Thanksgiving color 2013

Silent guest watches over us.

I've sufficiently recovered from our rowdy Thanksgiving dinner to blog about it and bring you the color.

Wilderness Chef Dave decided to do smoked buffalo ribs this year instead of turkey, but the skull is NOT from the buffalo we ate. It's from a buffalo farm in Wisconsin and it reminds me of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings and my beloved Southwest, though now it's taking on that tinge of Northwest green.

This is the calm before the storm. My favorite part is always putting together the color, and I love these sunflower napkin rings that I've been using for ages. Candle smoke bothers Dave, so this year I used battery-powered fake candles that still give off a nice glow.

We made the pickled beets and spicy pickled cucumbers, and Dave pressed some salmon between salt blocks for a lox-like appetizer with capers and thin cucumber slices.

Julia makes yummy vegan pies

 

and you really can't tell that there is no butter or eggs in this pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust or the apple pie (which I was slivering away at around 2 a.m.). Actually, it was more like I was shoveling it into my mouth with total lack of control. It was good.

Buffalo ribs and wilderness chef

Here's the wilderness chef with his buffalo ribs that he rubbed, sauced, smoked and then garnished with a berry sauce. He made up the recipe and I have to admit it was excellent. I'm not much of a meat eater, so this is high praise.
 

Dave's buffalo berry sauce.

 

 

We spent six hours together and never left the kitchen! Now that's a good party ... good friends, family and food to enjoy together and be thankful for. Good color, too.

While we were letting the food settle in our stomachs before launching into the desserts, we had a little incident with the whipped cream dispenser. Paula forgot to add sugar, but Duane insisted on tasting it before she ditched it and made more. That'll quiet him down for awhile.

After they left and we had turned on the dishwasher, I collapsed on the couch and enjoyed getting close to my coffee table pumpkins. I rescued them from a friend's Goodwill box and gave them a good home.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday with much to be grateful for. 
 

Have a colorful day