Now that we’re all caught up, here’s how Thanksgiving went. Every year for Thanksgiving, my mom and dad fly up to Chicago to attend a church retreat which is held inside of a hotel. This year was no different and with my brother and sister in California for graduate school, it was just me and my gf alone at home for Thanksgiving. We ended up inviting my gf’s younger brother and his wife over and had a great time along with some damn good food.

Last year, we had Thanksgiving at Jesse’s house and his brother Jon made the moistest turkey I’ve ever had. I noticed he used aluminum foil so I did the same this year with pretty much the same results. I gave up the canned cranberry jelly for some homemade cranberry sauce which was surprisingly easy to make. 1 cup of water, bring to a boil, dissolve 1 cup of sugar, add 1 package (12 oz) of cranberries and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool to room temperature and chill before serving. For the gravy, I didn’t have any stock so I made my own. I took the turkey neck, and giblets (minus the liver), added water, salt, peppercorn, thyme, a few bay leaves, chopped carrots, onions, and celery, and let it stew for about 45 minutes. After removing the turkey from the roasting pan, I added the homemade stock to the leftover drippings of turkey fat and juices, and whisked in some all purpose flour. After straining, we had the best (and probably the fattiest) gravy I’ve ever had. It was chock-full of turkey deliciousness with sprinkles of love all over. I am forever a believer that for holidays such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, everything within reason should be homemade.

It would’ve been nice to have made this final table as there were a lot of big names from the online poker scene: Rizen, charder30, and LivesWithMommy.

Adrian ended up getting first for $6500+.

Part II