Thanksgiving at the Urban Garden

We love hosting at the urban garden, especially around the holidays. There's just something special about the sounds and smells that fill our kitchen and our home in the days that lead up to events like this that just can't be replicated.

We often alternate between our house and that of our good friend Ray (founder and owner of DoD Training Center, San Diego and 5 Pillars Cyber Security Consulting) as our families have been close since way back in our active-duty Navy Days. This year though; the distinct honor was ours and I thought I would give you a little glimpse of what you might have found at our table. Consider this my attempt to capture some of the standouts of that dinner so I can go back and share the recipes for them later.

This year we did a beautiful 18lbs ranch raised turkey using our herb compound butter, that has become a yearly tradition and my Rosemary Seasoned Salt. It was such a big hit that I've decided to sit down this year and add the recipe to share with all of you. Be on the lookout for that to hopefully pop up after the holidays.

One of the things I make sure to do every year is to connect with my family on the east coast via our group chat to see what everyone else has planned. My baby brother Shaun and my sister-in-law Dom both know who to throw down so I wanted to see what they had on the menu at their respective households.

My father on the other hand had other ideas, he wanted to make sure "somebody" had a ham on that table as it's a nonnegotiable staple to Thanksgiving festivities in his book.

While I didn't think he was flying out to California just for dinner, as his oldest I intended to make him proud with this Bourbon Brown Sugar Glazed Ham that I also plan to share the recipe for very soon as it was so popular I was getting text demands for bagged leftovers days later. 

We of course had sourdough and Japanese Milk Bread on hand but some of the other big hit sides that we made included my Honey Butter Cornbread, Kanna's amazing stuffing using our Garden Herb Sourdough Croutons and our daughter Ajani's first Thanksgiving dish, her Candied Yams that were good even a picky eater like me just had to try them for the first time and man was I glad I did. She continues to surprise and impress for a person who wasn't at all interested in cooking just a year ago and we hope to get her to share the details of her dish here as well.

For drinks we had the usual suspects (wine, Martinelli's, cranberry juice and more) but this year we pulled a few inspirations from the garden with a Jasmine Lemonade and a Mint Lemonade with Lime and Dekopon Oranges.

All this is to say that if you don't hear from us in a while, we are in a deep food coma of epic proportions. One of our own delicious making. Can't wait to share all these recopies with you all in the near future. I hope your holiday filled up your belly as well as your soul just like ours if not even better.