thanks so much for the awesome comments!!!!  i was so excited yesterday to find THREE of them in my comment box!  woot woot!!!

toni, your meal sounds lovely.  you mentioned a while back that you were thinking about doing a smoked turkey breast from oklahoma joe’s, and i’ve been salivating ever since.  i bet it’s wonderful.  if you have any leftover, i wanna try it!

lindsey, i have NEVER had oyster stuffing.  can you believe?  i’m totally intrigued.  i love seafood much more than poultry, and secretly wish i lived in new england this time of year.  they probably do lobster and oyster stuffing and oysters on the half-shell for thanksgiving, don’t you think?  so jealous.

and jennifer.  jennifer, you are a fantastic cook and baker.  i’m sure you rock every single thanksgiving.  and you will rock this one, no doubt.

jennifer and i catered a baby shower (or was it a wedding shower?) years ago, and i had the game hens in my trunk for the 2 1/2 hour drive from kansas city to my home town, jefferson city, thinking for sure that they would defrost.  but it was so cold out that they were still completely frozen.  jennifer’s sweet hub stood at the sink, running cold water over each of those game hens until they were safely defrosted.  yikes.  what a disaster.

they turned out yummy.  i think.  i can’t remember that part of the story.

okay, onto my reason for posting this morning.

last night, i tried a couple new ideas for my family.  just little details that might make things even yummier.

my family likes sweet tea, flavored coffee, and sweeter wine than we usually buy.  so, i experimented and made a pomegranate syrup for the iced tea and to add to regular red or white wine.

i had some in my tea last night and it was really good!  i also had a little in some red wine and i think it’ll do the trick there, too.  here’s what i did:

i took organic pomegranate juice (thanks be to god for trader joe’s), and reduced it on the stove until it was half the volume.  i added some agave nectar and a little vanilla.  and that’s it!  now we have pomegranate syrup to make things a little sweeter!

even if we wanted sangria, we could do it.  the syrup, red wine, some oranges and apples and we would have sangria!

okay, here’s the next thing i did.  you know those flavored syrups at the coffee shops?  they don’t always have the most natural flavor in my opinion.  plus, i’m a real plain coffee lover.  but my family really likes flavors, so i decided to try making my own syrup at home.  and it worked!

in a sauce pan, heat up a cup or so of water, with cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, agave nectar, a little brown sugar, and lots of vanilla.  let it simmer for a while on the stove (none of this is an exact science.  just throw it all together).  let cool and strain.  that’s it!

i’m having some in my coffee this morning and it’s really yummy with some half and half in there too.  i think it’ll be a hit!