Very Thankful

We have a lot to be thankful for this year.  Most importantly these two little blessings on the way.  We had lots of plans over the Thanksgiving holiday and only made it to a few because Ryan got really sick.  Which reminds me that I am also thankful for my great immune system:)  Although we spent the majority of the time laying around watching football we did manage to visit both families for a brief amount of time and stuff our faces the entire time. First we went to Lake Norman for two days with Ryan's family.

One thing I have really missed since I learned about my gluten allergy is green bean casserole.  I decided this year I was going to make it myself.  The two ingredients that are not gluten free in normal green bean casseroles are the fried onions and cream of mushroom soup.  Gluten free cream of mushroom soup is easy to find these days so that part was easy.  Ryan helped me with my attempt at making fried onions.
First we sliced 1 and 1/2 onions very thinly with a mandoline.

Soaked the onions in milk.

Tossed them in gluten free flour.

Shallow fried them in Canola oil for just a minute or so on each side and let them dry out on a paper towel completely.

And here is the finished product!  The homemade onions made a HUGE difference in this casserole.  They were SO much better than the ones you buy in a can!

It went great with the smoked turkey Ryan and his dad made.

I am also thankful for a family that loves to cook!

We competed in our 4th annual Londry Turkey Shoot.

After coming in last place every year....guess who won this year???

Although the lake isn't far away it was nice to spend some quality time "away" with Ryan's family.

We then went home to rest for a day and traveled to visit my family.
We of course ate more amazing food.   This year instead of doing a second Thanksgiving we decided to go with Dads delicious spaghetti!  My brothers love french onion dip so I made some homemade french onion dip and was nervous they wouldn't eat it if it didn't come from a plastic container....well they loved it.  This little guy couldn't get enough!

My family is rather large and it is very hard to get us all in one place at the same time.  I really cherish these moments.