Wine, Cheese, Chatter: Dinner party?

Thanksgiving has came and went in a flash this year!  All the preparation paid off and the day went smoothly and lots of food was enjoyed by all.  By the time the big day rolled around, I had most everything done aside from throwing the bird in and baking a couple things last minute.  I  used the Michigander Way for the turkey, which was nice and easy for a first timer like myself.

Right before I popped her in!

The turkey turned out fabulous; nice and juicy and tons of flavor.  It did cook a lot quicker than planned so that through a bit of a wrench into my timing of all the other things that had to be put in the oven too, but we worked it out and got everything done in time.  Phew!

My in-laws were pretty thrilled to walk in and smell all the food in the oven and see me sporting the apron they bought us (Ryan has a "Mr." of his own).

The afternoon before I made one of my favorite things: Pineapple Cake!  This is one of the easiest and an amazing dessert (my mom is the one that introduced me to this recipe).  I love, love, love the frosting and pineapple is one of my favorites so it's a winner in my book.  The recipe is as follows:

• 1 3/4 c. flour
•  2 eggs
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 can crushed pineapple and juice
• 1 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 350. Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

• 2 c. confectioners sugar
• 1 stick butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix with handmixer until smooth and slather on cake once cake has cooled!

Gets nice and browned on top.

My favorite! Usually I share but I was home alone so it was all mine!

It's long gone now!

Considering it was the first time hosting a holiday for family it went really well!  We really would love to host more parties and are really thinking of having a dinner party of some sort with friends.  We'd like to have some sort of theme so I'm wracking my brain for ideas.  Anyone have any interesting dinner party ideas?  Real Simple has these invites that I love, in particular the wine, cheese and chatter one:

Is this not the cutest and most clever idea?  

Prepping the bird.

I've been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving this year.  This year will be the first year that I am not able to spend it with the whole family and though it saddens me that we won't be able to spend it with our entire family, I'm determined to have a fabulous one with our little family.   We will be spending it in our home, just the 3 of us (me, husband and our dog), with a home cooked meal and some Christmas decorating.

I consider myself a relatively experienced cook.  I spend a lot of time perusing the web for yummy meals to try and usually have a pretty good basis of what I'm doing, however, turkeys a whole new experience. Standing at the grocery store alone trying to decide what turkey to get along with all the other turkey panicked shoppers was an experience in itself.  Let's just hope it turns out well.  And that it doesn't burn.

I've started a tentative menu plan:

• Roasted Turkey
• Artichoke Parmesan Sourdough Stuffing
• Cranberry Sauce
• Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic and Parmesan
• Gratitude Dinner Rolls (with surprise messages for the hubby)
• Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Mom's recipe from old church fundraiser cookbook)
• Uncle John's Cranberry Wine (Amazing! Discovered on wine tasting last week)

I'm thinking I'd like some snacks for during the day.  Any suggestions?  What are your Thanksgiving traditions?