Our Thanksgiving

  If you read my earlier posts you know that the hubby had to work on Thanksgiving, so we planned on celebrating the holiday on Saturday, his day off.  It was nice to have him home and enjoy the day together.  Liam and I even got some of the Christmas decorations out and started watching some of our Christmas movies.  Here's some of the pictures of our fabulous Turkey Day!

My beautiful kiddos

Seasoning & Frying the bird

Our Family

The Feast

Hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours was,

Thanksgiving Crafts

     Happy Thanksgiving everyone, hope yours was amazing!  We have yet to celebrate it.  My hubby had to work a night shift on the holiday, so we are planning on celebrating it this Saturday.  So, the kiddos and I had an easy going day.  Stayed home, watched the Macy's Day Parade and Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, enjoyed some yummy Thanksgiving inspired meals, and put together some fun crafts.  It was fun and simple, but can't wait to be together as a family and enjoy some awesome food on Saturday!

     We made a turkey to decorate the table out of construction paper, a paper towel roll, feathers, and some glue dots.  It turned out really cute!  Gobble Gobble!

     Then we made some Pilgrims, Native American, and Give Thanks popsicle puppets 

out of foam board.  These turned out cute too!

Gobble Gobble

     Every once in awhile I like to surprise Liam with a fun food design and with it being Thanksgiving, I thought what better day then today?   So here's what I came up with!

I used Pumpkin Spice Eggo Waffles for the feathers,

a banana for the body,

two blueberry Craisins for the eyes,

a whole almond for the beak,

two Mandarin oranges for wings,

and fruit strips for the legs and feet

     I think it turned out pretty gobble gobble good.  Liam ate it all!

Thanksgiving Cards

   It's that time again...another holiday another holiday card to make.  This year for our Thanksgiving cards we used shaving cream, paint, card stock, and a squeegee.  We've done cards like this before for Easter earlier this year, Easter Egg Cards, this time I just used different colors and cut the card stock into leaf shapes.

We did them a little late this year, but we did get them in the mail before Thanksgiving....

if they received it before then, I'm not sure. 

Perfect Pot Luck Salad

     Since the hubby is working a night shift on Thanksgiving, all his coworkers are bringing in food to celebrate pot lot style.  So, I made a Broccoli Salad for him to bring in.  It's one of my favorites salad so easy and so yummy!

Ingredients

1 bunch uncooked chopped broccoli

1/2 cup crumbled cooked bacon

1/2 cup cashews

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 cup chopped red onions

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

2 TBsp apple cider vinegar

Preparation

Mix the first five ingredients in a large bowl.  

In a second bowl, beat the last three ingredients together gently until smooth to make the dressing.

Toss the salad with the dressing approximately 10 minutes before serving to allow flavors to meld.  

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

  The First Thanksgiving

Pilgrims and feathers uniting,
Brings a day without fighting.
No bow, no guns, no harm,
Round a table, arm and arm.
A feast fora all to share,
Brings friendship each bare.
Corn on the cob, beans a plenty,
Fresh squash and a golden turkey.
A time of giving,
To those gone and living.

~ Candice (Pulliam) Masterson
                10/29/00

How bout a cup of Hot Cocoa...Cookies?

     Today, Liam and I were invited over to a friend's house for a playdate, but being me I couldn't show up empty handed.  So, yesterday I made these fabulous Hot Cocoa Cookies
I found on Pip & Ebby.  They were easy to make and tastes so yummy!

Ingredients

1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter

12 oz chopped semisweet chocolate (bars)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups light brown sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation

   In a medium saucepan, melt the chopped chocolate and butter; 

stir frequently over medium heat until smooth. Let cool 15 minutes.

   In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.

   Using an electric mixer, beat on low speed the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla, about 2 minutes.  

Mix in the cooled chocolate until just blended.  Add the flour mixture in 2 batches, mixing on low speed until just combined. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

   Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  Using a tablespoon or scooper, scoop the dough and roll between your palms to form 1-inch balls.  

Arrange about 16 balls 2 inches apart on each cookie sheet, flattening slightly.  

Bake the cookies until the tops of the cookies crack, about 12 minutes.

   Meanwhile, cut 7.5 oz of semisweet chocolate bars into 1-inch squares.  Snip 8 marshmallows in half crosswise and stick 1 square of chocolate onto each of the sticky cut sides.

   Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and gently press a marshmallow half, chocolate side down, into each cookie.  Put back into oven and bake until the marshmallows are just softened, 

about 4 minutes.  Transfer the pans to racks to cool for 5 minutes.

   Grate 5 oz of semisweet chocolate over the hot cookies.  Using spatula, transfer the cookies to the racks and let cool.  Repeat the process with the remaining dough, marshmallows and chocolate.  Bake each batch on a clean sheet of parchment paper.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Thanksgiving Feast

     With Thanksgiving right around the corner, Liam's school invites all the students and their parents for a Thanksgiving feast, which the kids help prepare the main dish, soup, and the parents sign up to bring side dishes and dessert.  I asked Liam what he wanted to bring and of course, it was dessert.  So we decided to make some sugar cookies.  I found a cute turkey, leaf, and pumpkin cookie cutters to cut our cookies with and some autumn sprinkles to decorate them.  We are using Martha Stewart's recipe for Ideal Sugar Cookies and the Royal Icing.   I've made them many times and they always turn out amazing!

My little pastry chef icing the cookies

Those are beautiful cookies

Gobble Gobble

Enjoying one of his creations

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (1stick) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 TBsp milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preparation

Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl; set aside.  In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar; mix until light and fluffy.  With mixer running, add egg, milk, and vanilla; mix until well combined.  With the mixer on low, slowly add reserved flour mixture.  Mix until just combined.

Transfer dough to work surface.  Shape into 2 discs, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  Cut into desired shapes, and transfer to prepared sheets, leaving an inch between. Leftover dough can be rolled and cut once more.  Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minutes.  Do not allow to brown.  

Transfer to wire racks to cool. Decorate with royal icing.

Ingredients

1 lb confectioner's sugar

5 TBsp meringue powder

scant 1/2 cup water

Preparation

Beat ingredients in a mixing bowl on low speed until smooth, about 7 minutes.  

If icing is too thick, add more water; if icing is too then beat 2-3 minutes more.

Enjoy!

Liam picked out a special cookie for his teacher,

 Ms. Angie and his favorite teacher helper, Mr. Mark

Liam at his school's Thanksgiving Feast

Enjoying one of his friend's cookies

Liam showing us his Thankful picture...can you guess which one is his?

He didn't want to put his hands or feet in the paint, so he started to draw a

 turkey and came up with this....However, he did write 

what he was thankful for on the back.

Proud of my Big Boy

We had a great time at Liam's Feast and meeting his friends.

Life Is Better With Sprinkles

     The other day Liam and I were in a baking mood, so we decided to make some yummy chocolate chip cookies and as an extra treat, we decorated them with colored sprinkles! Yum!

They turned out delish of course!  Here's the recipe if you would like to make your own....

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)

2 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 brown sugar (packed)

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

Sprinkles (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  In mixing bowl combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until well blended and creamy.  Add eggs one at a time.  

In another bowl sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together.  Doing 1 cup at a time add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat until well blended and thicker.  

Be careful not to over beat.  Fold in the chocolate chips.  Scoop batter onto the cookie sheets (you can add sprinkles to tops if you like).  Bake 10-15 minutes or until golden brown.  

Cool on cooling racks, store in an air tight container. 

Enjoy!

Trick-or-Treat Time

     I know it's a little late, but I still wanted to share our Halloween pictures.  Since the hubby had to work the night of Halloween, we spent it over at a friend's house.  We enjoyed dinner and sweets, went trick-or-treating, and played some games.  It was a great night!

Kinley was a little witch & Liam was a Ninja

Liam showing off his Ninja skills

I made her little hat, isn't it cute?

Cute little feet

Liam enjoying some dinner before Trick-or-Treating

Time to play Pin the Nose on the Jack o' Lantern

Way to go Liam!

Hope everyone else had a Spooktacular Halloween too!