Friendsgiving 2016
Do y'all do that thing where you eat so much food on Thanksgiving that you need to slyly unbutton your pants while reaching for another piece of pie? No? OK, us neither.
Thanksgiving! There's wine, there's food, there's friends and family, there's wine, the weather is (usually) perfect, and there's wine. But what we love most about Thanksgiving is definitely the wine fact that a bunch of people we love have the chance to gather together and share a meal, which, okay, is 100% cheeseball status, but if you don't like cooking and eating with the people you're closest to you're just a monster.
What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? Most of what we've loved forever about the holiday has revolved around food (#haveyoumetus), but now that we're firmly in our 20s and maybe, almost, not quite getting a grip on adulthood, we feel like we're finally solidifying and strengthening the relationships that will form our frenemy core for the rest of our lives. It's kind of like we're living a real life Mean Girls but we're all Lindsay Lohan and nobody gets hit by a bus, we just feel like it the next morning. Your friends are the family you choose, which is such a sappy and tired trope, but we don't care it's the holidays and we're emotional and there's literally nothing you can do to stop us from breaking our tiara into tiny pieces and sharing it with everyone while also happy crying into some candied yams.
So one of our favorite things to do in recent years is make sure we make time for our friends around Thanksgiving. They're the people who lend you a wig when you can't find the right one for your costume party, and they're the people who saved you from that awful Tinder date with just one fake emergency, and they're the people who are always one-upping your morbid sense of humor. So we think getting together with them over the holidays is a really great way to say "I gotchu gurl, you're my ride-or-die, now let's get stuffed and tell each other we're beautiful."
Normally everyone brings a finished dish - potluck style - to Friendsgiving, but this year we tried something just a touch different and decided we'd all cook together before we then also ate together, which could have gone very poorly because 6-10 hungry winos cooking in one home kitchen has an 85% chance of a fist fight (an actual statistic) happening, but it ultimately went really, really well! The key was making sure all the recipes we picked were delicious, quick, and easy.
So that's where trü hero Target Grocery came in and basically saved us from an all out melée with all our BFFs. We took a $200 Target giftcard straight to the grocery and got basically everything we needed for a feast, including flatware and all kinds of serving trays, the turkey, the other ingredients, and yes, of course, unquestionably, the wine. They've got a bunch of super easy and quick recipes available online (& we've included the ones we used below) that helped our group of varying cooking ability all be able to participate.
So now we're giving away a $200 Target gift card just like the one we used to make this whole thing happen so that you can also invite a bunch of cuties over and have a big feast, which is pretty awesome and, as you can tell, goes a pretty long way.
To enter to win the giftcard, you can do one of two things. Do both to be entered twice! Entries are open until November 13th at midnight EST.
- Head over to our giveaways page to sign up for and receive our weekly newsletter (which has info about all of our monthly giveaways!) If you're already subscribed to our newsletter, yay, you're already entered to win!
- Head over to our recent Friendsgiving Instagram post (embedded below) and @mention 2 or 3 people you'd invite to your own Friendsgiving!
Scroll down for the recipes we used to make our Friendsgiving shindig happen, y'all! Enjoy!
All of these recipes come straight from Target's Thanksgiving recommendations!
Jalapeno Cornbread Stuffing
Makes: 6 servings. Prep time: 30 minutes. Total time: 60 minutes.
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 jalapenos, seeded, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can Swanson’s Less Sodium Chicken Broth
- 1 (14-ounce) bag Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Stuffing
Heat oven to 350⁰F. Spray a 2-quart baking dish with nonstick spray. Melt butter in very large saucepan on medium heat. Add celery, onion, jalapeno, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 8 minutes. Stir in corn. Add chicken broth and heat to boiling. Turn off the heat, add stuffing mix and stir to combine. Pour into baking dish. Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes until brown and lightly crisp on top
Maple Sriracha Carrots
Makes: 4 to 6 servings. Prep time: 20 minutes. Total time: 20 minutes.
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 pound fresh baby carrots, halved lengthwise
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha
- 3 tablespoons Archer Farms 100% Pure Maple Syrup or honey
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in halved carrots and the salt. Cover and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring every couple minutes, until carrots are tender and starting to brown. Stir in maple syrup and Sriracha. Cook and stir about 1 minute longer until carrots are glazed. Serve warm.
Lemon Broccoli
Makes: 4 to 6 servings. Prep time: 15 minutes. Total time: 15 minutes
- 1 (12-ounce) package Archer Farms Broccoli Florets (in fresh produce section)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
Heat broccoli florets and ¼ cup water in large saucepan to boiling. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer 5 minutes until florets are crisp-tender. Drain. Transfer to bowl; wipe out pan. Heat olive oil and butter in same pan. Add garlic. Heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add juice of lemon. Drizzle on broccoli and toss. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with lemon zest.
And here are some of our favorite new kitchen ware goodies we also got with our Target gift card!
Thanks so much to Target Grocery for sponsoring this post! All opinions are our own.