The Day After Turkey Day

All the preparing, stressing, family gathering and it is over in a flash, a snap of your fingers. That brings us to "The day after Turkey Day " and there is nothing better than the glorious leftovers on "The day after Turkey Day".

After you have stuffed yourself to the gills and you swear you will never eat again, somewhere around midnight you are famished and so you raid the fridge! That first leftover turkey sandwich of the season, is somehow, the best one of all!

(Image found here)

Turkey Day

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A Pot of Pie

I spied these lovely pumpkin pies in a jar over at Inchmark and I think they are a beautiful idea, for a little something different!

They would look charming displayed on a table set upon Johnson Bros. "Friendly Village Autumn" luncheon plates. I also think they would be the perfect breakfast, because, you have to keep your energy up as you slave away over that succulent roasted bird and stuffing!

 

All I need is a spoon and a little extra whipped cream...

(All images copyright Inchmark)

Gather Here

We are just a little over a week away from Thanksgiving. Not a holiday here in England, but we still celebrate it in our little cottage. There is something to this time of year, as we approach Christmas, there is just so much more hustle and bustle and everything takes on a more frantic pace.  There also seems to be something in the air lately, everyone seems to just be fed up!

Maybe, it is because evening crawls in sooner and with less hours of daylight we feel pressured to complete more tasks than usual. Maybe, it is simply the pressure the media puts on us, there is not one store I have entered lately that is not stock piling their Christmas displays or has already decorated to the nines. It seems that as we approach Thanksgiving there is more pressure than ever.

Thanksgiving, can be a stressful time for many, you are possibly dealing with family that you would prefer not to see, you are anxious that your turkey will turn it out just so; the new bride cooking for everyone for the very first time. All this pressure, seen and unseen, seems to mount for everyone and comes to a head.

I think, of all the Christmas gifts, I have to buy and what seems like no time to do it in. I think of all the things I have to do at home and only the weekend to complete everything. I feel the pressure, that Thanksgiving seems to be the "hurdle" we have to get through on our way to Christmas, and once Christmas comes we can all sit back and take a breath.

I refuse to look at holidays like that. I want to enjoy them for all that they are, I want to soak up every drop of time I spend with my family. I want to simply take a breath and be open to just being, not be pressured by society to have everything just so and by a certain date, I am willing to just take it as it comes and drink in the moments as they present themselves. Because, I believe that I am where I'm supposed to be right now and I will come to it with not only an open heart but a grateful one!

(Image by Craftily-Ever-After)

Happy Thanksgiving

(Image by Norman Rockwell, saying from "simple country pleasures", Country Living)

A Turkey Sat...

A Turkey sat on the backyard fence and he sang this sad sad tune.

Thanksgiving day is coming Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble and I'll be eaten soooon.

Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble
I'll be eaten sooon!Wishing you all a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving tomorrow, and safe travels on your way home.

(Retro recipes courtesy of: The Retro Press)

Time for Pumpkin Pie

Its time for pumpkin pie! This is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, as much as I love turkey and dressing and sweet potato souffle oozing with marshmallows on one 1/2 and pecans on the other, I live for Thanksgiving dessert!

Especially, pumpkin pie! I am a Libby's canned pumpkin kinda gal and fortunately for me, I am able to get this at my local grocery store. I make my pumpkin pies the day before Thanksgiving. I love rolling the dough out and picking one of my mini pie cutters to cut out shapes that will decorate the edge of the crust. I usually use the maple leaf or the star shape to encircle the pie in a wreath of autumnal beauty.

I love the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves being folded into the creamy batter and then gently ladling it into my pie shell and finally placing it into the oven. The smell of it slowly baking permeates the house with the first smells of Thanksgiving. I make my whipped cream while it is baking, beating in sugar and vanilla, to taste; in preparation for the Big Day; as the timer goes off and I pull the pie out of the oven to slowly cool, I can only hope it survives the night and greedy hands and taste buds that can't wait don't get the better of it before Turkey Day arrives!

(Images from The Retro Press)

Pumpkin Pie Update (11/27/2009):
It was delicious! I had a slice with whipped cream for breakfast this morning!

Crazy Holiday Ideas

I have these crazy Martha Stewart ideas at times, I see something and I think, "Oh, wouldn't that be the cutest idea, all made, decorated, beautifully wrapped and lined up in neat rows to hand out...", the idea I am thinking of, are Thanksgiving goody bags, or boxes in this case.

Whether we had Thanksgiving at our house or someone else's, everyone always left with a bag of goodies, especially (my mom being an original New Yorker before she moved below the Mason Dixon) if cookies had been sent down from New York, you can't beat a good bakery! Divine cookies with sprinkles or nuts or a little cherry stuck in them; shaped like leaves and hearts and circles, they were a box of pure happiness!I was looking for something this morning and went to the Bake it Pretty website and saw their turkey cupcake picks and that started off my whole wave of crazy thinking. I thought wouldn't it be cute, if you made little pumpkin bread cupcakes, iced with mountains of cream cheese frosting (in these retro Sound of Music looking liners), stuck in a little turkey pick, whipped up some acorn shaped sugar cookies while you were at it and had everything all beautifully packaged in a box with some bakers twine or raffia tied through the handle, with something cute stamped on the box.
These are my Martha Stewart moments, the ideas that I would be insane enough to do, but will not. I just love the idea of it!

(Images from the Bake it Pretty website)

P.S. I heard my 1st Christmas song of the season on the radio this morning, I did a Charlie Brown Peanut's dance of happiness!

Home for the Holidays

Unfortunately, we do not get to go "home" for Thanksgiving, but we celebrate with each other in our house. It doesn't seem quite the same at times; no shuffling around in your pajamas, no breakfast casserole, no Macy's Day Parade on TV and no parents in the kitchen laughing and talking while they make stuffing and get ready to roast the bird.

We make our own holiday memories here in England. I still prepare a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and pumpkin pie for dessert of course! Some years we have had friends round to join in with the festivities, but, this year, it will be just the two of us, a romantic Thanksgiving.

It wouldn't be the season if I didn't get to watch Home for the Holidays. What a movie! My family and I love this movie! There are moments you can relate to, even if you, like me, are close with your family, you can relate it to other family members.

There is a great scene after the parents pick their daughter up from the airport and as they are driving home, with the mom chatting away in the back they pass another car with a fellow "kid"; his mom is leaning over the seat going on and on, and the two "kids" just stare at each other through the car windows, in this perfect moment of understanding. So much is said with that look.
I know this look. My husband and I have been with some people where that look between us gets used a lot. This movie sums up all the craziness of this one day. Days, that some people use not to be thankful for, or to see the blessings in, but as a forum for themselves to just act as nutty as a fruitcake.

So to everyone, who loves going home (I do!) and for those who are ready for Thanksgiving to be over with already and back in their own homes away from their families, this movie is for you!

Gobble Gobble

I was looking over the Gooseberry Patch Blog this weekend and this post was at the top of their list. It made me think of being little. We made little apple turkeys just like this in elementary school, sans the cereal feathers, they were all marshmallows going up our little feather toothpicks.

I loved celebrating holidays in school. At Thanksgiving we paraded around with our construction paper pilgrim hats or Indian headdresses upon our heads. We brought canned goods in for the needy and made turkey pictures out of our hand prints.

There are times when I think we forget how simple our world's were when we were little, that there is something to just taking in life, having fun in the moment and just breathing. Looking at the Tom Turkey apple made me think of just that. I think I am going to hunt up some apples and mini marshmallows and have a little fun of my own!






Click on the picture above for a How-To, to make your own little turkey apples.

(Images copyright to Gooseberry Patch)