This year I spent Thanksgiving in the city (Chicago) for the first time. Even though I've lived here for over two years, I'd gone elsewhere the past two years for the holiday. I often jokingly refer to myself as an "ex-pat" as it's been over 6 years since I left my homeland of Fayetteville, Arkansas-- first for undergraduate school in Los Angeles and after that graduate school here in Chicago. So I haven't been home for Thanksgiving since high school. It's just too expensive to fly home and it's too close to Christmas to make the trip worth it.In LA we did a 'friendsgiving'-- a potluck with about 15 other out-of-state students like myself where I only had to make mashed potatoes or pumpkin cheesecake to bring to dinner. This year, however, my friend Mengwei and I (who just moved here from NYC) decided to tackle making the WHOLE holiday feast on our own!
Before heading out to her apartment I quickly documented my outfit-- I'd been wanting to take an autumn photograph of this dress for ages but rainy weather always ruined my ideas of a shoot in a more picturesque location (like a pumpkin patch, apple orchard or cornfields--so jealous of all of you with cars/access to rural areas). So I just took pictures on my backstairs again.My "autumn harvest" dress is from the 1950s and is a shirtwaist style, the pattern reminds me of an abstract painting. I bought it at Cheap Thrills, my favorite vintage store in Fayetteville. The yellow cardigan is deadstock from the 1970s and was found at a little flea market sponsored by the Pritzer School in Wicker Park (neighborhood just north of mine). The little gold leaf necklace was bought at Blacklist Vintage in Minneapolis on my trip there last month.
It was chilly today (originally was forecast to snow) so I had to wear 2 layers-- this 1960s orange coat was found at a Winnetka estate sale this summer. It's in pristine condition (and has a great tangerine silk lining). The little faux crocodile purse is most likely from the 1980s, I found it at the Village Thrift Store a while ago.
My first ever turkey was a success!! We bought a 7-lb turkey breast (easier to cook/less cleaning) at a small grocery store across the street from Mengwei's apartment. They had a crazy sale on so it only cost 50 cents a pound so we only paid less than $4 for our turkey!! We did a semi-homemade dinner as the stuffing and gravy were pre-made from Trader Joe's but the cranberry sauce & mashed potatoes were made from scratch. The green bean casserole was made from the standard ingredients (though we got fancy French green beans and crispy onions from Trader Joes) and I added some turkey drippings to the boxed gravy.
YUM! The turkey was very flavorful and juicy and we thankfully have plenty of leftovers! Making a whole Thanksgiving dinner for only two people is a lot of work-- we started cooking a little after 1 and finally ate at 5:30 (even turkey breasts take ages to cook). The secret to keeping the turkey moist is basting, we brushed it with oil, garlic salt and pepper at the beginning and every half hour I basted it with its drippings/oil. I also made a pumpkin pie the night before in a graham cracker crust. We were so full we barely managed to eat a tiny piece each.So I'm rather proud of myself-- I feel like I've passed some rite of adulthood. No major mishaps except for a rather nasty burn on my arm from taking the stuffing out of the stove, ouch. Also, forgot how much I hate electric stoves, I grew up with one but have been using a gas stove for the past 6 years. It seems like everything takes 2x longer to cook on electric but everything turned out well anyways. :)
Surprisingly the city did not become a ghosttown today like I feared-- the bus ran pretty frequently, grocery stores were open and the paper had been running stores about eating out for thanksgiving (70+ bars and restaurants are open today) for the past two weeks. Also, Starbucks was open until 2 today, so I was able to get a peppermint mocha. mm. So glad I live in a place that doesn't completely shut down on national holidays!