Our first married Thanksgiving is now over (thank goodness) and I think it was mostly a success. As usual, I stressed far more than actually necessary. Should our families allow us to host again, there are definitely some things I’d do differently. Like get a bigger dining room. Because I am an eternal optimist (ha!) I’ll cover our hits first.

Hits

• These Crab and Chive Puffs. Crab was ridiculously cheap down at our local market and my husband was kind enough to crack and pick the crab for me. Once that part is done, these are super easy to make. I will admit, I have a bit of a fear of puff pastry, but just like my internet bosom friend Crist says, “You put it in the oven and it puffs right up!” These are yummy and you will love them. But, maybe add some salt to the crab mixture, I forgot this step.
• PW’s French Onion Soup Stuffed Mushrooms. Not really the prettiest things I’ve ever made, but really, really tasty.
• Giada’s Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus. This is the 3rd time I’ve made this turkey (4th if you count last year, when I altered the recipe for a turkey breast). It’s super easy and makes a really moist and flavorful turkey. We had a bit of a hiccup as the turkey we ordered from New Seasons (our local fancy market) was 14-16 pounds and they turkey they gave me was 22 pounds. I adjusted the cooking time a bit and still came out with a cooked bird. One thing I was disappointed in is that rather than including the neck in with the turkey, New Seasons apparently prefers to sell them separately. So, I didn’t have a neck for my gravy. Boo.
• My brother-in-law’s whipped potatoes. I believe he used Tom Collichio’s recipe. They were delicious and I ate them for dinner last night (and the three nights before that).

Misses

• Mark my words, I will never make another recipe from Real Simple again. These sweet potatoes where quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever prepared in my life. I was excited to be able to use my new food processor to grate the potatoes and that is the only good thing about this recipe. Perhaps the worst part of it is that I have not fulfilled my seasonal sweet potato craving. (Please note: this marks the third recipe in a row from Real Simple that has been completely awful. Shaking my fist at you, Real Simple)
• My table. It was not pretty. I had grand plans for a Sandra Lee-inspired Harvest Tablescape and I just ran out of time. Luckily, my dad sent a lovely centerpiece which at least brought some color to my Fred Meyer tablecloth and mismatched napkins.
• The day after Thanksgiving, I felt really rotten. At first, I chalked it up to the three or so glasses of  the”Thank God It’s Over” Gewurztraminer I had after everyone left, but it soon became clear that something else was going on. I went to the Immediate Care on Saturday and learned that I had a bladder infection that had spread to my kidneys. Yuck, but something I deal with often. I was prescribed an antibiotic which guess what? I was allergic to. So, rather than eating a fancy dinner at Wildwood with a wedding gift certificate, we spent the evening in the ER where my tongue was swollen so much that I could barely speak. I’m fine now, thank goodness. So glad our ER is so close to our house.

How was your holiday? Do you have a good sweet potato recipe to share with me?

A couple weeks ago I had a working lunch at our interactive agency. We ordered lunch from Grand Central Bakery (which = YUM) and I had a delightful sandwich called The Parisienne. It was served on a baguette with brie, ripe apples and Dijon mustard. You guys, I thought about this sandwich for two days after.

So, I made the sandwich for a little girls gathering I had at my house that week. Only, I made it better. You’ll probably want to run right out and grab the ingredients for this and then eat it for your next six meals.

Ingredients

• One baguette
• Butter (GOOD BUTTER)
• Sea Salt
• One ripe pear, thinly sliced
• 1/2 package of Trader Joe’s Proscuitto, pieces sliced in half
• Brie, sliced

Directions:

• Slice baguette almost all the way through and slather both sides with butter. Sprinkle with sea salt.
• Arrange pear slices, then brie, then proscuitto
• Close sandwich and cut into 3-inch pieces, or don’t and eat the thing whole.

You guys, it’s good. Go make it and report back.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a team celebration at a local brewery to celebrate a very big and very fancy award that one of our campaigns won. There was a lovely meat and cheese display which featured interesting looking pickles. I filled my plate with goodness and later bit into one of the pickles (No Snooki jokes, please) and the skin from the pickle lodged up underneath my permanent retainer and hurt reaaaaalllly bad. I was able to move the pickle debris out from underneath the wire and thought nothing of it. UNTIL 3 a.m the next morning. I woke up with throbbing pain in one of my front teeth. I was able to get back to sleep and the next morning, still in a lot of pain, called Bill’s dentist (my dentist is a creeper and I quit him).  My only option was a 3:30 appointment that day, which I couldn’t make work as I had an out-of-town work retreat to attend.

The pain finally went away and I went to the dentist the following Tuesday. Upon examination of my mouth, the dentist reported that my retainer was unattached from my teeth in 3 spots (it’s supposed to be attached in 6 spots). I hightailed it to my orthodontist (a week later, whatever) to find that the retainer was not unattached in 4 spots and that my teeth had MOVED SIGNIFICANTLY

So, in two weeks, I will report back to the orthodontist’s to either get a new retainer…or Invisalign. All because a pickle broke my retainer.

What the damn hell, internet? What would you do?

(This concludes the most boring blog post in the history of ever. Everyone I know in real life is already sick and tired of hearing about this and quite frankly, I’m just not done talking about it.)