It’s Christmas Time at 18 Preston!

It's that wonderful time of year again, the smell of fresh baked cookies and sweet garland, the taste of Christmas cocktails and of course, the look of Christmas lights. This is our first Christmas at 18 Preston. We kind of skipped Christmas last year. Meg's parents moved on Christmas Eve and we moved in on New Year's Eve, so that made the holiday season especially hectic for us. We're still trying to get everything settled in, but we really wanted to do something special this year. I think I saw this on someone's house when I was a kid growing up and I wasn't sure if it was a great idea, or something silly. As soon as I mentioned it to Meg, I was convinced it was amazing. Everyone we told the idea to agreed. So, without further adieu, here is our Christmas tree!

We wanted it to look like the tree was busting through the roof, so we got two trees and put one on the roof. The original plan was to buy one large tree and actually cut the top off and put it on the roof. It turns out a 14' tree costs upwards of $140. That's a little too rich for our blood. Instead, we went to our local farm-stand, Calareso's and found an 8' tree and a 4' tree for a total of $70. I think that was a pretty sweet deal.

I'm sure these next 2 ideas came from Pinterest, but they look great. Meg put together a snowman for our front door and a mini Christmas tree made from a tomato cage. Meg just flipped the tomato cage, wrapped it with some garland and lights, and wallah, another tree.

Come back soon to check out what we did on the inside of the house. It's defiantly Christmas time at 18 Preston. Enjoy the holiday season!

Thanksgiving Home Decor

Most of our holiday funds for Thanksgiving have gone into the meal and we're mostly making due with what we have to decorate our home for our guests. Thanksgiving this year is BYOC, bring your own chair themed, since we only have 5 dining chairs at the new house. We'll have the dining room set up for 6 and the second half off our living room easily converts to an extension of the dining room with a folding table and chairs.

We have gotten ready with a few small purchases:

• Paper placemats (West Elm, 50 for $23)
• New table cloth (Homegoods, $10)
• New table runner (Homegoods, $14)
• Additional stemless wine glasses to make 12 (Target, 8 for $20)
• The dining row art update was free once again by raiding my scrapbook stash

Other than that we've kept it very simple to allow room on the tables for all the great food. We serve buffet style from the stove top, in case your curious. The only trays of food that will be put out on the table will be the rolls, cranberries sauce, butter, and gravy.
And there will be plenty of wine glasses - and even some of these?!

How cute is that?! That's all Matt.  We made our own hard cider for the occasion and he likes to serve it to me all fancied up.  I love him.

Happy Turkey Day to you and your family.  I may not have a chance to post again until we're done.  Today will be a good day of lots of veggie prep.  So excited!

Posted with Blogsy

Thanksgiving Day Time Line

Sorry for the pause in the Thanksgiving planning guides, we took a mini trip to Malibu but are glad to be home again today

It's the calm before the storm, except for the battleground known as the grocery store we fought through today. The last mild day before cooking the Turkey Day feast. Monday and Tuesdays will be long days in the office, and Wednesday will be a day of perfecting knife skills dicing and chopping to prepare.

Today I want to share with you the day of time line for the cook. I think it's a good guide, but like I mentioned before, I've never cooked Thanksgiving dinner so I'm not sure of the results yet.

This is based on Matt and I getting a Turkey Trot in before the cooking starts, and of course it's all based on roasting an 18lb bird for 4.5 hours.

8:30 am: leave for Turkey Trot, race is at 9, home no later than 10

10:00 am:

• Preheat oven to 450
• Prep Bird by melting 1/2 stick of butter and soaking cheese cloth in it
• Place in cavity: onions, rosemary, lemons. Season skin sign salt and pepper.
• Cover breast meat area with butter soaked cheese cloth, truss and bake for 45 minutes at 450

11:00 am: drop oven temp to 325, catch up with the mornings dishes

Noon: Guest may start arriving, Matt to put out the appetizers and beverages

1:00 pm: Everyone out of the Kitchen!

• Start and finish stuffing - goes in baking dish to be baked later
• Catch up dishes

1:45/2:00pm:

• Get stock on the stove (keeping stock on for gravy and it makes a great bandaid if something doesn't come out great
• Sweet potatoes
• Buttered turnip

2:30 - 3:00pm Bird out of oven:

• In go the rolls and stuffing, after 25 minutes bump oven to 375
• Matt preheats the grill and stats bacon wrapped potato spears
• Pearl onions on stove
• Candied carrots on stove
• Make gravy
• Cave bird after resting it for a half hour under tinfoil

3:30pm: Dinner!


Maybe I'm nuts, but I'm just trying to be prepared.

Posted with Blogsy

Thanksgiving Grocery List!

Have you been following the Thanksgiving posts so far?  Please leave a comment if you are - I'm curious!
So far we've shared The Menu and our "Way in Advance" List

Next up I'm sharing the grocery list for the big event.  First you have a refresher of the menu with links to the recipes I'll be using.  The last four items I made up - unfortunately you'll have to wait until after thanksgiving for me to post those.  Second is the grocery list - get what you can now! We've purchased all our non perishables - but we're headed to California for a few days tomorrow night and wont be able to do the rest of the shopping until the Sunday before! We will put our battle gear on - Market Basket - the grocery store - is sure to be insane!

The Menu

§  Parker House Rolls w/ Spent Grain

§  Rosemary Lemon Turkey

§  Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

§  Potato Spears Wrapped in Bacon w/ Honey Chive drizzle

§  Butter Turnip w/ homegrown Lemon Thyme

§  Brown Sugar Candied Carrots

§  Farm Fresh Green Beans w/ sour cream lemon dressing

§  Apple Cider Braised Pearl Onions & Leeks

§  Tuscan Loaf Baked Stuffing

Grocery List

Produce

§  Onions – 8 (good to have on hand)

§  Celery

§  Pearl Onions

§  Leeks (garden)

§  Chives (garden)

§  Rosemary (garden)

§  Lemons – 4

§  Sweet Potatoes - 5

§  Russet potatoes – 5

§  Turnip – 3

§  Thyme

§  Green Beans

§  Carrots

§  Loaf of Fresh Bread

Dairy

§  Unsalted Butter – and A LOT of it

§  Bacon

§  Whole Milk – 1 qt

§  Heavy Cream

§  Sour Cream

§  Sausage

Baking

§  Flour

§  Yeast

§  Sugar

§  Brown Sugar

§  Honey

Other

§  Turkey

§  Chipolte peppers in adobo

§  White wine

§  Cheese Cloth

     What prep have you finished? Has anyone started their grocery shopping? Does anyone want to do our for us?

Thanksgiving @ 18 Preston - The Way in Advance List

Yesterday we shared our Turkey Day Menu.

To get ready for a feast like this - and to be able to execute this meal myself, it takes some serious preparations.  The list I'm sharing today is the "Way in Advance" list.  And by way in advance I mean before the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  (Unless it's a frozen turkey - then you better pick one up this week and get your defrosting on!)  While I'm writing some of these posts I'm actually taking up some valuable prep time.  But here is my list that I plan on having complete before the Sunday before Thanksgiving:

• Guest List Confirmed - a count is helpful to order the turkey.  I went with 1.5lbs per person
• Order the Bird - I placed my order with a local butcher for a fresh turkey, I don't want to be defrosting one 
• Table linens & serving wear collected - I washed all my dishes this past weekend that  had been in the china cabinet for a while, we don't use 12 plates very often.  And since this is my first Thanksgiving I purchased some table linens and a set of 12 stemless wine glasses
• Grocery Shopping - non perishables.  The store is going to be nuts leading up to the big day, get anything you can out of the way early.
• What Other can Bring List - your guest will start asking what then can bring.  Have your menu ready and a list of answers you can give them.  Leave this by the phone so you husband can just read off the list when he's speaking with your guests too.     Our list includes:
• appetizers
• wine
• dessert
• Make Ahead Items - I have a few things I am comfortable making way ahead.
• herbed goat cheese - for pre meal apps
• herbed butter - sage and brown butter for rolls and gravy
• rosemary salt - to season the turkey
• rolls - I use this recipe, freeze them as instructed and cook from frozen 
• Plan the Time Line - I'm really glad I got this out of the way early - I'll be sharing mine the weekend before the big day - stay tuned.

What have you checked off your list?  

Thanksgiving @18 Preston - The Menu

We've decided to make Thanksgiving a big deal over here on the blog.  We don't post often - due to a hectic schedule and only wanting to share quality information and photos.  That being said, I am tackling cooking the Thanksgiving meal for the very first time this year and want to share my prep plan as I get ready to host my favorite Holiday of all time.

The Plan: 12 guests - we're getting together both sets of parents for the first time since our wedding!
The Place: Our new home - 6 in the dining room and 6 in one half of our living room converted to a temporary dining room
The Time: we're planning a 3:30 dinner time
The Bird: we've ordered a fresh turkey which we will pick up the Sunday before Thanksgiving to start prepping
To brine or not to brine: we will not be brining our bird

The Menu

§  Parker House Rolls w/ Spent Grain

§  Rosemary Lemon Turkey

§  Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes

§  Potato Spears Wrapped in Bacon w/ Honey Chive drizzle

§  Butter Turnip w/ homegrown Lemon Thyme

§  Brown Sugar Candied Carrots

§  Farm Fresh Green Beans w/ sour cream lemon dressing

§  Apple Cider Braised Pearl Onions & Leeks

§  Tuscan Loaf Baked Stuffing

     We'd love for you to follow along in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.  We will be sharing our prep lists, grocery list, links to all of the recipes for most of our menu, Thanksgiving Day timeline, and the tips and tricks we picked up that we're planning on implementing on the big day. 

     Who else is this excited about the best holiday of the year? If you're not - I hope this menu has you drooling enough to jump on board.

Veggie Garden Update

I can't believe I haven't updated you on the vegetable garden since June!
Well - before I give you the current update, lets look at the progress for my first year with a garden.

In the spring, we prepared for our first Vegetable Garden by building a raised planting bed and having soil delivered.

April/May 2012

In June we started to see progress in the garden.  The tomato plant is covered in flowers and the squash are starting to grow like weeds.

June 2012

By the end of July the Garden Exploded.  I had to rip out some of my squash before they killed each other, I had dozens and dozens of tomatoes, and a bounty of basil.

July/August 2012

And this is the garden today - November 7, 2012.  We'll, not quite today.  This was before SuperStorm Sandy and, well - it's currently snowing right now!!!

November 2012

The cold frame did survive Sandy.  We do not have a tutorial on it - it's trapping and painters plastic.  We're going to improve the design next year.

In side we have more swiss chard, mixed greens, garlic, scallions, arugala, and kale growing.  Most leafy veggies don't mind the snow and the heat the cold frame traps will keep them healthy through the winter - I hope! I'll continue to provide updates!

November 2012

Is anyone else crazy like me and still have a New England vegetable garden going in November?  Is anyone else appalled at the snow outside in Massachusetts right now?!