food update

Do you have a CHEF coming to your Thanksgiving?!?!

I DO!!

My cousin, Lyndsay, the chef, who just moved to Des Moines, Iowa is going to join us in Chicago for Thanksgiving! Maybe I should rethink that earlier statement about brussell sprouts with pancetta! Thankfully, she's great and I know what Thanksgiving food she grew up eating, too. So my casseroles won't be too big of a shock to her system.

I also invited our friends from South Bend, Nicole and her cute son Caleb, to also join us!

So our party of 4 just went to a party of 7.

It's going to be a great holiday.

I think I've lost track of everything I've made lately.

I think Thursday after we eat, I'll be putting away leftovers and

discover something I forgot to put on the table.

I am trying to mix both of our family recipes that way no one feels like they are missing out on anything. So this weekend I made broccoli & rice casserole (my family, duh) and Grammy's (Austin's grandmother) pecan pie. I even lined up the pecans like she does.

My pie crust isn't pretty, but it is from scratch. Thank you, Ina.

Trying to roll that thing into a circle was beyond me today.

Lastly, I made some banana nut muffins to have around for breakfast.

Here they are still baking.

I keep thinking I'm going to open the front door and all kinds of dogs and people are going to be standing there smelling all the wonderful smells coming from this apartment.

Guess I'll have to invite them in for dinner.