Traditions of Thanks

 

"There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving:  First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621.  The complete letter was first published in 1622.
Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown.  They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.  Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.  At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty." http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/thanksgiving.php

In our family we have a tradition of giving thanks before we bless and eat our Thanksgiving feast.  At each place around the table we put 3 kernels of corn to remind us how little the Pilgrims had to eat on their arrival to the New World.  Even though they had so little when they arrived, they were still thankful for the blessings of the Lord.

After we talk about the Pilgrims we each take a turn to say three things that we are thankful for. 
 

I am thankful for:

 My Family

 

The gospel of Jesus Christ

and

America-the land of the free

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

~Lena

Gobble up This

Here is a fun and easy craft your kids can do.  

Pine Cone Turkey
Materials:
Pine cones
Construction paper
Glue

Simply cut out a turkey head shape, and feathers of different colors from the construction paper and arrange them in the pine cone as seen below.  Glue them in place.  Done!

Last Minute Thanksgiving Crafts

Looking for some quick, easy, cheap, last minute Thanksgiving Decorations? Well you've come to the right place!

First off a free printable:

I got this courtesy of Capital B.

I bought the frame at the Dollar Tree (for $1 of course).

For some reason I thought it was an 8x10 printable but the sizes she has are 5x7 and 12x18. So I just downloaded the 12x18 and made it smaller.

Here is another really cute free Thanksgiving printable from eighteen25. I wished I had printed this one off too but I actually just remembered I had pinned it.

Project #2:

This really took no time at all and was SUPER easy! You can find the instructions to make it here. (I wished I had been able to use 6 strands of embroidery thread for the words, but the eye of my needle wasn't big enough, so I could only use 2, and ended up with skinny words. Also I only used 5 orange circles, not 6 like she did, and just glued down my stem - no stitching)

She did her stitching free hand (well I'm assuming she did). I'm not very good at free handing it, so this is how I did it.

First I downloaded the font Wisdom Script from the Lost Type Co-Op, wrote out "Give Thanks" in Word, and then printed it off.

I stapled the paper to the felt and then stitched through the paper, using the words as my guide.

Then I gently ripped off the paper...

And used my needle to get the paper that didn't come off the first time around.

I then turned it over and tightened the stitches by pulling on the thread with my needle.

Then removed the staples and
Voila:

(Cost $1 for frame from the Dollar Tree)

And there you have it! Two (or three) quick, easy, and cheap Thanksgiving Decorations for your home.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Twice Baked Rolls

Delicious homemade rolls are a must on Thanksgiving.  Twice Baked Rolls are nice because they can be made ahead of time and frozen and then pulled out just before dinner and browned in a hot oven, giving them that fresh-baked flavor in time for dinner.

Twice Baked Rolls
2 Tablespoons yeast
2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
5 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups warm milk (cook for 1 minute in the microwave)
1/2 cup shortening, (butter or margarine), melted with the milk
10 cups sifted flour

Sprinkle yeast over warm water.  Add 1 teaspoon sugar.  Combine salt and 1/4 cup sugar in bowl.  Add milk and shortening.  Microwave for one minute.  Stir to dissolve.  Add to yeast mixture.  Mix in 6 cups flour and then add about 4 more cups flour.  Knead until smooth and satiny.  Put dough in greased bowl.  Cover.  Let double in bulk in a warm place.  Punch down and knead it again on a floured surface.  Divide into 4 parts.  Let rest 20 minutes, then shape either into 4 to 6 dozen rolls.  Let rise in a warm place until 3/4 as high as regular rolls or loaf.  (Otherwise they will fall when baked). 
Bake at 275 degrees for 40 minutes.  Let set 20 minutes in pans.  Turn out and cool to room temperature.  Warp in freezer paper; freeze as long as 3 months.  To serve place rolls on ungreased baking sheet, brown in a very hot oven (450 degrees) for 7 minutes.  Make sure you have plenty of rolls on hand to eat with leftovers the next day. 

Pie, Pie, Pie

Here is my grandma's pie dough recipe.  It is such an easy dough to work with.  If it turns out to be too dry, add a little water.  If it is a little too wet, add a little more flour.  If you have a hard time rolling out pie dough, try rolling it between two pieces of waxed paper.  Then peel off the paper, place dough in pan and peel off the other piece of waxed paper.  Works great!
Pie Dough
3 3/4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups shortening
Blend together until pea sized. 

Make a batter of:
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
Mix in with shortening mixture. 
Roll out for pie pans. 

Have the kids get in on the act.  Little pie pans are great, and the perfect size for the kids to make and eat. 

By far our favorite pie is the Tawny Pumpkin Pie from the Farm Journal Cookbook.  There are slight variations depending on which edition of the cookbook you use, but whichever recipe you use, if it's a Tawny Pumpkin Pie, it's sure to please all of your pumpkin pie lovers.

Tawny Pumpkin Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup Pumpkin--use either canned or fresh cooked
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon flour
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup evaporated milk
2 Tablespoons water (if using fresh cooked pumpkin, omit)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 unbaked pie shell.
Here's our secret tip--Combine everything in a blender.  Blend it up until mixed.  Pour into unbaked pie shell.  It will make your pie filling smooth and creamy every time.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until a knife/toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. 
After it is cooled serve with whipped cream, topping or ice cream. 

 

~Lena

Celery Stuffing

Stuffing, or dressing is very traditional on Thanksgiving Day.  Our family likes Celery Stuffing.  You can stuff your turkey with it, but you will have to increase the cooking time of your bird accordingly.  You will also need to remove the stuffing promptly from your cooked turkey so that it doesn't promote bacterial growth.  If that is too much of a hassle for you, just bake it on a side as a dressing.  Either way it is delicious. 

Celery Stuffing
7 cups dry bread crumbs (we use homemade bread and grind up chunks at a time using a blender to make fine bread crumbs)
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/3 cups milk
2 cups finely chopped celery
1 1/2 teaspoons sage
2 cups turkey broth (or use 2 chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in 2 cups boiling water.

Combine bread crumbs, onion, celery and seasonings.  Add milk, broth and eggs.  Toss lightly to blend.  Stuff loosely into cavities of bird.  Makes 6 1/2  cups stuffing--enough for 12 lb. ready to cook turkey.  If using as a dressing, put into a greased pan.  Bake at 350 until sides and top are golden brown it is set in the middle, about 30 minutes.

 

Thanksgiving Decorations

With Thanksgiving cushioned between Halloween and Christmas it seems like Thanksgiving usually takes a back seat in terms of decorations. Since I like to decorate for different Holidays, I usually try to get a couple of things up for Thanksgiving.

This year I made a garland for the mantle. It took a little bit of time to do, but it was free, and I love how it turned out.

This is how I made it:

First I went and got some free clip-art images of leaves from Microsoft:

I put them into a Word document, adjusted them so they were all about the same size, and printed them on cardstock for my template. Then I gathered up some paper and used my template to cut out 10 leaves.

I then went to the Lost Type website and downloaded the font "Tommaso". If you don't know how to download a font - this is how it's done (at least on a PC like mine). Find a free font that you like (one of my other favorite font websites is UrbanFonts.com), download it, unzip the file, go to the control panel and open the "Fonts" folder. In the "Fonts" folder click file, then "Install New Font". A box will pop up, find the unzipped folder of your downloaded font, select the fonts to install, click "install", and viola! You have a new font. :) (Hope that makes sense - it's really very easy!)

Getting back to the garland - after I downloaded the font, I printed out the words "Give Thanks", cut them out, and glued them to some background paper.

I laid out everything I had and got everything in the order I wanted it to be in. Then I found some rafia I had and tied a few of the strings together. To attach the letters I just cut slits in the paper, for the leaves I just punched holes. I wish I would have done slits for the leaves also. Since the rafia is so thin, the leaves just twist to the side, so I had to tape them to the rafia - I wouldn't have had to do this if I had just done the slits, but oh well, now I know!

And there you have it:

How do you decorate for Thanksgiving, if at all?

- Lois

Twice Baked Potatoes

You will probably want to make extra of these, so that there are leftovers to eat later.

Twice Baked Potatoes
6 medium baking Potatoes
1/2 cup Milk
3 tablespoons Butter
1/2 cup minced Onion 
1/2 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Salt, Pepper and Garlic powder, to taste

Scrub potatoes well.  Bake in hot oven (400 degrees) until done--45-60 minutes.  Split potatoes in half length-wise.  Scoop out insides, leaving shell.  Mix with remaining ingredients except for cheese.  Spoon back into potato shells.  Sprinkle with grated cheese.  At this point you can freeze on a tray in the freezer, then wrap them up.  Pull them out 30 minutes before baking.  Place back in the oven and bake until the potatoes are hot and the cheese is melted. 

Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving is fast approaching.  Those of you on top of things, may already have some of your dinner prepped and in the freezer.  Some years I like to get my pie crusts rolled out, in the pans and then I wrap them up and put them in the freezer, ready to be filled with yummy pie filling.  I also like to get my twice-baked rolls and the twice-baked potatoes in the freezer as well.

Here is our family's traditional menu from when we were kids.  I hope my sisters will share any variations and traditions they do now with the rest of us here on the blog.

Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner

• Turkey with Celery Stuffing
• Candied Yams or Sweet Potatoes
• Twice Baked Rolls
• Twice Baked Potatoes
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Green Jell-O with Shredded Carrots (this is kind of a joke in our family) 
• Veggie/Pickle Platter with Stuffed Celery, pickles, olives, carrot sticks, pepper slices and deviled eggs 
• Cranberry Sauce (nothing fancy here, we use what's in the can.  Why is the label always put on upside down?  Look at your can to see what I'm talking about.  It doesn't matter which brand).
  
• Tawny Pumpkin Pie
• Various Pies--apple, blueberry, cherry, pecan, banana cream, mincemeat (at least one of everyone's favorite).  

 Check back over the next few days as I share some of these recipes with you. 

As you get ready for Thanksgiving Day, remember some of the things you are thankful for.  I'm thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for each one of us, that we might be forgiven of our sins and return back to the presence of our Heavenly Father.  I'm thankful for my family--for my husband who works so hard to provide for our family and takes the time to be there for our children; for my kids who help me remember what a special gift living on earth is.  I'm thankful for my friends that give me good times to look forward to; for my talents that bring joy and variety to my life; and for this beautiful world that we live in.  I love the quote by President Thomas S. Monson, when he said "to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven."  If you need a gratitude boost, read the rest of his talk here.  Happy Thanksgiving! ~Lena