lost and found in seattle: thanksgiving in seattle

my first thanksgiving in seattle was a quiet success. my parents came out for a few days and declined our cozy guestroom for the beautiful pan pacific hotel. this hotel is pretty darn fancy and in a great little complex in the south/west lake area. it's located in a very convenient location and is attached to a whole foods and starbucks. what could beat that? one of the hotel restaurants is seastar, where we lunched one day. this place is probably the most formal restaurant i've been to in seattle. recently, i've taken to constant dressing down (i know, a pity) to fit in with the casual seattle style (not to mention my shopping budget of $0). so, of course i showed up to lunch in jeans and a waffle shirt. i told my parents (dad donning tie and sport coat and mom wearing lipstick) that they were too dressed up for seattle, and my dad pointed out that everyone in the restaurant was dressed up (bow ties and all). attire aside, the food was excellent. i highly recommend the coconut pie for dessert. so good that it made my mom unable to eat for 2 days. no sarcasm here. we literally gorged ourselves on that pie (i focused on the filling of course!). thankfully she was able to eat again just in time for the thanksgiving feast!

i decided to go pretty traditional this year, as it was my first "solo" attempt at cooking the entire meal. it is important to note than anthony was a tremendous help, thus the "solo." my proudest achievement was baking my very first pie from scratch! too bad i don't like pie! the rest of the menu included carrot soup, blue cheese and walnut biscuits, deviled eggs, herb-roasted turkey, thyme and parmesan mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce with orange zest, and gravy to top it all off. the pie was a twist on a classic: pumpkin swirled with dark chocolate. here are some pics of the pie process: