Thanksgiving Foods I Love!

CRANBERRY CILANTRO SALSA....great for a Holiday Party! 

Cranberry Salsa on Cream Cheese Dip. check out the recipe HERE.

I've been cooking myself into a food coma these past few days. I had the missionaries over tonight and made a ham and cheesy potatoes and pecan tarts. I also tried a new cranberry and crushed pineapple raspberry jello recipe that was really good! And tomorrow I'm cooking a turkey! EEK!

 These potatoes were DIVINE!The secret ingredient in the twice baked potatoes is cream! And of course the bacon makes everything betta! 

Chinese Chicken Salad with dried cranberries and mandarin oranges. I added some slivered almonds too. Yum. 

Corn pudding. I'd never tried this before but it was good! Kind of sweet and savory at the same time. I found a recipe at Taste of Home HERE that got a 4.9 rating! It would be a fun, new recipe to try! I loved it! 

I made some cute Thanksgiving cupcakes too...Scarecrows and Turkey Cupcakes with Orange Slice Candy hats and Lemonhead heads and Candycorn feathers and beaks.

I also found these fall colored Reese's Pieces candies that added a yummy touch to these Peanut Butter Cookies. They looked pretty on my fall brown crockery platter. 

Another one of the teachers made these delectable chocolate turkey cupcakes. Yummo! 

And these pecan tartlets were to die for. I ate two of them! They are like a tiny pecan pie! I found a similar recipe at All Recipes.com, HERE.  It's my favorite cooking website because everything is rated by like thousands of home cooks. You KNOW it's gonna be good.

Had to have something healthy too! Everything tasted really great. 

Another yummy thing we had was Cranberry Sprite! It's NEW and Superbly YUMMY! Try it this holiday! 

I am planning my menu for Thanksgiving Day too. I'm going to do my favs but add some of those pecan tartlets and some Sweet Potato Casserole too.

Little Pinecone Turkey Placecards....check out my previous blog post for the tutorial Here at Weekday Chef.

Besides making some excellent memories with your kids and family this year doing some fun crafts like Gingerbread houses, Little turkeys out of pine cones (above... my granddaughter is modeling them as hair bows lol) or making sugar Christmas cookies or breads....we play Pin the Hat on the Turkey. 

 What side dishes do you plan to go along with your turkey and stuffing? 

Side dishes....besides your obligatory potatoes, gravy and stuffing, WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER FAVORITES? 

WELL....And besides all of the wonderful pies we all make....My daughter-in-law Cait made these cute mini apple pies....So cute....what else do you love on Thanksgiving Day???! 

My favorite salad is one my mom always made.....fresh cranberry....Check out the recipe HERE at Weekday Chef. The fun thing about it is my siblings all make this one too. You make family traditions with all of your side dishes, did you KNOW THAT? Yeah. It's true! 

My son  Devin made this spinach salad....doesn't it look yummy? So pretty too! It is seriously one of my very favorite side salads to any meal....with spinach, candied pecans, avocado, strawberries and a sweet raspberry vineagrette. 

My niece Becky made this to die for sweet potato casserole...I found a recipe for it at All Recipes.com HERE. ...it is really yummy and tastes almost llike a dessert it's so good! 

One that I have always made is the French's Fried Onions Green Bean Casserole with Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup in it. You just Have to have some green bean casserole! The recipe is on the back of the French's Onion Can. 

And of course you can't forget the homemade rolls and real salted butter. I love to have some really good raspberry jam to go with it.

Here is the link at Patties Place. I have lots of Thanksgiving decor I've taken pics of.  It's my other blog. Try a new side dish this Thanksgiving you haven't tried before. And have fun at YOUR get together this fall holiday!

Pine Cone Turkey Craft Tutorial and Placecards

PINE CONE TURKEY TUTORIAL HERE! 

 Here's a picture of our Thanksgiving placecards this year.  These adorable PINECONE TURKEYS are really easy to make. Add some PLACECARDS and some knock knock turkey jokes and you can crack your family up!

Thanksgiving Decorating - Entry Hall Table and basket of pumpkins....

Scarecrow Cupcakes and Turkey Cupcakes decorated with Lemonheads candies and Large Orange slices. These tasted as good as they looked! I filled the chocolate cake batter with sour cream, chocolate pudding and some chocolate chips! Yum! 

PINE CONE TURKEY TUTORIAL!!!

THANKSGIVING TABLE DECOR

You will need:
6  rainbow colors of chenille stems
a pine cone, 
one brown pom pom, 
an orange fat/skinny chenille stem (shaped like a snowman nose)
wiggly eyes
 Wrap the chenille stems around the bottom circumference of the pine cone and twist once so you have the 2 end parts sticking out like a V.  Then twist those 2 together at the ends to make one teardrop shaped loop, or like a bunny's ear.  Do this again with a different color. Make all the loops on one side of the pine cone so they look like a turkey's feathers. I make sure the pine cone can sit level on a table too.

 I start with red and do orange, yellow, green, blue, purple,  the order of the rainbow. Then take a glue gun and add a brown pom pom for the head on the other side of all these cute feathers. Add 2 googly eyes purchased from Hobby Lobby or Walmart.  Lastly, add a snipped off piece of the orange fat chenille stem. They end up looking like a carrot but are perfect for a turkey " beak".

My Thanksgiving Decor in the entryway....gotta love some 3 foot tall pilgrims! 

Lastly I went online and found these adorable placecard tags. I printed off 8 of them for my own Thanksgiving guests at my table. They come in pumpkin orange and kind of a sage green.  I laminated them so I could reuse them next year. (If you don't have lamination then just use a roll of clear, fat, book tape or something similar to protect them. Then use a dry erase marker for putting the family names. You can wipe it off after dinner and reuse the little turkey cards.  HERE is the link for the free and printable turkey cards.

PINE CONE TURKEY CRAFT and PLACECARD TUTORIAL 

KIDDIE TABLE THANKSGIVING DECORATIONS

I made a little table for my granddaughters to sit at and used little plates and cups for them and a cute little tablecloth. I think they loved being at their own little table. They really LOVED their little turkey placecards!

PINE CONE TURKEY TUTORIAL AND CUTE THANKSGIVING TABLE DECOR....

 I'll have to think of something cute toput on the tables for Christmas! Maybe some little pinecone snowmen! I've got TONS of pinecones out in our front yard under our trees. Hmmm... another repurposing crafty project...

We always play a game on Thanksgiving...sometimes Apples to Apples, Sometimes Loaded Questions or Wits and Wagers...and sometimes good old PIN THE PILGRM HAT ON THE TURKEY! 

I purchased these kiddie melamine plates at Target  for the upcoming Christmas holiday dinner. And they had placemats and bowls to match at Target. I love that store.  I could easily make a simple snowman tablecloth if I want to matchy-match.  That might be easier than placemats since my kiddie table is kinda tiny.  I'll have to see what kind of fabric they have at Hobby Lobby tomorrow.

Cute Target Kid's Plates and tableware for Christmas! I have lots of snowmen decor to go with this too!  

Pottery Barn Kids had some DARLING plates and cups and decorations for holiday tables but I wasn't keen on paying $14.00 for 1 little plate. But it is great for ideas and it sure is fun to browse the beautiful store and enjoy their great decorations. Just trekking down to Trolley Square in Salt Lake is always a fun adventure anyways.

CUTE CHRISTMAS KIDDIE TABLE FOR DINNER....TARGET HAS SUCH CLEVER TABLEWARE! 

 I loved hanging out with Megan and Marisa. Notice their cute turkey shirts my daughter made for Thanksgiving? So cute!! 

Thanksgiving Decorating

Aren't these cupcakes funny? I was playing with food the other day and had some fun adding candy Lemonheads to these turkeys and orange slices to the scarecrows. They tasted yummy. But I'm a candy lover. Now on to decorating! 

I decided to get out all of my Thanksgiving decor today. I found some pics of a few years ago at my sister-in-law Robin's house.  She set a beautiful table and had just remodeled. I had to take some pictures of all her cute Thanksgiving decor.

Beautiful Table Decorations for Thanksgiving...with fun new dishes!  

Pretty Centerpiece and Table runner

I love new fall linens and tableclothes and runners. My sis-in-law has these muted fall colors all over her house. It is very pretty for the Thanksgiving holiday.

I loved this cute end table...

Another cute shelf in the living room...

Front Entry Table Decor.....I loved all her wrought iron and black. 

Aren't these pilgrims just so cute? But where are their mouths? How are they gonna eat? 

Front entry turkey decorations...Loved that mirror and the candle too...

More cute Thanksgiving decor...

My yummy homemade rolls and Bear Lake  raspberry jam.... If you want the recipe check it out HERE. I got it from my sis-in-law!  It's the best roll recipe I've ever tasted and the rolls turn out great every single time! So big and fluffy. You'll get compliments I promise!

Cute end table with some scarecrows and amber glass and scented candles.

My daughter-in-law Cait made these cute mini apple pies....Aren't they sooooo Super cute! 

Cute kitchen decorations....I had to snap this tray my sister in law made....LOVED it!

Front entry table at my house is about  ready for the big day! 

Now you can probably tell that we are now at my house and my colors are  rusts and sage green and brown for my tables. I love the fall colors.

Well I've got my kitchen table all done too. I think these are my favorite decorations in the whole house.  I'm gettin' into FALL! It's my favorite season of all! If you want to check it out....My TOP are 10 REASONS WHY FALL IS BEST ARE.....HERE.

 I love having people over for turkey dinner and eating till I'm stuffed with all of my favorite foods. 

 It's just a fun holiday to get together.We play games, decorate gingerbread cookie houses and we pin the feather on the turkey. And we always go to the movies in the evening after everybody has gone home happy. I might have to go see the last movie of the HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY. 

  I always have lots of fun pulling out the Thanksgiving Plastic Bins and getting reaquainted with all of my cool Fall decor again. I love the fall colors, the fake leaves, glass pumpkins, and scarecrows! And I really love pretty placemats for every season and scented candles and silk flowers too.

I added a bunch of silk flowers to my green plants for the holidays.

I love Thanksgiving almost as much as Halloween Decor. And just about as much as I love Christmas Decorating! Hey did you know there are only 41 shopping days left till Christmas? Yup. I knew that would make your day....

 Here's the family and lots of Autumn decor on an end table in my great room. Every year it looks a little bit different. It's fun to decorate for each season of the year.

Fall picture wall....I change out the flowers and ribbon color and usually put a new swag of beads along the wrought iron picture holder.

Kitchen counters.....

Here is the Kitchen Buffet.... This cute little couple was my very first handmade Thanksgiving Decorations when I was a brand new bride. It is still around! I just keep gluing the arms back on when they fall off. lol...

Pilgrims and Indians....well....at least here are the Indians.....

Okay, now HERE arae the pilgrims....and some fake nuts and acorns....decorating...decorating..... 

Can't forget the Kiddie table I decorate for Thanksgiving every year. I got the girls some fun solar powered turkeys and pilgrims. Check them out!  And I ordered some Thanksgiving picture books online. They will LOVE EM!

The turkey bobs up and down to the light and the pilgrims sway side to side like they are dancing. SO CUTE! I picked them up from the DOLLAR STORE! WOOT!  What a FIND! 

 I love the mix of orange, yellow, green and red in our Utah Mountains right now. I am NOT ready to greet winter yet...NOT...AT....ALL!

Bridal Veil Falls hike on October day with the grandkids.....

So I try to squeeze every ounce of this fun, fall, Holiday time of year because I know it is short and around the corner I'll be scraping snow off my windshield and cursing in my head about the cold. :D Yeah, I do that sometimes.

Just above ALTA Ski Resort look what we saw hiking....it doesn't get any better than this! Enjoy the FALL Ya'll! And have fun getting ready for one of the best American holidays around....And GIVE THANKS! We are sooooo blessed.