Thanksgiving Pies

Thanksgiving is a day of celebrating a bountiful harvest, the fruits of the season.  No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a pie or two to finish off. Try an apple pie with a glazed lattice top, and a taste of the South with a classic pecan version.  Send guests home with mini-pumpkin loaves wrapped with pretty ribbon to carry the goodness of your Thanksgiving back home.  Add the recipes to your Thanksgiving decorations by downloading a printable version of the collection here!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For a printable version of this week's recipes,  click here!

Cranberry Gelatin Mold

A delicious combination of creamy cranberry and tart citrus: Yummy!!

3 Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Many Americans look forward to at least three traditional side dishes to complete Thanksgiving dinner:

green bean casserole, some type of sweet potatoes or yams, and a salad.  This post gives you those three. For a bit of a springtime flavor, I chose a dilled cucumber and tomato recipe for the salad.  Add your favorite rolls, and if you like, add some herbed butter. 

Some Thanksgiving side dish Facts:

From Wikipedia: 

"Green bean casserole was invented in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company test kitchen under the leadership of Dorcas Reilly.[1] Their goal was to come up with simple recipes using Campbell's foods, to promote the company's product. The casserole is typical of 1950s American food in that it smothers vegetables in a ready-made and thick, creamy sauce.In 2002, Dorcas Reilly presented the original recipe card to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio.[2]"

What are the differences between sweet potatoes and yams?  From SciTech Mysteries (Library of Congress) "Although yams and sweet potatoes are both angiosperms (flowering plants), they are not related botanically. Yams are a monocot (a plant having one embryonic seed leaf) and from the Dioscoreaceae or Yam family. Sweet Potatoes, often called ‘yams’, are a dicot (a plant having two embryonic seed leaves) and are from the Convolvulacea or morning glory family.  Yams are closely related to lilies and grasses. Native to Africa and Asia, yams vary in size from that of a small potato to a record 130 pounds (as of 1999). There are over 600 varieties of yams and 95% of these crops are grown in Africa. Compared to sweet potatoes, yams are starchier and drier. 

Sweet Potatoes:  The many varieties of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are members of the morning glory family, Convolvulacea. The skin color can range from white to yellow, red, purple or brown. The flesh also ranges in color from white to yellow, orange, or orange-red. Sweet potato varieties are classified as either ‘firm’ or ‘soft’. When cooked, those in the ‘firm’ category remain firm, while ‘soft’ varieties become soft and moist. It is the ‘soft’ varieties that are often labeled as yams in the United States.

Slow Cooker Stuffing

Free up some  oven space by cooking stuffing in your crockpot. This recipe is basic, but classic.  To vary the recipe, try osyter, mushrooms, or use cornbread. Don't be afraid to experiment with other flavor combinations, such as apples and walnuts.

Perfectly Seasoned Turkey

Prep Time: 10 minutes   Cook Time: approximately 5 hours

Thanksgiving Games

When planning and preparing for your holiday celebration, be sure to include some activities.  Consider the ages of your guests, including something for everyone. 

To help you get started, I'm including some printable activities that can appeal to all age groups, as well as some just for children. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Decorating Tips

Holiday decorating isn't just for Christmas!  Decorating your home for Thanksgiving not only lends a festive atmosphere to your home but lifts your spirits.  Take advantage of it's roots in harvest, and use nature's bounty to decorate.  Spend a leisurely day or afternoon gathering decorations from nature. Here are some more ideas for pretty decorations indoors and out!

Essential Thanksgiving Preparation & Entertaining

It's that time of year, the leaves are falling and there's a little chill in the air as summer takes its last breath. Just around the corner, we'll gain an hour of sleep. Good thing too, we'll need that sleep to prepare for the onslaught of holiday guests we have coming over for Thanksgiving this year! To help you get through this Thanksgiving holiday, here are some essential tips for making sure things go smoothly and to make your holiday just a little less frantic.

Creating a Thanksgiving Reflection

A great way to get into the holiday spirit is with a bit of reflection. Engage all of you by expressing yourself with a craft. Scrapbooking is an excellent choice, as anyone can do it. The only supplies you need are some glue, scissors, and paper. Add photos, magazine/card pictures, and some calligraphy (it’s okay to cheat and print out pretty fonted labels). If you want, get really swanky with your page with the many scrapbooking tools available, like edging scissors to give your cutouts a florish. As you compile your page, you may be surprised at how much you have to be thankful for. Here’s some ideas to get you started snipping!

Thanksgiving Trivia

Here are a few Thanksgiving trivia facts of interest to give some inspiration.  After reading them, use them to create a little party quiz.  Another way to share them is as a party favor next to each guests plate.  Print on vintage paper, roll and tie with some raffia or ribbon.  Enjoy!!

Feeling Good With Family During the Holidays

If you plan on spending time with your family during the holidays, here is a case story that may help you manage any unresolved issues that may cause unpleasantness.  In this article, the therapist uses visualization techniques.  However, there are other psychological tools you can use. 

One popular technique to cleansing yourself from negativity of the past is to write a letter.  This puts all of the "what happened and how it made me feel" out of your system.  When you are finished, you can choose to simply throw it away, or make a ceremony of it, such as burning it (be safe if you choose this option!). 

Another techinque is to consider what bugs you about the interactions when you are with them, and decide beforehand how to respond.  For example, one couple with a critical parent took an interesting approach to parental visits.  Before the visit, they would make items imperfect in their home.  Making a picture crooked, leaving food on an end table with no dish under it, and so forth.    After several visits, it actually became a bit of a game to see if their parents caught everything. It didn't stop the negativity, but they took control of it.

When memories are unpleasant, and issues stay unresolved with no emotional closure, that negativity can be absorbed and taken home with you like a plate of unwanted leftovers.  The key to changing that is to find something that works for you.  If these suggestions don't work for you specifically, then let them inspire you to find something that does. 

Happy Holidays! 

  

Thankful for Thanksgiving: One Man’s Reflection

There is something magical about the Holiday Season. I have always held a soft spot in my heart for Thanksgiving. This may have a lot to do with the fact that I love the autumn season when the leaves make their yearly transition and burst into a rainbow of colors that it is hard to fully duplicate. I am reminded still, as every autumn comes and goes, of my early years growing up in the Ohio countryside. The November air seemed to always induce a chill that was crisp and yet refreshing. The sight of leaves swirling to the earth on their final journey offered a sense of peace and beauty not often witnessed.

Ten Thanksgiving Traditions

One of the greatest challenges about this wonderful holiday is not preparing an incredible meal, consuming an excessive amount of turkey or pie, or even in trying not to groan after the fourth plate of food ... the real challenge lies in both expressing and living with gratitude every day of the year. Anne Frank, one who perhaps had the least to be grateful for, said it perfectly when she declared: "I do not think of all the misery, but of the glory that remains. Go outside into the fields, nature and the sun, go out and seek happiness in yourself and in God. Think of the beauty that again and again discharges itself within and without you and be happy."  And yet, perhaps the real test and challenge is not even in uttering words or having thoughts of gratitude - it is living and making evident that gratitude through our actions ... by helping others.

If you are looking to add meaning and significance to your Thanksgiving this year, here  are 10 fun and meaningful traditions and activity ideas to get you inspired.

10 Stress-Reducing Thanksgiving Tips

Everyone knows what R&R means: rest and relaxation, right?  Well P&P is the acrynom to remember for reducing stress, whether everyday or on holidays.  P&P means "Planning and Preparation". To get you started, here are 10 tips help ensure this year's Thanksgiving holiday is low on the stress and high on the enjoyment.

Thanksgiving Twists

So you want to host a Thanksgiving Day party. You know you want good friends, family, and good food.  But this year, you want to break away from the traditionally formal turkey dinner.  It doesn’t matter what the reason is: you just want to do something different.  Here are some ideas to inspire you.  Because food is a main focus of the season, try a different type of menu.  Choose one, or choose several to celebrate Thanksgiving all month!

Just for the Children

One of the challenges of family get-togethers is keeping the children happy while you are preparing and eating the meal. Many choose to create a separate child’s table for the children can eat. If you choose this option, optimize the arrangement be using the table for activities to keep the children occupied. Stack up some age appropriate children’s games close by. Include some crafting activities to alleviate the wiggles that are natural to children. Be sensitive to the balance of need for attention with the need for independence. In other words, keep an eye on how things are going without over-structuring the activities. You want to be able to enjoy all the aspects of the day, so engage some of the other adults to take turns with supervision. Here are some tips to making the children’s table a smashing success for all.

 

Thanksgiving Day History

Most Americans are familiar with the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving Day Feast of 1621, but few realize that it was not the first festival of its kind in North America. Long before any Europeans set foot in the Americas, native peoples sought to insure a good harvest with dances and rituals of Thanksgiving.

History tells us the first Thanksgiving service known to be held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578 in Newfoundland. The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. Jamestown colonists gave thanks for their safe arrival, and another service was held in 1610 when a supply ship arrived after a harsh winter. Then, in 1621 Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation Massachusetts held a Thanksgiving to give thanks to God for helping them to survive the brutal winter. This feast lasted three days and provided enough food for 53 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans.

A Simple Short Start:

Just for fun, here is a pretty screensaver for you.  If you don't like this one, there are lots more to choose from either from this site or loads of others. Just type "Thanksgiving Screensavers" into your address bar, and find one that makes you feel good.  A simple start to get you in the holiday mood!

This screensaver is at:

Popular Screensavers




Other ScreenSaver Sites:
www.ScreenSavers.com   
Digital Mind Software
Really Slick ScreenSavers

10 Ways to Give Thanks

If you need some inspiration to get you in the holiday spirit, here are ten ways to grow an attitude of gratitude.  By the time Thanksgiving rolls around (sooner than you think!), you will find counting your blessings is a great habit to develop!

Here's to a Happy Thanksgiving!

1. Make a blessings box.  Pass out lots of slips of brightly colored paper to your family and guests at the beginning of the day.  Ask them to write one thing they are thankful for on each slip of paper, and then write something else on the next one, etc....

Transforming the Holidays

In the course of my life, I am thankful that my parents emphasized having good holidays. The most celebrated in our home were Thanksgiving and Christmas. We always decorated the house, enjoyed a celebratory meal, and typically participated in church activities. Of course, six children in the family meant attending a few school programs as part of the season. As we became adults, we celebrated holidays at a nice local restaurant just because it was easier in many ways. For me, this allowed me to begin creating holiday traditions of my own. I made my choices by what brought joy to my children's faces.  The holidays are too much fun to not celebrate...

Thanksgiving Day was always stay-at home days. I didn't have a crowded house on Thanksgiving, but I always ended up with a tableful. I usually chose to invite last minute guests, someone who would otherwise be alone on Thanksgiving. I also started decorating for Christmas after the Thanksgiving meal, which became a tradition in and of itself. All in all, I kept things very relaxed, very causal, but pretty because I like pretty things.

For those who have suffered abuse, the holidays can be very painful. It can also be emotionally tricky if you are recovering from an abusive relationship. I've known many survivors who choose to simply ignore the holidays to avoid the painful reminders they bring. Personally, I think that is sad. It is allowing the abuser to control what is happening in your life now. It robs you of joys that should be embraced. Haven't you suffered enough? Free yourself from the pain of the past by celebrating the joys in your life right now, today. Take back your holiday season by creating new traditions, and embracing all the joys of the season.

One of the best ways to heal the pain of any past is by creating your own new traditions. You are the author of your life, including the holidays: write new stories. This doesn't mean you have to throw out everything. Assess what works, what doesn't, and make adjustments. Keep what you are comfortable with and simply get rid of what you aren't.

Creating new traditions, a blend of old and new, is one way to take back control of your holidays instead of letting old memories control your life. This is such an important part of healing. Over the next two months, I am going to share information that is rather light hearted rather than serious.  It is my hope that you draw inspiration from these articles; that they help you heal by helping you re-claim the season as yours. 

Because the holidays are just too much fun and meaningful to not celebrate. Happy Holidays!

~~ Debra Contreras