The big event: Friendsgiving

Friendsgiving was a HUGE success. We had 14 people in all- including Brandon and myself. We started the party about 6:15pm and everyone was gone by 11:30pm. The turkey turned out SO juicy and tender- I can't wait to eat the leftovers tomorrow night for supper! I will definately use that recipe again next year.

There was more than enough food, dessert and wine to go around and I think everyone had a good time. Here's the dessert & drink tables and Rusty & Andy with the 'OSU cake':

Here's some more photos:

Kayla came to the rescue with the gravy!
Brandon & Liz with the wishbone, while Kristen is studying the 'How to carve a turkey' instructions I printed off :)
Crystal, Kayla and I

Since the OU vs Tech game was pretty boring (well, for OSU fans it was) we broke out Pictionary. It was a pretty close game, but team OSU beat team Awesome in the end! :)

Preparations & decorations

Friday after work, Nannie and Papa came over to help me clean up the turkey. I had the brine already prepared, so I supervised :) Here's our turkey in it's brining bag, ready to sit overnight, and Nannie with her handy work!

Friday night/Saturday morning I got the house ready. Here's how the table decorations turned out: and the placecards/wine charms:

and this was my centerpiece on the beverage table- I think it turned out lovely!

More friendsgiving photos to come!

Step 1: Brine

Friendsgiving is about 48 hours away! Here's what I've gotten done thus far:

* scrubbed down the kitchen back splash, counter tops, front of oven & dishwasher
* moved my KitchenAid mixer and toaster out of kitchen, into the laundry room
* washed the kitchen floor rugs
* washed, dried and ironed the tablecloths
* picked up card table & a folding chair from mom & dad
* moved my turkey to the fridge to thaw

* FINALLY cleaned out the 'blue' bedroom upstairs (the last room w/ boxes from the move)
* Made the brine mixture.

Like I said last week, I'm using Alton Brown's brine recipe from the food network. Here are my ingredients:

I cheated and made my own "candied ginger" by mixing equal parts of ground ginger and sugar. Instead of using 1/2 tbsp of allspice berries, I just used 1 tsp ground allspice.

Following Alton's directions, I combined everything but the ice water and brought it to a boil:

The house sure does smell wonderful! Tomorrow, Nannie is coming over to help me w/ the turkey (ok, I don't like touching the bird/removing the insides. Nannie loves me, so she does it! I'm spoiled!!!!) and we'll start brining the turkey tomorrow night.

Friendsgiving Budget

Here's the breakdown of my Friendsgiving spending. I probably should have set a budget before I bought anything......I'll do that next year :)

Food:
17 lb turkey- $7.80
2 boxes of stuffing crumb- $1.68
Produce- about $5
Spices- $2.79
2 boxes croutons- $1.08
1 gallon of vegetable broth- $5.48
1 lb of cheese- $3
Rock Salt- $1.48
Jellied Cranberry- $1.18
Cream Cheese $0.88
Walnuts- $2.49
Cornstarch- $0.05
= $32.91

Decorations:
Candles, etc- $13
8 glass plates- $8
Napkins & table runner- $10-ish
= $31

Total Spent: $63.91 to decorate the house and feed at least 14 people.
(I'm preparing the turkey, dressing, gravy, a cheeseball and crackers & a Cesar salad.)

Next year Friendsgiving should be cheaper as I will not need to spend any additional money on decorations. I also picked up the glass plates because they will pay for themselves within a year & are more environmentally friendly than using plastic disposable plates.

WFMW: Friendsgiving & Links

The Story of Friendsgiving

It all started last year when we wanted to have a Christmas party with our college friends. We started calling our friends trying to set a date in stone, and we discovered it was impossible to find an open weekend in all of December. We were pretty disappointed, but it wasn't worth having a Christmas party if only a few friends could attend.

I've always loved fall, and I was interning with Shannon at that time. Shannon and I exchanged recipes/life stories on a daily basis and I mentioned to her how much I love the Kindergarten's Thanksgiving feast & how we couldn't get a holiday party scheduled, etc. After talking it over with Shannon, we realized that almost everyone is home the weekend before Thanksgiving, no one really has plans for that weekend and OSU rarely has a home football game that weekend due to the Bedlam tradition (more on that later). Thus, Friendsgiving was born :)


We provide the tradition turkey and dressing, while all the sides are potluck. Everyone brings their favorite wine/beer/adult beverage to share and a good time is had by all!


Last year we had 8 people in attendance, including ourselves. We were still renting our townhouse so it was a tight fit and it was done on a tight budget- but here's a few photos from last years event:
This year we have about 14 people who have RSVP'ed! I've already purchased a 17 lb. turkey from Target, and have my table decorations piled up in the formal dinning room ready to go. This has quickly become a great tradition that our friends look forward to every year.

Check back here for photos of my table decorations, recipes, etc. from the 2008 Friendsgiving in about a week and a half.

Until then, here's a few links/ideas to check out if you are interested in hosting your own Friendsgiving or just hosting Thanksgiving in your home:

** http://www.home-ec101.com/ :Countdown to Turkey Day 2008

** http://http//www.bhg.com/holidays/thanksgiving/indoor-decorating/easy-centerpieces-for-thanksgiving/ for centerpiece/table decorating ideas

** Check out Old Time Pottery or a discount craft store in your area for simple glass dinner plates, I picked up 8 extra plates at a $1 each, and I'm going to alternate these glass plates w/ my china place settings.

** http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Entertaining/EntertainingLandingPage.aspx for general recipe ideas

** I'm going to use this brinning recipe for my turkey this year: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Make sure and check out more WFMW tips at http://www.rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/

Placecards & Wine Charms

Instead of scrapbooking on Friday night, I made placecards for Friendsgiving. Each couple has the same design and paper color, yet all the placecards coordinate.

My friend Erica used the Cricut and cut these adoreable wine charms out as well:Now all I have to do is get some pretty, thin ribbon to tie the wine charms on with and set my Friendsgiving table :)