B-Movie Star

After you've spent a lot of time planning and cooking a Thanksgiving feast, you want your meal to look as beautiful as it's going to taste. I always have fun planning my table setting each year. I know some people who like to have it look the same year after year, and I think that's great. It's a tradition that people hold onto and honor throughout the years. My table changes each year, maybe because I have a short attention span! I just like variety, really - and it gives me an excuse to own more dishes, but don't tell my husband that.

I know this year many people aren't able to spend a bunch of money on new dishes and table linens, but that doesn't mean your table can't look beautiful. Sometimes our difficult circumstances can cause us be our most creative! If you look around your house, you might find some creative ways to dress up your table.  Last year, I printed out vintage Thanksgiving postcards onto 11 x17" paper and then I laminated them. I used them as placemats, and everyone said how fun they were. Maybe that's not exactly your style, but don't be afraid to try something new!

I found lots of inspiring table settings on the web, I grouped these by color, but mix and match can look very lovely too!

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Well, here it is, less than two weeks until Thanksgiving. I’m already starting to feel a bit of nervousness – as always I want everything to be “perfect” but I also want to enjoy the day along with everyone else. I remember one of the first times I cooked Thanksgiving for everyone in our families – and I decided to cook everything from scratch. I was trying out a bunch of new recipes, cooking a lot of new foods, and pretty much overdid it all. The thing I remember the most was being so busy that I forgot to eat anything all day. Then when the guests arrived and we had a glass of wine, I was instantly tipsy! Not exactly the condition you want to be in when you’re pulling together a dinner for your inlaws and outlaws!

Luckily, I did manage to feed everyone – and no one complained (to my face anyway!) But I also remember spending a lot of time in the kitchen while everyone else was around the table laughing and talking. I’ve learned several things since that early Thanksgiving – mainly, don’t forget to eat breakfast!

I also learned not to do everything myself if I can help it! For me I love being in the kitchen with my mother in law and mom and daughter and husband all working on something different, laughing and catching up. I learn a lot from working with other people, and it sure beats working in the kitchen alone – so if anyone volunteers to help out, I take them up on it! I’ll even put kids to work peeling potatoes or cleaning vegetables or drying dishes – whatever their skill level is. If they’re too young to help out in the kitchen, you can give them some craft projects. One year I had the younger kids make Pilgrim hats and feathered headbands for everyone to wear.

I also use my planner. I make sure I have a menu written out with a grocery list so I can avoid any last minute runs to the grocery store – you know it’s nuts to try to go shopping on Wednesday before Thanksgiving! Don’t forget to pick up these items either: Butter (enough for the table and for all the cooking and baking you’ll be doing!), Whipped cream or cool whip for desserts, extra ice, extra drinks, wine, some snack foods for those who are watching the football games, and some items for sandwich making – mustard, mayo, lettuce – you know, so everyone can make sandwiches with the leftover turkey! And lastly, don’t forget to have plenty of aluminum foil and containers to store and send leftovers home with guests!

I try to cook as much as possible the week before Thanksgiving – whatever is on your menu, see if you could make it ahead of time and either finish cooking it, or just warm it up in time for your guests to eat. I also clean out the fridge as much as possible, because I know I’m going to have a ton of stuff to store in there!  I also make a chore list and have everyone in my family help me clean the house from top to bottom the weekend before Thanksgiving. This helps me not freak out and try to do it all at midnight on Wednesday night.

What I do on Wednesday night though, is set the table. This gives me plenty of time to fold the napkins just so if I want, and to make sure I have enough wine glasses, and all those little things that I don’t want to be thinking about at the last minute while guests are waiting to eat turkey. I can also sort of go over my “game plan” the night before and make sure I’ve got everything pretty much lined up and ready to go. There’s nothing more aggravating than realizing after everyone has left that I forgot to serve the special side-dish that got left in the back of the fridge.

On Thanksgiving I make sure that I’m dressed, have my makeup on, hair styled, first thing. I just feel better – more prepared that way, and if guests show up early I don’t feel caught off guard.

Most importantly, I remember to feel thankful – for everything that I’m seeing, feeling, and experiencing that day – it’s a memory in the making. I remind myself that no guests are coming to my house because my candles match the tablecloth, or because my place cards are handmade, they are coming to share time with each other, to laugh and talk and fellowship. When I keep that in perspective, I can relax and enjoy myself, and if something burns or breaks it’s not the end of the world – it’s just a funny story for a later Thanksgiving!

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We have a few walnut trees in our backyard. This year they haven't produced many walnuts, but here is a wonderful fall recipe that would make a delicious breakfast on Thanksgiving - or any chilly autumn morning for that matter! It's a nice change of pace from cinnamon rolls and has all the flavors of the season!

Maple Nut Rolls Dough

6-7 cups all purpose flour

3 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 packets rapid rise yeast

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup water

1 cup butter (or margarine)

3 eggs (at room temperature)

Roll Filling

3/4 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons maple flavoring

5 cups ground walnuts

Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 Tablespoons Milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, salt and undissolved yeast in a large mixing bowl. Combine sour cream, water and butter; heat to between 120° F and 130° F (The butter may not melt completely) Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add eggs and 1 cup of flour. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface, knead 8 to 10 minutes to form a ball. Cover and let dough rest 10 minutes. For filling, melt butter over low heat. Stir in sugar and maple flavoring. Add walnuts and blend well. Set aside.  Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll out each piece into apx 14 x 12 inch rectangle. Spread each with an equal amount of nut filling. Roll each up from the long side, seal edges. Place on greased baking sheets with the sealed edge down. Cover and let rise in a warm draft free place until doubled in bulk - about 1 hour. Bake rolls at 350° F for 35 minutes or until done. Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks.

For frosting combine sugar, milk and vanilla until mixture reaches desired consistency, then drizzle over each roll.

Slice as you serve the rolls - Delicious!

If you want to use pecans instead of walnuts use the following filling: Melt 1 cup butter over low heat, stir in 1 cup sugar and 3 Tablespoons vanilla. Add 7 cups of ground peacans and blend well.

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Well, I was going to try to write a post everyday this month, but no, real life keep interrupting all my plans! What a wonderful busy, and unexpected eventful life I lead!  Gabby is in the school play. This year they are putting on "Guys and Dolls" and she is on of the "Hot Box" girls. They have several songs and dance numbers that they have to do - I think she will be adorable, but I haven't told David that there's a scene where they have to rip off a long dress to reveal a shorter dress underneath during a dance number. I'm just going to wait and let him have a cardiac during the performance. Maybe I should have the ambulance on standby . . .

She is also the co-set director so she has been working on sets for the past few weeks as well as going to play practice. The past couple of days she asked me to come in for her last three hours of school and help paint.  (I even took the camera to take some photos, but it was so busy and chaotic there, I forgot) It was kind of fun, but it also reminded me how much I do NOT miss high school.  Then ironically, last night a guy from my high school class called out of the blue to let me know that there's a reunion this summer.  There were a few disturbing elements to the conversation, one, that he found me "on the internet," which sounds pretty cryptic not to mention creeeeepy, and two that "there's hasn't been a good turnout for the reunions" which doesn't surprise me one bit. I wanted to ask him, "Do you think it's because so many of you were such assholes during high school that most of us don't want to go back and re-live those painful and awkward moments?"  But no, I just tried to sound pleasant and non-committal.  I mean, if you had a wonderful high school experience and it was some of the best times of your life, good for you, I'm old enough now to no longer be bitter, but that doesn't mean I have any desire to revisit those days or "reconnect" with anyone I went to school with. I figure if I wanted to reconnect I could just do that on my own - I don't need a reunion as an excuse.

I actually loved high school - I loved the school part. I loved learning and I loved all my teachers, it was just the students I couldn't figure out how to live with. Gabby is so much better at high school than I was, even though she is ready to be done with it too. She has lots of different friends, she has more confidence in herself than I had. While we were painting a group of boys came into the auditorium to skip class. They had told their teachers that they were supposed to work on the play sets, but they were just in there to screw around.  They started messing around with a drum machine and it was becoming really annoying, especially since we were trying to concentrate and get a lot of work done. Gabby just let them have it, telling them in no uncertain terms to cut it out and let us work in peace. I was proud that she's not afraid to stand up for herself.  I was also proud because the director told me how much she loves Gabby. Everyone who meets me and Gabby always tells me how fantastic she is. I'm really blessed that way, because she is fantastic, and I have outside proof!

Today I'm grateful for Gabby, I'm grateful that I get to spend so much time with her, and that she wants me to spend time with her.  (I'm also grateful that I'll never have to go back to high school! EVER!)

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Lori at Fresh Picked Whimsy had the most wonderful idea - at Thanksgiving she asked everyone in her family to paint a self portrait. Then she grouped them together into a really beautiful work of art. I so love this idea. I love that everyone participated and that it's so full of personality - and personal touches.  I know that most adults get all freaked out about having to create a piece of art, but you can see from this how wonderful everyone's turned out, even if they didn't consider themselves "artists."

I would love to do this on Thanksgiving - I'm seriously considering it, I know I'll have to twist the arms of some family members to get them to do it - but wow, wouldn't the results be worth it?  I think it would also be a nice idea to incorporate the portraits into your Christmas cards - so much more intresting than the typical "family portrait" that most people send out. For more info and to read exactly how Lori made this happen, check out her blog. It's full of other lovely ideas and artwork, too!

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I've been trying all day to write a post, but they all come out sounding really depressing - and seriously, do you need help finding something to be depressed about? If so, I suggest turning on the news . . . there's plenty of sadness to go around.  Then I had to remember that there's plenty of happiness too . . .

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow." --Melody Beattie

I'm so happy that they found this baby and that she was alive and okay. Her little eyes look so serious and old. How could someone want to hurt a little doll like that? I'll never understand it, but today I'm greatful that she's okay, and I'll be praying that she has someone who will take good care of her.

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I've looked around and I couldn't really find a Thanksgiving Planner that suited my needs - so I made one.  I'm posting it here to share with you in case you could use one too! I created this assuming that you will be doing all the work yourself - but if you're having a pot luck style Thanksgiving, you could keep track of who is bringing what dishes on the "notes and ideas" page - just make an extra copy.  I also thought that if you found pictures in magazines or online of centerpieces, or place settings, etc., you could tape them to the notes page for your reference. There are so many nice ideas out there it's hard to decide which ones to use!

Just click on the image to download a pdf of the planner. I hope it helps make your Thanksgiving a little less stressful!

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Our hens are laying a lot of eggs! Everyday we get about 17 - 20 eggs! It's wonderful and crazy! I'm so proud of those little chickens! Well, they aren't so little anymore. We do have a lot of eggs to use though, and we've been eating a lot of eggs and giving away a lot of eggs . . . maybe that's what everyone will get for Christmas this year! Better not put them in their stockings though, that could get messy!

The other day I made quiche - I think I'm the only one who ended up liking it - Gabby didn't care for the texture and David doesn't like cheese, Nathaniel doesn't like anything different . . . but I thought it was delicious! The great thing about quiche is that you can add whatever you like! I made one quiche that was swiss cheese and mushrooms. I made another one that was green peppers and onions. I wasn't sure how it would end up tasting, but I really liked it. You can also add bacon or crumbled sausage, and serve it warm for breakfast (sounds good on a cold morning)!

Here's the recipe I used from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

1 hour to prepare
4-6 Servings

This recipe makes 1 9” pie. It can be an appetizer or main dish.

1. Make your favorite pie crust or use a refrigerated pie crust from the grocery store

2. Cover bottom of crust with 1 ½ cups grated Swiss Cheese.

3. Cover cheese with:
1 medium onion that has been chopped and sautéed in butter with ¼ lb. Mushrooms with  a dash of salt, pepper, and thyme

4. In another bowl beat well together
4 eggs
½ cups milk
3 Tbs. flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. dry mustard

5. Pour custard over mushroom layer.

6. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 375º for 40-45 minutes, or until sold in the center when jiggled.

Variations
Substitute cheddar cheese for Swiss
Use fresh tomato slices instead of mushrooms. (Tomatoes don’t need to be sautéed first)
Substitute 1 cup chopped scallions for the onion.
Add 1 tsp. prepared horseradish.

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I've decided that this year to help count our blessings we will create a Thanksgiving Tree.  I found a really beautiful tree and leaf pattern at Chocolate On My Cranium that is free to download.

I printed off the tree in tiles so that it's about 22 inches tall and 17 inches wide (four standard sheets of paper). Then I taped it together and hung it up. I printed out a few pages of the lovely leaves and cut them out and filled a bowl with them. Everyday we are going to write one new thing we are thankful for and hang the leaves on the tree. By the time Thanksgiving arrives, we should have quite a lovely tree!

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Well, if you haven't noticed, things have changed around here. I always do this. I think, "wow this closet really needs to be cleaned and I just can't stand it one more minute." Then I take everything out of the closet and about halfway into putting everything in order. I look around at the much bigger mess I've just created and wonder who in the hell had the bright idea to start this project!?

That's pretty much how I feel right now.

You know when something goes wrong on your car, and the person who's going to fix it tells you, "oh it's just this little thing and it'll take an hour to fix and about $100.00." Well my rule of thumb with car repairs after many years of experience is that you double the cost and triple the time estimates . . . you won't be exact, but you'll be a heck of a lot closer to the actual amounts than when you started. Changing a website is a lot like that. Suddenly there's all these little details that I forgot would have to be changed and adjusted. I'm so naive I swear! I always go into things like Little Red Riding-hood skipping down the lane to grandma's house . . . when suddenly who should appear? Yep. The Big Bad Wolf! (what's up with all the analogies?)

Anyhoo . . . sorry for any inconvenience you may experience on this site for a few days. Don't give up hope and don't go away mad . . . and don't just go away! Stick around, I promise it will get better!

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