When two twenty-something-year-old sisters have Thanksgiving together it looks like this! (note the missing turkey. because, well ... cooking a turkey seemed much too intimidating).

November 28, 2013 marked the first time the Echeveste sisters (the elder two at least) attempted to cook Thanksgiving dinner on their own. We missed our grandma's mashed potatoes, our aunt's pecan pie, and our mother's two varieties of stuffing. Yet it was exciting to try prepping a holiday meal on our own, especially in my apartment in Washington, DC!

Thanksgiving recipes had been on our minds since Stephanie booked her flight to DC, yet somehow we still found ourselves searching through recipes two days before the big event. That's right, we managed to find recipe's & find everything at the grocery store (walking in the cold both ways) the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

What ever happened to good old-fashioned Thanksgiving food? While I'm sure cranberry-apple-walnut-truffle stuffing, and parmesan-garlic-bacon mashed potatoes taste amazing, we were craving traditional stuffing and mashed potatoes. Simple recipes were hard to find, but found they were! Wednesday night ... boil & peel potatoes

add butter. more butter. milk. salt. pepper. parsley. MASH

chop onions & celery & parsley sauté. which sounds so much better than 'stir in a shallow, hot pan with melted butter'

mix pre-seasoned bread crumbs. 1.5 cups chicken broth. sautéd onions & celery, 1 whisked egg. AND OLIVES (because, although the recipe forgot ... what is stuffing without olives?)

cook 40 min. top with fresh parsley (no flakes, this IS a holiday dinner)

cut dates in half

fill with blue cheese & wrap with bacon.

Too easy pumpkin pie--I fully agree with the faction of humans who do not believe in store bought pumpkin pie. These are all the ingredients you need. Basically, mix together following the measurements on the back of the Libby's can o'pumpkin then pour into a frozen pie crust.bake according to Libby's directions ... TA-DA delicious homemade pumpkin pie.

We may have cheated with the frozen pie crust ... but we made up for it with fresh ground cloves!

Thanksgiving day.. we started like this: YUM!   Coffee with creamer, Croissants, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! We ventured to the Air & Space museum. > met an astronaut. > saw some space gear. > walked around the Sculpture Garden ice rink. > not pictured: casual stop by the White House on our walk home. because this is DC after all Thanksgiving Dinner time: cooked bacon-wrapped dates Stuffing Mashed Potatoes and gravy (from a $1 McCormick gravy packet), mixed cranberry sauce with mandarin oranges and opened some Champagne > We'll get that Turkey next time!