Thanksgiving Recap

I should have taken more pictures. Oh well. My bad.

Thanksgiving this year was local, as it always is, with plans to go to my parent's house for turkey and more. But the day began with the annual tradition of running the Alexandria Turkey Trot, which is 5 miles around these parts. Per our tradition, Rebecca and I ran it together. This year, we also con'd a coworker to join us, even though we were all up past 1 am the night before rocking out on Rock Band (while enjoying some alcoholic beverages) in honor of her husband's 30th birthday.

We rolled out of bed sans alarm at 8 am and headed down to the race. Weather this year was cool, but perfect for running, which brought out a large crowd of approximately 2500 people. The gun went off and it took us about 1 minute to cross the starting line. The plan was to do some run/walking, but typically, I am just along for the ride and run when I am told to run, and walk when I am told to walk. I don't call the shots! The race actually seemed to go by extremely quickly and before I knew it, we were at the half way point! It was right around that point, that we took a brief walk, ran another mile or so, and then took another walk break at the water stop. With the one last hill in sight, it was decided that we'd walk up the steep part and run on in for the last mile of the course. Once we started running again, Rebecca decided to take off for the last mile, while I stayed back to run my coworker in for the last mile. Turns out, Rebecca finished almost a minute ahead of us...that was one fast last mile!

With the race over, we hurried home to start cooking up the items we signed up to bring over for our feast. First up was to make the pie crust for Rebecca's homemade gluten free chocolate chunk pecan pie. After the crust was made, it sat in the refrigerator for about an hour and half, while we worked on the gluten free stuffing. The stuffing action began the day before, when we made a loaf of gluten free "wheat" bread (it tasted like regular wheat bread, minus the wheat). So we took the loaf and cut it up into chunks to be toasted in the oven. There were so many chunks we had multiple rounds of 2 trays going in the oven and one in the toaster. While that was going on, we were boiling chicken stock and sauteing celery, onions, garlic, rosemary, and thyme among other spices to make up the mixture once the bread chucks were ready to go. Finally, we mixed them all together and put 2 big casserole dishes full into the oven to bake for a bit. In the meantime, we went back to the pie crust dough and rolled it out, before fitting it to the pan. Once the crust was in, it was into the oven to bake for a bit, before adding the filling. In only a few hours, we managed to have both items done, with plenty of time to spare to shower, get ready, and head over to my parent's for food!

It is safe to say that both the stuffing and the pie were big hits. And I'd even be so bold to say that the pie was the best pie I have EVER had. It was nearly impossible for me to stop eating the leftovers of it this weekend. I'll just have to add that to the reasons for why I have been gaining some weight.

The next morning, I realized that we had a LOT of stuffing left over, so I decided to turn it into a breakfast meal by making this:

I call this magical creation: The Stuffing Omelet (creative, I know)

This was also made the following morning...and we still have a ton left ;)

The rest of the weekend was kind of a blur. Saturday, we went on a photo exploration to the US Botanical Gardens with my sister (of course all the photos are still on the camera and not here) and had a lot of fun trying to take good shots between the crowds of people. I failed miserably, with the exception of a few photos, but I think Rebecca took a lot better ones. Maybe she'll post them one of these days ;)

And Sunday, we did some shopping around, before heading out the door for a great run in the unseasonably warmer weather. I was planning to run long, and fortunately Rebecca joined me for the first 5 miles, which was awesome and made the time fly by! After we returned back home, I set out into the darkness for the next 7 miles of pure enjoyment with me and my headlamp. Legs felt good, pace was quick, and my HR was low. What else could I ask for!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!