All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel
Thanksgiving Leftovers Pilgrim Sandwiches are the perfect sandwich to to enjoy using your favorite Thanksgiving leftovers. Yum!
Making a Pilgrim Sandwich is a must once you have enjoyed Thanksgiving meal. Use the leftovers to whip up a really tasty sandwich for your post Thanksgiving lunches.
…This Easy Classic Thanksgiving Pecan Pie will be the hit of your dessert table. Everyone will love a slice, and you’ll love that it is no fuss baking!
Post Contains Affiliate Links. Read my full disclosure HERE
What is your favorite pie for Thanksgiving? I LOVE pecan pie.
I am basically only looking forward to Thanksgiving this year so that I can enjoy a BIG slice. And some roasted brussels sprouts.
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I love that we found such a great group of friends since moving to Florida.
We just clicked and it works so well with kids all around the same age (5 and under). The kids all play together and we get to hang and talk fun things like crappy sleep, endless weekend to do lists, and boob jobs we dream of. Ah mom life! ha!
Well, we divided up the holidays and hosting duties throughout the year.
Molly and Aaron got Friendsgiving, so we headed over to their house on Saturday with a giant tray of Sausage & Mushroom Stuffing and some booze in hand to hang out with friends while getting stuffed on some really awesome food!
They created really cute Thankful cards for each of the kids and gave them crayons to color in a big picture together. It was a good activity for the kids, besides the regular running around and screaming they always do.
Hunter’s future girlfriend Mila… so sweet and squishy. I love fresh babies.
Hunter was thrilled just to hang out with everyone. Also, nom on some blocks.
I did my typical Thanksgiving thing and not eat any turkey but just stuff myself on all the sides.
I realized that my sweet potatoes need work. The ones that Dolly brought were out of this world. They were so incredibly creamy, mine are never like that. But I did rock the stuffing that I brought so at least there is that! I am good with my stuffing skills, but I need to work on things for my sweet potatoes.
The kids finally wound down and watched a movie.
Ahh, so many girls. The few boys are going to be in trouble in this group!
The ladies stayed in and talked and talked and the guys went outside to build a fire n the fire pit and hang there.
Well, I’d say that the night was a big success!
Can’t wait for our next group party… Dolly & Rocky’s Ugly Sweater Party!!
Thanksgiving really kicked off for us the weekend before the actual holiday. Thanksgiving was a week-long festivity this year. It was so nice.
On Sunday we had our own Thanksgiving turkey dinner full of turkey, slow-cooker mashed potatoes, stuffing, honey roasted carrots, cranberries, and rolls.
I went super casual at work on Wednesday with this ah-mazing tee that my blogging bestie Amanda and I both bought to celebrate this Thanksgiving. We’re awesome like that.
Truth be told, I had a major meltdown over brunch on Thanksgiving. Ya see, I decided that I was gonna ‘fancy up’ our breakfast by making waffled eggs benedict. Well, do you know how much of a pain in the ass it is to try to coordinate the cooking and timing of making the waffle base, poaching the eggs, and making a Hollandaise Sauce while the most adorable toddler keeps pulling you away from the stove so you can race doll strollers around the living room?
After having a lovely sob fest over over cooked poached eggs and a very separated Hollandaise, Autumn and I headed out to the beach so I could mellow out and so Price could recover from the exorcism he just witnessed in the kitchen.
The beach was nice and calming for me and Autumn so we were both energized and tired afterwards. She took an awesome 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Awesome!
The rest of the day was relaxing with some Chinese food take out for our dinner after Autumn went to bed. It was not the typical Thanksgiving fare, but it was perfect to stuff our faces with dumplings, crab rangoon, General Tao’s, and shrimp egg fu young.
Friday was the ‘real’ Thanksgiving for us as that is when we got together with family for the big turkey meal. We headed up to New Hampshire to Price’s sister’s house were we really enjoyed our time with family, the beautiful warm weather, and lots of Harvest Spaced Punch (recipe on the blog on Friday).
Autumn did so well going with the flow with a later than normal nap on the sofa, which was nice since she typically is very schedule driven.
The long weekend continued on into a lazy, rainy Saturday. There was tons of coloring, playing with play-doh, and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (duh). I even got the best nap in bed, under a pile of clean clothes, that a girl could ask for.
We (Price) pulled out the tree and decorations so we decorated our tree and the house. It makes me wish that Christmas trees were an all year round thing. At least Christmas lights. Since they are so cheerful. Like, right now, they help offset the misery that sets in when the sun sinks below the horizon just after 4.30pm. Ugh.
The rest of the weekend was great with a solo Target run, lounging around late into the afternoon in new pajamas that have waffles on them, some”You’ve Got Mail”, and a Patriots loss in OT. ha! And I even mastered my eggs benedict!
It was just a wonderful weekend to be thankful to spend time with family.
post from 11/23/15, pictures updated 11/6/17
Hello, Monday. We meet again…
It’s the 3rd Monday of the Month so it’s time for my monthly Secret Recipe Club post. Yes!
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I have a funny story.
It happened on Saturday, but it all starts with something that happened on Thursday. Kinda. Sorta.
See, on Thursday our wonderful dog walker emailed me asking for me to call her. She wanted to let me know that Kemper’s left eye was all puffy. Not the eye actually, but all around it. Top and bottom lid. My poor bug eyed dog was even more bug eyed. It looked like he was punched. Well, a trip to the vet later, he was having an allergic reaction to something. Nothing in his diet or in the environment changed. Nothing that we could think of. So, he had to get a benadryl shot and keep taking it 3x a day for 3 days, plus pepcid for his stomach as allergic reactions will often upset their stomach. (The things you learn.)
Fast forward 24 hours to Friday night and my stomach starts itching. No big. It’s the winter. My skin is dry.
Then it’s Saturday morning and my feet and hands start itching. My hands get splotchy and a bit puffy, enough to take my ring off. So while Kemper is getting Benadryl dose I take a pill too. What the hell is going on!?!? Anyway, Autumn and I then go grocery shopping. Enough of a distraction for me to stop scratching my palms. By the time we got home it was time for Autumn’s nap so I put her down and then got the perishables away. I was crashing so I figured I’d take a 5 minute catnap, or maybe a 15 minute nap. I’m usually great at getting myself up at a certain time, but I didn’t do so well as I woke up at 10.40. And panicked. Why? Because I had to make mac and cheese to bring over to our friend’s house for 1pm. I sprung up and stumbled into the kitchen while freaking out ‘How did you let me sleep so late? I gotta make mac and cheese. We are never gonna get to Mark and Allie’s on time!!!” “Umm, we’re going there tomorrow…” And so there we were. So I took a deep breath, stumbled back to the sofa and fell back asleep.
And that is why you should buy NON-DROWSY Benedryl. Noted.
Now it’s time to discuss this amazing side dish.
For this month’s Secret Recipe Club post I was given Sarah’s blog Curious Cuisiniere. Sarah shares her adventures; whether it’s in the kitchen, traveling or her recent bakery position. It all makes for well balanced blog with wonderful recipes including the one I chose for this months SRC.
Sarah shares hundreds of recipes, thankfully all very well organized. I enjoyed browsing through them as she shares a unique range of dishes from all different cultures. As I had been focusing on Thanksgiving recipes I picked her Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing as it sounded easy to make – just about 30 minutes- and really flavorful with the layers of flavors from the apples, mushrooms, raisins, and, of course, the wild rice.
This Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing is the perfect side dish for Thanksgiving. It’s off the beaten path which will make for a tasty alternative to stuffing but goes great with roasted turkey or other fowl. The earthy texture and filling taste of the dish makes for a hearty side for tummy and palette. The wild mushrooms mixed with the apples and long grain rice are a wonderful combination.
I changed things up a bit by using fresh mushrooms, as opposed to canned. But the recipe was so great that there was little personalizing needed. I did garnish the stuffing with chopped pecans and dried cranberries but you can leave it plain. Or you might even want to add some pecans into the rice. I love pecans but Autumn doesn’t do too well when nuts are mixed into things. She just spits them out. ha!
Makes roughly 2 quarts
Ingredients
Process
Inspired by Curious Cuisiniere
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Check out all the other great Secret Recipe Club posts this month!
And be sure to check out my 3 years of Secret Recipe Club posts!!!!
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MAYDAY PEOPLE!!!
We are now less than a week from Thanksgiving. It’s the Super Bowl of food. I’m sure I could come up with something about how the QB is the turkey and the special teams is dessert, but that would be ridiculous as there are times when I barely understand football and, well, it’s just lame. Oh, look I did it… I’m lame.
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Tuesday is Autumn’s first birthday. {Que freak out}
So we are hosting her farm themed party tomorrow.
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My mom is coming up from Florida for a visit and it happens to be Easter weekend. I love cooking for holidays but I’m just not sure what to make for Easter. I know what you are going to say, you’re going to say “But you make ham for Easter!” This is true but we didn’t have turkey on Thanksgiving since we had just brought Autumn home Monday night and none of us were going to whip up a turkey just a few days later. (Side note: our super sweet Chilean neighbor brought us over some food- shrimp cocktail, roasted pork, and rice.)
So I’ve had turkey on the brain every since.
We did do an early Thanksgiving which was awesome but I’ve been thinking about making a turkey recently. It’s probably because I’ve been enjoying the work week more when I have dinner prepped or pre made so we are just assembling or reheating it. A big turkey cooked up on a Sunday would give us plenty of leftovers for lunches and dinners for a few days.
The turkey is really moist as the skin locks in the moisture. Plus the vegetable and the liquid in the bottom of the pan also helps keep the turkey from drying out. Can’t have a dry turkey! That’s the worst.
I always use a turkey with a built in thermometer as I’ve had issues with the done-ness in the past. When I’ve cooked turkeys without a built in thermometer I’ve under cooked them in the past when I’ve just stuck a thermometer in the thigh, received the reading of 165 degrees, took it out of the oven and when I’ve carved it up later I’ve discovered a pink bird. So, do what works for you.Feel free to use both thermometers… why not!?!
The brown sugar glaze is easy to prepare and it gives such a lovely flavor to the turkey. But the best is that it makes the skin sticky and crisp. So when you sneak a piece of skin before you serve it you have to lick your fingers clean of any delicious evidence!
As well the gravy is unlike any other gravy I’ve had before. The gravy is made with the drippings from the pan, leftover graze, and hard cider. The cider really does give it a lot of apple-y flavor but I liked that with the sweetness of the glaze but using stock would be just fine as well.
So give turkey a chance for Easter, or any lovely Sunday dinner. If not, the make it for Thanksgiving and your family will thank you. They will so so excited that you tried this Brown Sugar Glazed Turkey. I swear!
Turkey with a Brown-Sugar Glaze
Ingredients
For the Turkey
For the Glaze
For the Gravy
Instructions
To make the gravy
On Wednesday I shared with you some awesome cornbread muffins that I saw featured just last week on Baked By Rachel and just had to make. Let’s call it a craving. They make for a great breakfast, snack, or side for dinner. I just love how cornbread is so versatile like that.
Well, now I’m back with another awesome recipe from Rachel that uses those cornbread muffins as a great base for a side that will grace your Thanksgiving table. You start with the cornbread muffins, or some store brought cornbread, and add some more great flavors to make kick ass Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing. Really, it kicks ass.
But I guess it’s obvious for it to be a great stuffing recipe when you start with cornbread and then add in sausage, sauteed veggies, dried cranberries, and other great aromatics.
I used a plain breakfast sausage for this recipe as I don’t love Italian sausage… shhh don’t tell my Italian relatives! I just don’t like fennel that much!! But if you enjoy Italian sausage then I say feel free to use that just like in Rachel’s recipe. Just be sure to use a sausage that has been removed from its casing.
But now I have a question…
Do you call it stuffing even if you don’t put it in the bird?
I do. I guess it will always be stuffing to me just because that it what I’ve always called it so I associate the food itself more with the name than if it’s actually being stuffed into something.
I hope that you’ll give this Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing (or dressing… depending on what you call it!) a try since it is sure to be a big hit at your Thanksgiving table!
Makes 6-8 servings
Ingredients
Process
Slightly adapted from Baked by Rachel
Wanna hear a pretty obvious statement?
I’m pretty hungry all the time now. I know… hungry at 9 months pregnant.?!?! Big shocker here.
But really, I am the most hungry for breakfast so I think about cereal, bagels, waffles, muffins, and yogurt. No, not having 1 of those things… but eating all of it. A huge pile of it. A bucket of it. Whatever.
And lately, I’ve been thinking of carby goodness in the form of muffins. Pumpkin Muffins. Chocolate Chip Muffins. Blueberry Muffins. Apple Cinnamon Muffins. Donut Muffins. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Muffins. Corn Muffins. <<<< I’m having that Forest Gump shrimp moment when it comes to thinking about muffins.
So that is why I jumped when I saw these cornbread muffins on Baked by Rachel. She just made them last week and once I saw them I was drooling. I just knew I had to make a batch.
Anyway, besides being awesome corn muffins to eat for breakfast they are so good in stuffing. Yep, Thanksgiving is just around the corner so I used some of these babies in an amazing Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing that I saw on Baked by Rachel. I’m blog stalking Rachel. ha! Well that Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing was awesome so I will share that recipe tomorrow too!!
Makes 15 muffins
Ingredients
Process
Sourced from Baked by Rachel
{Tuesday Night} finished punch listing early| get bourbon | drive home | Price cleans the rabbits cage /& I talk to Rosa re: going away | laundry | eggs with guac & toast for dinner | clean out the fridge| grocery store for SRC prep| shower | finish packing | Price went to bed at 11| photo editing | bed at 11.45
{Wednesday} alarm at 3am | dress and feed the rabbits | call cab | at airport at 4.15am | mcdonalds | 6am flight | Phoenix | get bags | starbucks | Tom picks us up | Walmart for pie & see Tom’s school | house |nap |Jack in the Box & Walgreens | star gazing | hot tub | bed
{Thursday- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!} Wake up early | lounge around | watch the news | call family | breakfast | Today Show | Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade |Price and Tom carve the turkey| lunch | football | pie | phone calls| more football and mystery shows|pickles and wine | hot tub | bed
{Friday} wake up for Black Friday online sales | shower and get ready | drive around and head to the zoo | nap in the car | World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium |another nap in the car | lunch at Monti’s |back to Tom’s | feet in the pool and catch up on twitter | lounge around | caulk the tub | blog drafts | In & Out for dinner | Walgreen’s | lounge around watching the end of the dog show and reading Food Network Magazine | go to bed
{Saturday} stupid dog woke us up | coffee | blog drafts | get Powerball tickets |McDonald’s for more coffee | drive around the neighborhood | back to Tom’s | Men Who Built America marathon | shower & get ready | lunch at Filibertos | drive around the neighborhood | sit by the pool | more Men Who Built America marathon | writing blog drafts | leftovers | hot tub | showers | bed
{Sunday} Price and Tom got coffees & breakfast | eat breakfast outside | packing up | leave for the airport at 10.30 | have drinks and lunch | 1.30 flight | home at 8.45 | bunny love | relaxing and then bed
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