My First Thanksgiving Turkey

Last week I had the honor of roasting my family's Thanksgiving day turkey, which also happened to be my first one ever. I've never even roasted a chicken before, but thanks to the video by Kin Community on YouTube for turkey virgins such as myself, it was a huge success. I'm feeling awfully lazy so I will leave you with an Instagrammed (I know, I just made that up) photo bomb. Enjoy!

 The 15 lb turkey all rinsed and patted dry (the secret to delicious crispy skin ;)

 This was not in the video, but was highly suggested by my mother to...

 ...cut up onions, carrots, an apple and some celery to shove in the turkey's hoo ha.

 Butter, garlic and rosemary for the rub...

 ...all finely chopped and mixed together with salt & pepper to taste.

Ready to go into the oven!

She's all done!

Now for some photos of the table decorations...

In all it was a fabulous Thanksgiving! Here's to the 2012 Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo source

A few things I'm thankful for:

• #firstworldproblems: there are times when I become overwhelmed with every day life. But when I take a deep breath and step back, I realize how truly blessed I am and if my biggest annoyance for the day is the holiday traffic, I've got it pretty darn good. 
• Annie the Golden Doodle: she's my best furry friend and just makes life better with her happy face and wagging tail after a long day. 
• The boyfriend: I am soooooo thankful for him. He makes me a better person and is my best friend, not to mention the love of my life. I could go on and gush about him for ages, but Jared you truly are something special. 
• Scarves: there is not an easier or more chic accessory that also keeps you warm in the cold fall air.
• Living in wine country: the fact that I live less than a mile where my favorite wine is produced is really freaking awesome. 
• This blog. And you readers. I am unbelievably thankful for you. Comment below to let me know what you're thankful for this Thanksgiving!

PS. The turkey was a success! I will post pictures later today of it all carved on my grandmother's pretty platter when we serve it for dinner. 

I am roasting my first ever turkey this afternoon...this shall be interesting. I found this recipe on the KinCommunity channel on YouTube and it seems easy enough. I will post later with updates!

Also make sure to check out my show on www.fingerlakes1.com, the Lake to Lake Girls with Tiffany Collinsworth and myself. We will be on live from 5:30 to 6:30 PM Est. tonight!

Sunday's Nugget of Wisdom

"The most beautiful thing a woman can wear is confidence." -unknown*

I love this quote. When a friend tells me she can't wear this or that, or would never be able to pull something off, I call poppycock. Confidence is key. If you love something, I say rock it sister. People are drawn to confidence, if you want to try out a new hair style, lip stick or piece of clothing do it with confidence. And if you're still nervous, just remember that most people devote more energy to  worrying about themselves than judging you for what you're wearing. Even if they are judging you, who cares?! You will never see that random person at the mall, restaurant, park, etc again ;)

*I did a google search to find who this quote belongs to but I couldn't find anything definitive. If you know please comment below!

Cinnamon Bun Fail, Kind Of...

I like to be honest with you guys. Not everything I make comes out perfect or even close to what it's suppose to be, and these cinnamon buns had it out for me. Yesterday was opening day for deer hunting in New York. Being a country girl, I've been surrounded by this my entire life, so without getting too political, it is something that is a part of life around these parts. I personally do not understand the appeal of sitting out at the crack of dawn, in the cold waiting for a deer to walk by to shoot it, but hey if that's your thing I won't stop you. Anyway, I digress! I was awoken at 5:30 AM Saturday morning as my boyfriend geared up to indulge in some primal cave man urges to hunt wild life and I had a hard time getting back to sleep. Bridgette, my boyfriend's brother's girlfriend (follow that?) was up as well, and we thought what better thing to do at 6 AM than make cinnamon buns right?!

Things did not go according to plan. I'd like to blame it on the recipe book we were using because the way the recipe was written, was not very intuitive. *Insert shifty side eye right about here.* I'd like to blame it on the cook book, but it really probably has more to do with that fact I attempted this without coffee. We accidentally left the eggs out. Then the dough wouldn't rise. Oh well! We still baked it anyways. Then the tops browned too quickly while the inside was still gooey and raw.

Then there wasn't enough actual cinnamon in the sugar mix. Only 1 tsp worth....I should have known better. 

All in all, they weren't great, but that serves as motivation to find a recipe that actually works, and perhaps save it for a time when I'm a little more awake or at least caffeinated ;)

Mandy Eats

Welcome! There are some changes brewing over here at Cupcakes by Mandy, the first being the change of this blog's name! I'm really excited to announce that I've changed this blog to Mandy Eats. The official domain name is now http://www.mandy-eats.com.  I am expanding the blog to cover more than just cupcakes to talk about a variety of different recipes, food & restaurant reviews, and  keeping up an active lifestyle. This is something I've been thinking of doing for a while, and I'm excited to have the blog grow! I have so much more to talk about than cupcakes, but those will certainly still be featured here and will continue to expand my baking skills. Stay tuned for upcoming articles for Thanksgiving recipes and how I attempt to keep the holiday weight gain at bay! I'm thinking of throwing a Facebook page into the mix as well... stay tuned!

The old address of cupcakesbymandy.blogspot.com will redirect you to this site as well.

Eeking out every drop of my Halloween decorations as possible. Bring on the holiday season now!