In a Nutshell...

Taters...

Thanksgiving was great. It really was. And I'm not just saying that in an, "Oh, thank god we had a day off and yeah, sure, great, it's a holiday" kind of way. Rather, I'm saying it in a, "Geez! That food was sort of incredible if I do say so myself, and golly, the company sure couldn't have been greater, and my-oh-my it's only 8:30pm and I'm already in my happy place and it's almost my bed-time" sort of way. Something really great happens when you have a restaurant: suddenly the thought of hosting 18 people for a Thanksgiving meal doesn't seem like that big of a deal. When you have a pre-rinse, a three-compartment sink and a Sanitizer that does a load of dishes in 90 seconds, let me tell you, Thanksgiving really isn't that big of a deal. I say, "Bring on the extended family!" I say, "Let's see what these babies are really capable of..."

Carrots, pre-roasting

Thursday morning Evan and I slept in until 9:00am (definition of our conception of: peace), showered and headed to the Cafe with bagfuls of groceries in tote. With our menu we wanted to re-create the classic meals of our childhood but update the flavors with better, more flavorful ingredients (sorry, Mom(s) We love you). Every dish was timeless and familiar, but we tried to give each its own unique twist; Evan blended his mashed potatoes with a roasted garlic butter; the baby carrots were roasted in a 425 degree oven and tossed in a curried-honey glaze; the brussels sprouts were first caramelized then slowly braised on low heat in lemon-cream; and the green bean casserole was made purely from scratch using a homemade wild mushroom-sage gravy. By 1:30pm the table was set and almost everything was ready to put in the oven to finish off.

Wild Rice

Roasted Butternut Squash for the Wild Rice with Corn, Cranberry, and Toasted Pecan

Feeling quite pleased with our progress, we headed home for a quick change (yeah, yeah, we like to get spiffy every now and again) and came back to the Cafe to greet our guests. The cafe, the Cafe, the Cafe. We keep calling it that when really, what we realized recently is that it's not just a cafe, it's Our cafe. Our Cafe. Yes. That's right, we have a cafe. It's a place that we built, a place that we love, but sometimes a place we can take for granted all too often. As we explained to our parents, we spend the majority of our lives at the Cafe and spending "hard time" like that has a tendency to wear on you and sometimes have the effect of making you under-appreciate what you've got. We love that cafe. We know we do. But sometimes it's hard to remember that when we all too often wear goggles that see only flaws. So that is why we were so lovingly anticipating the chance to celebrate the Holiday in Our Cafe, giving thanks for our many blessings amongst the people we so dearly appreciate and love. It was a chance for us to do what we love (design, conceptualize, plan, cook, and serve), in the place that we love (a dream 4 years in the making!), amongst the people who helped us get here (our parents, our friends, our co-workers, and our dogs-okay, so they were like in the basement.)

Purely from scratch Green Bean Casserole (pre-topping)

Off the bat it became obvious that everyone arrived in high spirits. At first, when my dad first asked me what kind of beer he could contribute (for 18 guests), and I told him "Anything Mexican" and he showed up with a 12 pack of Bud Light, I tried not to be discouraged; but something inside me made me shake my head, "What the hell is he thinking?" Little did I know he was hiding a garbage can full of Corona in his trunk; he only brought the Bud Light to chide me. Ha ha. Joke was on me. We ate a lot of food (surprise, surprise) and drank a lot of "Spirits" (bigger surprise) and we ended up with fewer leftovers than I imagined.

The Spread

The Table

In the beginning we were insightful...

And then silly...

And then just plain debaucherous...

I think it the end we were all in bed (for the most part) by 11:30pm, sleeping fat and happy with some fairly interesting dreams. Undoubtedly this was one of our personal favorite holidays to date, as it was our combined families first Thanksgiving together, not to mention the fact their first time being together since our wedding, which was over four months ago. Not only did we manage to get our families together but many of our dear friends as well, which was also a treat and a vision a long time in the making. So yes, there are many things Evan and I have to be grateful for this year; and what a treat it was to be able to sit down and literally count our many blessings for an evening. So yeah, Thanksgiving really was pretty great.

Hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Many good tidings to you and yours. XO