amanda macy hall

Oh wow it feels like the holiday season! Parking lots are jam-packed, the grocery store is a disaster zone and any spare time you thought you once had has suddenly evaporated into thin icy cold air.

Oh but isn’t it just the BEST time of year!!! 🙂

This past weekend we hosted the third annual Friendsgiving at our home. The rules for Friendsgiving are simple – the event be thrown together, it must be kind of a cluster and it must involve full glasses of wine. Pretty fun rules I think!

Here are some highlights – keep the rules in mind 😉

This little door decor took just a hot minute to make. Would’ve been even less if I could figure out how to tie pretty bows…urgh {tips, pointers and lessons welcomed!}. We have a huge Magnolia tree in our front yard so I snipped a swig of leaves with the single branch still on and added this fun bow using gold striped wire ribbon {n o t h i n g  is better in this world than gold stripes}, 3 branches of gold glitter berries {do you detect an obsession yet} and a little gold glittered pine cone. I think it turned out pretty nice!

Each place setting also got the gold & magnolia treatment. We don’t do assigned seats at Friendsgiving – remember the thrown together rule 😉 –  so each place setting either said ‘friends’ or ‘thankful.’ Because that is who we are- we are friends and we are thankful. Easy!

We stuck with paper plates, napkins and cups {the horror!} but kept them in the gold and white theme. A gold paper napkin tucked over the dinner plate and atop a gold charger gives somewhat of an element of style to the recyclable setting.

Our Friendsgiving is potluck style and Josh and I roast up the Turkey, or Turks Bentley as he has been named. Thanks to some seriously inspirational instagrams from Chef Tyler Florence, Josh and I literally took a stab at a new way of roasting this guy. We took out his backbone. Oh yes, we did! Using a pair of kitchen shears {which we will never use again- yuck}, Josh cut down both sides of the backbone to remove it- much easier than it sounds, especially from my point of view as an onlooker. 🙂

By removing the backbone, the breast and thigh of the turkey end up cooking in the same timeframe. IE- no dry breast and undercooked thigh. And! No long cooking times! Turks Bentley the Third, Trey, only cooked for 90-120 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Some have asked if the turkey actually still looks like a turkey even though he has no backbone… in the picture above you can see that indeed he does! I stuffed him with a quartered apple, quartered onion, wedges of lemon, cloves of garlic and rosemary sprigs. After much research, we decided to cover him with just salt, pepper, herbs de Provence and olive oil – no butter! By eliminating butter you don’t risk a soggy skinned turkey since olive oil is full fat- no milk. P.S. all of this research was done day-of. I stick to the rules.

Above is the ‘before’ picture, but he turned out golden brown and delicious!

Everyone’s dishes were just amazing! Unfortunately, documenting our dinner was not a priority…but I have to tell you about these rolls! THESE ROSEMARY BUTTER AMAZING ROLLS! Mom made them for us last Christmas and I don’t think a month goes by without me dreaming of them. They are delicious and decadent and you probably shouldn’t serve them monthly…. Get the recipe here and invite me over to eat them, pretty please.

We just had the best time all together – singing, cooking, laughing, drinking and eating. We had a cozy fire going and Josh and I absolutely loved having our home filled with sweet close friends. We are already itching to have everyone over again.  {see how I made that tassel garland here, not pictured- that fire I just referenced…}

As you prepare for your Thanksgiving feast this week, I hope you try out those rosemary butter amazing rolls and consider taking a stab at the backbone of your turkey! You won’t be disappointed.

happy thanksgiving friends!