My Igloo Life: She Ate the Carcass.

Maple is one of my monster dogs. She's, what I like to call, a "neighborhood" black lab. AKA she has no papers. She is definitely not a fancy purebred. She was an accident of two neighborhood labs down in Georgia. The lovely owner gave the puppies away and the rest is history.

She is great company. When you talk to her she cocks her head from side to side so you really know she is listening. Granted, the expression on her face will lead to you think that she is the most confused dog on the planet but at least she's trying. She may try to listen but it's very obvious that she is actually looking at you thinking, "I don't have a clue what you're talking about, lady."

While I spent two days in the kitchen getting everything ready she did her absolute best to lay right where I needed to stand. Isn't she helpful? And then when my husband hauled off the turkey carcass,in a trash bag, she ate it. True story. We didn't even know she was outside. For an hour. How did this happen?

I'm talking bones and everything! Unbelievable.

So, here's the run down of everything we ate and all the wonderful people that came over to make me feel at home.

Everybody knows that the South survives on one main drink of choice. Sweet Tea. We pride ourselves on it. It's important. Part of daily life. It makes everything better.

Over the past few years even the liquor companies have gotten on board the sweet tea train. A little company down in South Carolina changed the world forever when they started making Sweet Tea Vodka. Understand, it's not a liqueur. It's vodka, straight vodka, but tea flavored. Guess what? You can't get that here in Canada. Nope. Not happening. In fact, the liquor store people looked at me like I had eight heads when I asked if they carried it.

So, fine! I'll make my own. After all, what southern party doesn't have sweet tea?

Simple. I took some Absolut Vodka, dumped it in a mason jar and through in some tea bags. Twenty minutes later...viola! Sweet Tea Vodka! Stir in some sugar and we're good to go.

I got bored of this. Plus, I couldn't tell if it was really working. It's not easy to sample. I ended up making horrible facial expressions. So, I just whipped up three liters of sweet tea, added two liters of lemonade and poured in a big bottle of vodka. Done.

That's what it looked like at the end of the night. I think they liked it.

We served the cocktail in these fun little glasses with chalkboard on them. See, fun?! You can write your name on it so you know which one is yours! Much classier than the ole dixie cup and sharpie method.

Sweet potato pie:

I baked a ton of sweet potatoes, yanked off the skin and mashed them up. Easy. Who knew?

After I added enough brown sugar and butter to kill a small army, we had delicious sweet potato pie like they've never had here in Canada. I made a triple batch, just to be on the safe side.

We had green bean casserole too!

I couldn't believe how easy it is to cook!

That's five pounds of potatoes right there...half the batch. Do you know how long it takes to peel potatoes? It's a thankless job.

We whipped those suckers up! Thank you grandpa for leaving me your amazing KitchenAide mixer. It changed my life. Thank you mom for telling me to use evaporated milk instead of plain ole milk. And, oh the butter! Delicious.

Except, it needed Krazy Salt. But, alas, that's not to be found in Canadian grocery stores.

We had tons of rolls from the famous Nanna's Bakery. Yum.

My wonderful mother-in-law (MIL) made enough stuffing to feed a small country.

Hey Christina! Nice apron! I made her wear it. She did. She embraced it.

We didn't take our aprons off all night.

Oh yeah, the turkey!

Ewwww....

Dear Lord, my MIL and FIL are good people. Bless their hearts.

I couldn't do it. It was just so....so, slimy. And it had wings!

The former vegetarian in me cannot handle this.

Thankfully, we had this to keep me calm. That is a box of 7 liters of homemade wine. Thank you, FIL!

Then the turkey juice was strained. Gross.

To make this. Delicious. I eat it by the boat. Don't judge.

Don't forget about the olive tray! My mom serves this tray every year. I figured it was normal, part of every Thanksgiving table across the world. It's not.

When I got married I told my mom I wanted to register for an olive plate. She looked at me with an expression that said Huh? Apparently an "olive plate" isn't commonplace. Not to worry, Dottie to the rescue! My mom's BFF, Dottie, took a look at my mom's sacred "olive plate" and scoured antique stores high and low until she found my very own olive plate. I Love that woman.

Speaking of Dottie...

She made me this apron. Notice the bottom. All flirty and fun. She's talented I tell you!

That's right, I wore my apron all night. It makes me feel like a domestic goddess. What's the old saying? Fake it 'til you make it. That's my theory.

And the cranberry sauce. Who cares if no one eats it? It is a must. This was actually pretty good. Nothin' but a bag of cranberries boiled in a bottle of pomegranate juice with a cup of sugar mixed in. Heaven.

Told you. She's always all up in my business.

That's right. I made pies. I made 5 pies to be exact.

I only meant to make four pies. Oopps. They all were eaten so it's ok.

And can you believe it? People prefer pecan pie to pumpkin pie.

Shocking.

There is that sweet tea cocktail again. I'm telling you, they loved it.

But, as I was congratulating myself on making a good drink Craig told me in no uncertain terms, "It could be just plain vodka and we would still drink it."
Thanks, Craig.