PreThanksgiving Feast

My mom and I went over to her friend Joan's today. She has the most beautiful kitchen I've ever been in and is a ridiculously amazing chef. We are going to Joan's tomorrow for Thanksgiving dinner so we stopped by today to help her prepare the feast! She is feeding 16 people!

First thing I see when I walk into her house is lemon custard to make lemon meringue pie. She is making both that AND pumpkin pie but she's adding her Joan touch to it. Joan says, "I hate when my pie crust is soggy!" so she is making both pies by cookie cutting out individual pie crusts and letting people place their pie filling on top when they're ready to eat it. Genius.

After prepping a bunch of food for tomorrow (don't worry, I'll be taking a lot of pictures of the finished items), we were ready for dinner. Joan had cooked a spaghetti squash before we arrived so she served it up for dinner. It's super easy to make and delicious to eat! I think I'm going to buy one when I get back to Santa Barbara. We just put a little salt and pepper on top but next time I want to add tomato sauce and see if I can make it like normal spaghetti!

She also made us mint mojitos :)

Then, we went over to the Roseville Galleria because Joan wanted new silverware. I love Pottery Barn and Create and Barrel. I can't wait to start decorating my house and collecting furniture! I have this genius plan to work there for a year and accumulate all my furniture while receiving a hefty discount. 

Next, we mosied on over to Il Fornaio for dinner #2. I hardly touched the calamari appetizer because I was so engrossed in their delicious breads! I ate an entire basket by myself (Pane Olive, Panmarino Rosemary, and Ciabatta). It was SO worth it! Mmmm with olive oil and vinegar :) YUM.

Now, I'm sitting next to Kobe, who is snoring, flipping between Food Network and E! I don't think I've ever been so content. Happy 3 hours until Thanksgiving!!!

PS I have a new mini obsession for Jake Gyllenhaal.

Sacratomato Never Looked So Good

The day has finally come! Not a day too soon. My fasha is on his way to come pick me up! YAY one step closer to Thanksgiving/Winter/Christmas delightfulness :) We're hoping to be on the road by 10am so we can beat traffic.

So many thoughts running through my mind right now!
1.  I'll be home to watch GLEE!!!!!!!!! (This is numero uno because I haven't watched TV in I don't even remember how long! It'll be great to reunite with my ol' pal Stevie the TV again)
2.  Thanksgiving is SO CLOSE! It doesn't feel like that time of year yet. The one downfall to living in southern California is that all the seasons mush together into one great season I like to call Summer. Occasionally we'll get a "cold" summer day but that's about it. Even if it's raining, the sun will peak right back out once the rain stops.
3.  I want to run along the American River again! (I just noticed the common theme of "!" in this post. I guess I'm pretty excited!!!!!
4.  JACKS
5.  Kobe

6.  Just being cozy at home with Mom and Dad (Now you need to come home so we can reunite our big happy family :) Christmas card? Eh, eh?)

I'm listening to Girl Talk's new album All Day right now. They did not disappoint!