Thankfulness

For Thanksgiving, J and I stayed here in Huntsville. We were blessed with many invitations to spend time with area families since we couldn't be home with ours. However, J and I decided to stay home and cook for ourselves.

My guilty pleasure is DVRing the Rachael Ray show each day and coming home and watching it (or if it's a busy week, watching them all on Saturday). She did a week full of shows called "Wild Turkey Week". We combined several of her recipes and came up with our own menu, along with some of our own staples.

First, on Thanksgiving morning, I woke up at regular time when I had the perfect opportunity to sleep in; I hate it when that happens. Since I was up, I made sausage balls for breakfast. They were delicious and we're still enjoying them!

After the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade started, we started cooking. I saw a friend's Facebook status that said she was cooking in between commercials. Our apartment is small and the kitchen, dining room and living room are all the same room so we cooked during the parade and commercials. 

Carrot Souffle

Sautéed Green Beans

Leftover Corn Casserole from our church's Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.

One of the recipes we loved from Rachael Ray was called "Turkey Breast in Blankets". We'd never used pastry sheets before but it was a great success. It was similar to Beef Wellington.

Before cutting into them...

After cutting into them...

We didn't love Rachael's stuffing on the Turkey Breast in Blankets recipe compared to another day where she made Buffalo Ranch Stuffin' Muffins. We combined the two ideas and made Buffalo Ranch stuffing both inside the pastry pocket and with our leftover stuffing, we still had enough to make stuffin' muffins. Stuffin' Muffins are the perfect portion control and allow you to get some of the crispy edges of the stuffing as well as the mushy stuffing in the middle of the muffin. 

While we missed being with our families, we loved being able to stay home and cook for ourselves!