This was the week of Thanksgiving, and we’ve spent the last couple days being thankful for friends, family, good food, and the many blessings that make holidays like these so special. Our challenge to ourselves to be thankful for something every day this month still stands, though. Here’s a look at what we took time to feel thankful for in the days leading up to the holiday.

Day 17: Jennie and I took a rainy day hike in Griffith Park. I was thankful to have someone in my life who makes me go hiking, even when it rains, and she was thankful for a willing partner.

Day 18: We had our photo shoot with Mary, and I was grateful for this crazy LA life we lead that includes fun things like photo shoots!

Day 19: Jennie was thankful for pomegranates, one of our seasonal favorites.

Day 20: I started thinking about my Dad, who I’m extremely thankful for. Jennie went for a good run and felt grateful for her health.

Day 21: In the prep frenzy, I was very thankful for Melissa who handled so much of the shopping, chopping, packing, and pre-cooking for our holiday!

What are you feeling thankful for?

Hello from Chicago! Today we spent a morning running a 5K, and then an afternoon cooking. Here, I am making some Parker Rolls, a la Bon Appetit.

You basically make folded butter sandwiches, and then cover those in butter.

Look how beautiful these rolls are. Wait until they come out…wait for it…

Beautiful, delightful, wonderful rolls.

This is our lasagna. You don’t have lasagna on Thanksgiving? It’s not totally normal…?

Kylah made pearl onion and creamed peas. They were wonderful!

And, obviously, here is our stuffing which was perfect with some gravy.

And here is the green bean casserole, that was also, obviously, a delight!

Here are the pomegranates. You know where these babies are going?

Pomegranates and beets….

Brussels with beets, pomegranates, and rosemary. Delicious!

And, of course, the turkey!

And the first course for the last photograph – the delicious holiday soup! Not pictured: mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, and nine very full people.

This was our meal…what did you all do for Thanksgiving? 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Things are well underway here in Los Angeles. The turkey went in the oven at approximately 8:30, and we’ve already made a gorgeous cider glaze for it.Everything is organized and more or less on schedule. We even had time to watch a Thanksgiving episode of The West Wing, which was so lovely that it inspired us to watch the President’s weekly address wishing America a Happy Thanksgiving.

Our photographer (the incomparable Mary Costa) will not be arriving for a few hours, so you’ll have to forgive us for posting a few instagram shots in the interim!

We arrived bright and early and found this sweet note from our host, Paul.

So many bags to unload!

This was the bird right before we rubbed it with butter and put it in the oven!

In the oven!

And some cider glaze with which to baste the turkey.

How is your holiday so far?

Today was the day-before-Thanksgiving chaos it always is, only I was in Chicago to enjoy it! We were busy prepping by making quiche, pumpkin pie, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, roasting beets, making kale chips (for snacking), cooking artichokes, making prune cake (for pre-Turkey Trot breakfast), and peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes (which Grandma did amazingly!)

These are the beautiful stuffed artichokes that my grandma made – divine!

These are the Brussels that Jeff pulled off the stalk. Delicious for tomorrow with pomegranate and beets.

Here are the pumpkin muffins I made from scratch after we had extra pumpkin filling from the pumpkin pie.

Here is the prune cake pre-oven. Delicious, beautiful, wonderful prune cake.

I may have eaten two of these after the practice 5K we ran today with my fam.

I hope that the west coast is as ready for Thanksgiving as we are here…we mostly only have to mash some potatoes and make a turkey (and a lasagna….ok and maybe a couple more sides.)

For our last ingredient of the year, we wanted to tackle nuts! We love nuts from breakfast to dessert, and thought we could share some recipes we love with you. Nuts, we know, are a diverse group of food, so we’ll try to focus on a few for you.

First, because it’s the season, we want to talk about pecans. We love them in Becca’s pecan pie, and so we were happy to find out they’re pretty healthy for us – they have omegas and antioxidants, and they lower your chances of heart disease. Did you know that pecans are the only tree nut that is native to North America? We’re eager to retry the Maple Pecan Scones from the PW, but also would like to try them on pizza (with pesto!) or with lemon and linguine.

Second, we love walnuts. Walnuts are also great for your heart and can aid in weight loss. There are some that are native to the Americas (think black walnuts and white walnuts) and some that grow elsewhere in the world. About 90% of the walnuts grown in the United States are grow in California, which is good for GMS! We’ve used walnuts in brownies before, but never in something savory – I’m looking forward to trying this recipe!

And last, but not least, we love cashews! Cashews are native to Brazil, and are actually seeds! They are high in copper and manganese, which both are necessary for a healthy diet! Did you know that copper helps you absorb iron, and manganese helps you absorb calcium? So maybe you should have some cashews, kale, and cheese with your pasta or rice! We’ve never focused much on cashews, but we did make this nut butter and I think it’d be delicious with cashews.

What are you favorite nuts? Do you have go-to nuts for snacking, breakfast, or dinner?