Thanksgiving this year was full of many firsts for Southern in the City. First Thanksgiving away from home, first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, first Thanksgiving seeing the Macy’s Parade Floats, and first Thanksgiving cooking.
We all have our must-haves for a Thanksgiving feast and this year I wanted to have my number one must – my mom’s homemade yeast rolls. These delicious rolls have been in our family forever and over the years my mom has perfected the art of roll making. I my friends, have not.
In order to bring a little south (and home) to New York this Thanksgiving, I thought baking rolls would be the perfect project for me. My mom even gave me the essentials including flour, a mixer and six packs of yeast. “Now remember, the water must be hot to the touch, not boiling and not lukewarm,” she said over the phone. These words ran over and over in my head each time I poured the water into the yeast. Three times, I tried, to no avail.
Here sits the dough that did not rise
My mom says it took her many times to perfect the recipe so I’m not throwing in the rolling pin just yet. Fortunately, my mom thought ahead and packed her already-made rolls to New York just in case this very thing happened. 
Here's The Husband with his bird
On Wednesday night we checked out the Macy's Parade floats being blown-up. Check out some of the characters below. They were huge, I mean huge. I've watched the parade for so many years growing up and knew they would be large, but I didn't realize how tall and wide they actually are. I stood looking at the floats for awhile thinking what would happen if they all came alive? Fortunately, they didn't. 
We all have our must-haves for a Thanksgiving feast and this year I wanted to have my number one must – my mom’s homemade yeast rolls. These delicious rolls have been in our family forever and over the years my mom has perfected the art of roll making. I my friends, have not.
In order to bring a little south (and home) to New York this Thanksgiving, I thought baking rolls would be the perfect project for me. My mom even gave me the essentials including flour, a mixer and six packs of yeast. “Now remember, the water must be hot to the touch, not boiling and not lukewarm,” she said over the phone. These words ran over and over in my head each time I poured the water into the yeast. Three times, I tried, to no avail.
Here sits the dough that did not rise
My mom says it took her many times to perfect the recipe so I’m not throwing in the rolling pin just yet. Fortunately, my mom thought ahead and packed her already-made rolls to New York just in case this very thing happened. Despite the roll rollercoaster, Southern in the City did manage to make some delicious dishes including squash casserole, green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. The Husband even cooked his first turkey. All in all, I deem our Thanksgiving of firsts a success. Much to be thankful for this year! And a special thanks to our friends in Brooklyn who hosted a great Thanksgiving feast.
I snapped a few photos of the squash casserole cooking and the beginnings of the sweet potatoes...
Here's The Husband with his bird
On Wednesday night we checked out the Macy's Parade floats being blown-up. Check out some of the characters below. They were huge, I mean huge. I've watched the parade for so many years growing up and knew they would be large, but I didn't realize how tall and wide they actually are. I stood looking at the floats for awhile thinking what would happen if they all came alive? Fortunately, they didn't. 
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Socks, named after her long white legs (not the Clinton cat), was a fearless and smelly pup who seemed to always be sick but lived longer than most healthy dogs. Her permanent napping spot was located right where she could see the family at meal time, always having to be in the center of it all. (Socks pictured above).
It’s my hope, sooner than later of course, that Southern in the City and The Husband will find our special dog, who like Bogey, Socks and Reagan will quickly become another favorite in our family.
In case you didn’t know, the Yankees won the World Series last night. I watched most of the games during the past week, but was more interested in dancing around the apartment as “New York, New York” played at the end of each home-game.
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