T-Day at Bully Hill House

Thanksgiving is Mr. Mark's most favorite holiday. Since 2005 he's been in charge of making the turkey based on a Tom Colicchio recipe. He starts on Thanksgiving Eve by prepping his special herb butter which is his primary ingredient.

Mr. Mark gets up at about 5 am and starts prepping for the day.  He makes the turkey, stuffing and gravy and I make the sides. We have all the usual suspects--mash potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce--the best part is always Mark's stuffing. He uses a homemade venison sausage in it that really brings a rich textured flavor to it.  

Every year Baby Stitchie get to eat the turkey butt after we have finished with our meal. Needless to say this day is torture for her--she smells the turkey all day but knows she has to wait.

At about 1 pm we put out some cheeses for our guests to eat before dinner way served. This was super fun because we had some of our little things we'd picked up on our "Adventures in Antiquing" weekends including a huge wooded butcher block from the Blue Raccoon in Lambertville and the porcelain cheese markers that we got in Napa. These were really awesome because it really encouraged people to try all of the different cheeses and talk about which they liked best and what was from where. It's amazing how adding a bit of context to food makes for great conversation.

Humboldt Fog was my favorite this year. I'd been on a Drunken Goat kick for a while but Fog changed all of that.

When my mom passed away in 2005 she left 5 sets (not all complete) of china... the one above for Thanksgiving, a Lenox set of traditional holly for Christmas, a set of Herend, and one set from each grandmother. 

Stitch is patiently awaiting her CHICKEN BUTT!

Hmmm... Tis Himself... himself indeed.

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potatoes with a teeny bit of brown sugar.

Stitch is like, "Is dinner ready yet, or what?"

Of course we had cupcakes from Natale's Bakery--just like we do at every holiday and event.

Wine is breathing, getting ready to get drunk (as in have someone drink it).

We had a couple bottles of Martinelli's on hand, we didn't drink any that day but had it the next morning as a hangover cure (three pigs pate on toast is also good for holiday hang-over). 

Stitch helped Kitten set the table.

One of my favorite T-Day traditions--the Relish Tray--there are always leftovers but some is always eaten.

It was a beautiful sunny day.

2:30 pm and Mr. Mark's Turkey is done. Now it will sit for 45 minutes while I put the finishing touches on the rest of the side dishes. 

The End