Everything But The Bird

I pulled into D's parent's driveway around 9:30pm Wednesday night. I'd stopped to grab a bite to eat on the way down (Chick-fil-a) because I figured everyone would've already had dinner by the time I arrived. Always armed with a ton of food, his parents had ordered two barbecue chicken pizzas from Papa John's. I've never been a fan of Papa John's, but this particular concoction looked rather tasty, so I tried a piece. Then another, then another. I went to bed full that night, praying that I'd wake up feeling light and refreshed for Carb-Fest 2010, starting at my aunt's.

Thanksgiving in my family is hands-down the most anticipated meal of the year. I'm sure many other families can make the same argument, but I'm confident that most people haven't ever experienced southern cooking like this. On my plate, you'd find everything but the bird: homemade macaroni and cheese, collards, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, broccoli salad (a new member to the spread), butternut squash, mashed rutabaga and carrots... Over a four hour period, I ate a total of five plates of food, not including appetizers and dessert, which I had.

Here's a snapshot of plate #1:

The next day, I grabbed lunch with one of my best friends from high school at California Pizza Kitchen. I felt like I needed to balance out the carbs from the day before, so I went for the Grilled Vegetable Salad. It's always been consistently good and proved itself once again. Dinner was at D's parents, where we finished up the Thanksgiving leftovers, including the phenomenal lasagna roll-ups that his Italian step-grandmother made. I ate seven or eight of them and then helped myself to the leftovers, including red velvet cake.

Saturday, D's step-mother, sister-in-law and I decided to check-out a Christmas Bizarre. I made myself a BLT with chipotle colby-jack before we left. I haven't had a BLT in ages and the cheese was delicious! The Christmas Bizarre had quite a few food vendors and when we saw Greek pastries for sale, we had to make sure they went to a good home. For dinner, I ate crab-stuffed salmon, a crab cake sandwich, rice pilaf, salad and red velvet cake. Later that evening, we made smores over the fire pit and after a meal like that, I went to bed with a serious food baby.

D's parents sent me off Sunday morning with a breakfast to feed an army: bagels, bacon, sausage, grits, breakfast casserole, apple cinnamon pancakes... Full from the previous three days, I ate all I could and then gave up. I made my way home, unpacked, cleaned and watched a movie.

I've decided to give myself a break from over-indulgence in an attempt to rid myself of the food child I acquired over the holiday weekend. Wish me luck!