Thanksgiving Idea for Kids

Here’s a fun last minute Thanksgiving idea that I pulled together yesterday afternoon. I’m currently driving out of state to go to the in-laws for turkey day. I always try to have activities to keep them happy in the car. We don’t have a DVD player in our car. I know, the horrors! But really, with enough prep beforehand, we don’t need it. My idea was shamelessly borrowed from Kiki Creates.

I love the idea of this, but I didn’t have the means to go out, get color copies, cut them apart, and then laminate them. So, I did something else….

I happen to have buttloads of felt. I mean really. So I cut out 2 turkey body shapes, free-handing it, and 4 legs, 2 beaks, and 2 gullets. Then, I cut a pattern out of a cereal box for feathers.

and cut out multitudes of feathers. For some pizazz, I cut some out of white and stole borrowed some glitter from my girls.

I cut out a few clothes, not many…

and some accessories (like a mustache, of course!)

and dolled up a few of the other pieces with fabric paint for the eyes, and glitter for some bows and crowns.

I used a hot glue gun to piece together the turkeys, and put the flowers on the hat and buckle on the belts, etc.

And here’s our turkey all dolled up… (almost looks like an angry leprechaun)

and the misses. Or a princess. Whatev.

So hopefully they have fun with these on our long drive, and maybe while dinner is cooking! But the real Turkey Potato Head is adorable and amazing, so go get that if you don’t feel like cutting a bunch of felt up!

P.S. I did these yesterday and took pictures last night, so they’re a little wonky. Sorry!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Easiest, Tastiest Pie Crust. Ever.

It’s true.  This pie crust is absolutely fantastic. 

I can’t take credit for this recipe, though.  I got it from the lovely ladies over at Our Best Bites.  They have the most wonderful cookbook.  They have made me a rock star in my kitchen!  I want their newest cookbook, too!So, if you need a Christmas gift idea for me, there’s a good one!  ;)

Anyway, onto the crust, you’ll have fabulous results if you follow their tutorial.  But if you’re afraid of pie crust like I am, I’ve got a cheater method for you.

Use your food processor.  The recipe says to mix your ingredients in a bowl with a pastry blender.  Instead, use the blade on the food processor and pulse it until you have pea-sized pieces.  Then, pulse it while you add your ice water.  Keep pulsing it until it looks like pie crust.  Continue on with your pie recipe just as you normally would.

Super easy, and super tasty!

Just in case you’re wondering, I used my mom’s apples in the fandibulous recipe from Our Best Bites.  Oh Heaven.  It was so, so tasty!  :)

Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Thanksgiving Macaroni and Cheese

Ten years ago, I had an extremely picky two year old.  He really only ate peanut butter sandwiches, string cheese and macaroni and cheese.  I was worried about what he was going to eat for Thanksgiving dinner so I brought homemade macaroni and cheese as a side dish.  It was a huge hit and I’ve been asked to bring it to Thanksgiving dinner every year since.

I’d love to give credit for the recipe, but I don’t remember who I got it from.  I got it from a neighbor when The Hubsters and I were poor starving college students, and I can’t remember her name.  Sorry, but if it was you, thank you so much for the recipe.  It’s a Thanksgiving tradition now!

Ingredients
12 ounces dried elbow macaroni (2-2/3 cups)
1-1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces American cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups)
2 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (1/2 cup)
20 rich round crackers, crushed
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. In a large pot cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. Return to pot.
2. Add milk, melted butter, pepper, and salt. Stir in cheeses. Transfer to a greased 2-quart casserole.
3. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Carefully stir mixture. Sprinkle with crushed crackers. Bake 5 minutes more or until crackers are browned and mixture is just heated through (don't overheat or mixture will curdle). Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 8 to 10 side-dish servings or 4 main dish servings.

I hope your family loves this as much as mine does!

The Easiest Dinner Rolls. Ever.

They really are.  In fact, this recipe is my all time favorite dough recipe.  I use it several times a week, and I love how fast it is. 

…and here’s the recipe, just in time for Thanksgiving!  I’ll give you the recipe, then share my tips at the end.

Dinner Rolls

1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup unsalted butter
4 1/2 cups flour (unbleached, whole wheat, or a mix)
1 package instant yeast
1 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, room temperature

Directions:
Heat the milk, water, honey and butter until butter is melted. Check temperature. Depending on the temperature, let cool to 120F. Carefully beat in egg.  Mix 2 cups of the flour, yeast, and salt. Mix into the milk mixture. Stir in the rest of the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat well after each addition.When the dough pulls together, (it will form a soft ball) turn it out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. This should take about 5 minutes.  Divide dough into 24 equal pieces. This will depend on the size you want for the finished roll. Shape into smooth balls, and place on a greased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise for 30 to 35 minutes. When rolls have almost doubled bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

You can brush the tops with egg wash and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, coarse sea salt, or whatever you like. You can add dry onion soup mix for onion rolls. These are very versatile!  Makes 2 dozen.

Okay.  Now for my cheater method. 

Do you have a bread maker?  I do.  It’s this one, and I love it. 

What I do is measure all of the ingredients, wet ones first, into the bread pan.  I let it run on the dough cycle for about 20 minutes until my dough looks like this:

Usually, I just take the dough and form it into 24 balls, but since these rolls are for Thanksgiving, let’s make them a bit fancier.  We’ll shape them into crescents.

I use cooking spray on my counter top.  Cooking spray is so much easier to clean up than flour. 

Divide the dough in half and roll it out.  We’ll use the other half later.

Take a butter knife or a dull pizza cutter and cut the dough into twelve equal wedges.

Take one wedge, and starting with the big end, roll it up.

When you put it into the pan, turn the corners in.

Keep this up until you have 24 rolls. 

Follow the rest of the recipe for raising and baking.

Here’s another cheater trick for you.  When the rolls come out of the oven;

…rather than butter the tops, just spray them with butter flavored cooking spray.  Easier, faster, and less messy.

Well, there you have it.  The world’s easiest dinner rolls with a few tricks to make them easier!

Here’s a little bonus:

I have used this dough recipe for breadsticks, cheesy rolls, onion rolls, cinnamon rolls, orange bowknots, doughnuts, fry bread, pizza dough, homemade hot pockets, etc…  It’s so versatile that you can use it for any recipe that needs dough. 

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Tea Towel Apron

Thanksgiving is all about being thankful.  Definitely.  But for me, Thanksgiving also means food.  Glorious food.  Mmmm…

All that food means time in the kitchen.  I just love cooking.  My next few posts are going to be my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, so get excited about that! 

Before we get to all this cooking, let’s whip up a quick, cute little apron to keep ourselves clean while we bake up all that Thanksgiving goodness.

This project is so insanely easy, it doesn’t really even deserve a tutorial.  But, here it is anyway.

Start off with a hand towel, a spool of ribbon, and some rick-rack for embellishment.  You can skip the rick-rack if you want.  Excuse the quality of my pictures.  I did this one night after the kiddos went to bed.  There wasn’t any natural light to work with.

Measure out the length of ribbon you need.  Remember that you need it long enough to fit around your waist, but you also need it long enough to tie it.  Longer is better. 

Find the center of the ribbon.  Fold the towel in half horizontally and find the center.  Line them up.

Pin the ribbon to the towel and sew it into place. 

I lined up the top of the ribbon with the top of the towel, and just sewed the ribbon in a rectangle so that the top and bottom of the ribbon were secured to the towel.

If you don’t want to add rick-rack, then skip to the last step.

If you want the rick-rack, then there’s just a few more steps.

Position the rick-rack where you want it and pin it down.  Fold the ends over so they’re on the back of the towel.

Sew it into place.  I used a decorative stitch in an accenting color just for funzies.  You can sew it down however you want.

Heat seal the edges of the ribbon to prevent fraying…

…and you’re done!!  Wasn’t that fast and easy?

Now you’re ready for all that Thanksgiving baking!

Thanksgiving Crafts Revisited

Last year, around this time, Ash and I started this website.  We’ve *almost* been at this for an entire year!  Wahoo! 

 

So, that being said, most of you weren’t here when we posted these fun crafts for Thanksgiving:

 

This post has a tutorial for a stuffed Thanksgiving Turkey, Thankful Tom Turkeys, a Thankful Tree, and a Give Thanks banner.

 

 

This post has a fun idea for table settings and activities for the kids table.

 

We did this last year, and it was a big hit. 

Well, that isn’t much, but it’s last year’s Thanksgiving crafts revisited.

 

We hope you all had a fantastic Halloween!  :)