartment with the dog in tow. It’s so cute!
Personally, I’m a fan of the cat.
Pass the gravy, will ya? We ran out last night.
How fun!! And that pup is adorable! Being all tricky acting like he’s just playing with his ball
How cute – I love that invitations were made for the dinner :) It looks like it was a lot of fun, and those animals are adorable. Happy Monday!
A practice Thanksgiving is a good excuse for Turkey & that one looks delicious. Your little doggy Gizmo is so cute!!!