Rockin’ but no Rollin'

Thanksgiving this year was full of many firsts for Southern in the City. First Thanksgiving away from home, first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, first Thanksgiving seeing the Macy’s Parade Floats, and first Thanksgiving cooking.

We all have our must-haves for a Thanksgiving feast and this year I wanted to have my number one must – my mom’s homemade yeast rolls. These delicious rolls have been in our family forever and over the years my mom has perfected the art of roll making. I my friends, have not.

In order to bring a little south (and home) to New York this Thanksgiving, I thought baking rolls would be the perfect project for me. My mom even gave me the essentials including flour, a mixer and six packs of yeast. “Now remember, the water must be hot to the touch, not boiling and not lukewarm,” she said over the phone. These words ran over and over in my head each time I poured the water into the yeast. Three times, I tried, to no avail.

Here sits the dough that did not rise
My mom says it took her many times to perfect the recipe so I’m not throwing in the rolling pin just yet. Fortunately, my mom thought ahead and packed her already-made rolls to New York just in case this very thing happened.

Despite the roll rollercoaster, Southern in the City did manage to make some delicious dishes including squash casserole, green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. The Husband even cooked his first turkey. All in all, I deem our Thanksgiving of firsts a success. Much to be thankful for this year! And a special thanks to our friends in Brooklyn who hosted a great Thanksgiving feast.

I snapped a few photos of the squash casserole cooking and the beginnings of the sweet potatoes...

Here's The Husband with his bird

On Wednesday night we checked out the Macy's Parade floats being blown-up. Check out some of the characters below. They were huge, I mean huge. I've watched the parade for so many years growing up and knew they would be large, but I didn't realize how tall and wide they actually are. I stood looking at the floats for awhile thinking what would happen if they all came alive? Fortunately, they didn't.