Where to start?! Over the past few days we enjoyed some really delicious food, great company, and lots of laughter. In one word, Thanksgiving 2013 was memorable!
Thanksgiving Day
I woke up bright and early on Thursday and headed straight to the kitchen to start cooking since I was in charge of the food for the day. My aunt, uncle, cousin, and his little girl were coming over around noon, and I wanted everything to be ready by then.
Our lunch spread mirrored our Friendgiving feast except for a few changes. I made whipped sweet potatoes, mac n’ cheese, quinoa salad (more nuts, no greens, same dressing), corn muffins from a box, cranberry sauce, and baked chicken for the meat eaters. Lots of good eats!
A bit later in the afternoon, my parents, sister, and I headed to the theater to watch the new Bollywood movie Ram Leela. If you’ve seen it already, please leave a comment telling me what you thought. Personally, I liked a few aspects of it but found it to be a big disappointment overall. It just didn’t live up to the hype!
We ended our day with a little Black Friday shopping. We (minus my dad) went to the mall, shopped in exactly 3 stores, and came home. All of this took 4 hours – the lines were ridiculous! Even though we found some great deals, I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. Not quite my thing.
FRIDAY
On Friday morning, I woke up, worked out, and headed to Tina’s place to pick her up for our donut date! Tina and I went to high school together and reconnected via our blogs. Since she still lives in Atlanta, I contacted her to see if she had time for a meet-up. After a few emails, we realized that she lives in the neighborhood next to my parents’. Small world, huh!?
Anyways, we drove over to Dutch Monkey Doughnuts, where we both picked the chocolate cake donut with peanut butter filling (perfection!) and caught up on life since high school. We talked about our blogs, Best Body Bootcamp, family, and other random things. It was so fun seeing Tina after all these years. I’m hoping we can meet up again next time I’m in town and hopefully get more ATL bloggers to join us (ahem, Laura!).
Later in the evening, Vishnu and his family came over for dinner (Thanksgiving part 2). My mom prepared some delicious curries, including saag paneer (spinach with cubed paneer cheese), daal makhani (lentils), and chole (chickpeas). The saag paneer was my favorite. It was spicy with a hint of sweetness, and the soft cheese added the perfect bite. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
And what dinner party is complete without dessert? Not ours! My mother-in-law’s apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream were the perfect ending to our spicy meal.
After saying good-bye to my parents and sister, we headed back to Vishnu’s house where I spent the rest of the weekend.
SATURDAY
After lounging around for a bit, we headed to the mall to do some window shopping…or so I thought. My MIL had other plans, as evidenced by the Michael Kors watch I got as an early Christmas present! Truthfully, I had never even stepped inside a Michael Kors’ store before, so this was a treat!
Once we were all shopped out, we made our way to CPK for dinner. I was adamant that the Tostada pizza be one of the three we order. And guess what? It was the favorite by far. Go me! AND go UGA!!! We made it to the restaurant in time to catch the last 45 minutes of the game. It was nail biter for sure.
SUNDAY
Our flights back to Miami weren’t until the late afternoon, so we spent Sunday morning talking and hanging out around the house. After eating lunch, Vishnu’s brother dropped us off at the airport. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to book us on the same flight, which meant that I was still in Atlanta when Vishnu’s plane landed in Fort Lauderdale. We finally made our way back to Miami around 10:30 pm. Talk about a long travel day!
Now I’m just getting everything ready for my trip to London (I leave on Friday!). I honestly can’t believe that 2014 is right around the corner! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat???
2013 FAMILY PICTURES (don’t ask why we didn’t take one big family picture!)
How was your Thanksgiving holiday? Tell me all about the fooooooood!
So nice to read this. Congrats on the MK watch! Woohoo! Your mom’s food looks sooooooo good.. the saag paneer. Well you saw my blog today, food was half and half, half desi, half American. I love Thanksgiving sides. I love the quinoa salad you made.. and man I give you credit for making chicken. Did you actually touch it?
And since you’re going to London, please check out my recommendations on the site… but off the top of my head…
1. Paul – it’s this Belgian cafe, it’s a chain, they have the BEST hot chocolate and Capri sandwich.
2. Wolseley – if you can get someone to go with you, afternoon tea here is amazing. One afternoon tea feeds 2. I love their scones.
3. Dishoom – it’s amazing Indian food in Covent Garden. I can’t wait to go back!
I did touch the chicken! It wasn’t fun but no one else was around the help so I sucked it up!
And thanks for the recs – I’m going to put them on my list of places to try. 🙂 Can’t wait!
Boooooo UGA!!! That game was so sad. Ugh.
And YES – we absolutely have to get together next time you’re in town. I’ll take you to the best pizza ever. 🙂
She promised me this too- three way date? 😉
saag paneer is on par with tandoori chicken as my favourite Indian dish..or aloo gobii. Just all of it. Glad you had a good time!
Thank you!! Anything with paneer is favorite. 🙂 I’m such a cheese freak!
GOOO DAWGS! I’ll admit – I was a tiny bit torn towards the end. But then Georiga won and my heart soared. LOL!
I don’t think I could handle you, tina and laura in the same room without getting jealous! Looks like a fab weekend!
You’ll just have to come to Atlanta the next time I’m visiting then!
What a festive sounding weekend! Yay ur coming to London! How long for? You have to check out the Christmas markets on south bank (near the London eye) and get the pecan and caramel cinnamon scroll! To die for! I’ve been back three times just for that hahaha. And mulled wine!
I’ll be in London from Saturday morning through the following Friday morning. A super short trip. Are you close to the city? Maybe we can meet up! Let me know.
Ooh wish I was but it might be hard – heading to the Harry potter studios on Tuesday which isn’t too far out of London but I live about 1.5 hrs out of London 🙁 I hope you have an amazing trip tho!
what a great thanksgiving. and oh my god, Vishnu and his brother looks so alike.. yay for the watch, adorable MIL 🙂
Yes, they definitely look very much alike in their glasses! I kept calling them twins all weekend. I don’t think either like that too much!
It was soooo great getting to hang out. Can’t wait to do it again! I’m glad we had teh chance since you certainly had a busy few days while here.
🙂 We’ll definitely do it again the next time I’m in town!
I second all of Nisha’s recommendations. I also suggest Masala Zone for affordable Indian food, Sofra in St. Christopher’s for lunch, and Carlucci’s for Italian.
I love London!
CPK is a close second…
Thanks for the recs!
And CPK is pretty darn good! LOL!