Being in San Francisco, I’m 2,470 miles (give or take) away from my family in Ohio. The reality is, up until 8 years ago, I spent every Thanksgiving with them. And if we’re being honest, I haven’t been home for a Thanksgiving since. You try looking at flights to Ohio during the months of November - December.
Thanksgiving is one of my FAVORITE holidays filled with really big traditions. One of those waking up extra early, pouring myself a cup of coffee, turning on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and vegging out, and spending time with loved ones.
Seeing the need to fill this void and create new traditions in my “new” home, my friends and I decided to host a Friendsgiving every year. Over time, the food, volume of drinking, and friends may have changed slightly, but the feeling and sentiment are still there.
While some of my closest friends who started that very first Thanksgiving tradition with me have moved away (sobs!), I always feel a need to surround myself with loved ones during this time of year.
Soooo needless to say, hosting a Friendsgiving was high on my list and early enough that everyone could go. Planning the food and drink on the other hand? A lot harder.
I’m a sucker for the traditional Thanksgiving foods. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, brussel sprouts, and cranberry sauce. And of course, everyone has a favorite. Mine by the way? The stuffing – hi carbs! But the act of cooking isn’t my forte and I didn’t want to force Tom to be sent to the kitchen for hours making food for me and our friends.
To save us time (and a lot of fighting lolol) we opted to order Bi-Rite’s Deliciously Done Holiday Kit filled with all of our favorites and then some! Since we were inviting a large group of our friends, we ordered the large kit fit to feed 10 people that included a whole roasted Mary’s organic turkey (FINALLY AN ANSWER TO MY PRAYERS!) and all the delicious sides of traditional stuffing, cider-glazed Brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and two pies, one pumpkin and one apple.
All we needed to do was bring out the food a few hours prior and heat – leaving our attention focused on friends and having a damn good time.
In a few weeks (for actual Thanksgiving), I’m headed to Portland to celebrate with one of my besties who lives in Vancouver and I’m actually going to be ordering a second kit for easy meal planning and prep!
And if you’re company ebbs and flows, you can customize your kit with sides and pies that you and your guests will love.
A few of my favorites:
Traditional Stuffing: hearty and delicious. Perfect for pouring gravy all over if that’s your thing (it’s definitely mine)
The turkey: This turkey was a Non-GMO Project Verified, organic certified and raised by the Pitman family in the Central Valley. It was incredibly delicious and knowing that it was raised respectfully made it even better.
The pies: Okay, so admittedly – I didn’t get any photos of the pie because we ate them immediately. Both Pumpkin and Apple were incredible and pro tip: heat up the apple pie for a bit and a la mode that. I promise you’ll thank me.
If you’re looking to make holiday entertaining easy and equally delicious, I promise you – save your sanity and get it from Bi-Rite Market.
This post was in collaboration with Bi-Rite Market. As always, all opinions and styling are my own. Thank you for supporting all The Ohio Transplant collaborations!