Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Oh look something green

that isn't food coloring on this blog.

To kick-off the slowly drawing out everything I made over thanksgiving posts, we'll do it the way my mother taught me--green things first. This method of eating is somewhat of a problem in the dining hall because by the time I finish the gosh darn salad, the rest of my food is cold. And let's face it, dining hall food wasn't that amazing warm to begin with.
Funnily enough though, it was in the dining hall sophomore year when I first dared to try brussels sprouts. AND I LIKED THEM.
Except then the next 10 times they made them, they tasted terrible. So I started not liking them again.

And then it was Thanksgiving 2013. And my sister said she liked the dining hall brussels sprouts. So literally the thought process was like: "fine, I'll make brussels sprouts for Thanksgiving since I need to learn how to cook real food anyways and maybe I'll actually like them."

And guess what? I LIKED THEM! They were charmingly easy to make. Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Shallots with Balsamic Vinegar recipe from my number favorite Serious Eats. A few modifications:

• no shallots, so just diced up some onions.
• I didn't quite scale the balsamic vinegar correctly, so they ended up being a little on the sour side, which was a loss for my mother. But I like the taste of balsamic vinegar anyways, so I was ok with it. 

And my cousin who was also visiting? HE LIKED THEM TOO.

(sorry, this was a weird post filled with lots of caps. its finals)

Thanksgivukaah 2013: The random pictures

Well, its been less than an hour since I finished eating Thanksgivukaah dinner (though it was more just straight up Thanksgiving for my family since we're not Jewish). Of course, the necessary thing is to now relive the entire cooking, baking, and eating experience through pictures. I've cooked and baked enough to have several blog posts to tide this poor blog over till my next baking (and maybe cooking) opportunity, so ya'll will get to relive each bit and piece of Thanksgiving throughout the merriest time of year--finals bwahahaha.
But first, since words are lame, here are some general Thanksgiving pictures. Aka the random ones that don't fit nicely in a future post.

 One of the few "in action" cooking shots since, lets face it, messing with your phone while your hands are wet, sticky, floury, ect is hard. Some roasted garlic for what would become mashed potatoes. 1PM. Back when I thought it was tots feasible to get everything done by 5PM.

 Like seriously, our house has TWO ovens so we were able to cook the turkey while baking all the other necessary yams, crescents, cookies, sprouts ect. Even then, we didn't finish till like 5:45PM, almost an hour after our ETA (estimated time of arrival) to the dining table. How do you single oven households do it?

 Of course, if you leave me in charge of dessert, you'll basically get a second dinner spread of just desserts. Individual posts and recipes to come!

To finish, here's a messy picture of pumpkin pie and some very very special ice cream. My cousin accidentally crushed the pie a little while serving, but pumpkin pie is picture perfect no matter what in my opinion.