Category: Thanksgiving

Friday Faves #40~Top Thanksgiving Choices

11/17/2017

This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

First let me apologize for not putting up last week's Friday Fave post! Last week was Lindsey's baby shower and I just couldn't get to the computer to put up the post! But, her shower was a lot of fun and she was truly "showered" with some great gifts. I will post about that later But, today we are in true Thanksgiving mode. Earlier this week I posted about my best tips for a less-stress Thanksgiving. I called it Thanksgiving Prep 101, and even though there is even less time now, you can still pull out a super meal if you follow those tips.
One of the obvious things I suggested that you to do to get ready is to plan your menu. It is always important to include family favorites and make sure that there is something each person loves on your Thanksgiving menu. It is great to make a list and to plan your shopping list so that nothing is forgotten. Obviously there will be the turkey, but what about the rest of the dishes? That is exactly what we are talking about on this edition of Friday Faves:

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish? (Besides Turkey!)

Madalynn loves the stuffing! Our family loves a good, savory, traditional Sage Stuffing. Maddy isn't the only one who loves it, I think that the rest of my family does as well. The secret to the stuffing is to keep it moist, not too dry, and give it plenty of flavor. I use an egg in my mix, broth, melted butter, onions and celery in my stuffing. There are never any complaints, except when it is all gone!
Alicia loves candied sweet potatoes. So does Lindsey and so does my husband. I put in brown sugar, a bit of maple syrup and top them with the traditional marshmallows.
Lindsey's first choice is the pumpkin pie, of course. She taught you how to make our family recipe on this post. Pumpkin Pie is so easy to make, and store bought is not nearly as good. The only store bought Pumpkin Pie I will eat is from Costco. But, really, just bake it yourself! Lindsey shows how to make the pumpkin puree here. Or, just buy a can of it. Top it with real Whipped Cream to make it even better.
My favorite Thanksgiving food is the Giblet Gravy! I've just got to say that I make super good gravy. I will have to do a tutorial for you one day. It isn't that hard not to get lumps! I love it with the giblets (liver, heart and meat from the neck) chopped up into it, made with the drippings from the turkey. Season it with salt and pepper. It is so good over your mashed potatoes, stuffing and the turkey itself.

If you are really not sure how to cook all of the dishes you need to cook for this Thanksgiving, you can always turn to Panna and watch their teaching videos so that you can make an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. I have shown you some of the things that I have learned from them on posts here and here. It is so enlightening to cook along with a famous chef! They have classes to cover all of your favorite foods!

Remember, once you print off your recipes from your favorite bloggers, keep them in a binder to keep them all organized for a later date. You can use our printables from our shop to make your Bloggelicious Binder to keep all of your baking recipes in one place. Not only is it practical, but it is so cute, too. An organized binder like this one would make a great gift for the holidays!

Also, up in the collage, I included our free printable from last Thanksgiving. "Eat Your Pie!" It is still available and would be a lot of fun to put up on the dessert table! The picture is a short cut to the PDF file! Just click on it to print.

Those are some of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes. What are yours? Let us know in the comments! We would love to hear from you!

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Pecan Pie Bundt Caken & Raspberry Pie Cupcaken

11/15/2017

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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Sometimes it is fun to do something a little different for the holidays just to mix things up a bit while still serving the old favorites. Last December, I introduced you to the Piecupcaken on this post, it is the cupcake version of the Piecaken. Since today is National Bundt Cake Day, I thought that a bundt cake version of the piecaken would be delicious! Since I wanted the flavors to be perfect for Thanksgiving, what could be better than a spice cake with pecan pie? The perfect thing is that in honor of National Bundt Cake Day, Amazon is having a sale on many bundt cake pans! This is the perfect time to order one! Here are a couple of my favorites, you can click the photos to go see them on Amazon.

As I contemplated this Pecan Pie Bundtcaken, I was at the grocery store and raspberries were on sale. I thought, wouldn't a Raspberry Pie Cupcaken be pretty for Christmas? So, guess what, today I am going to show you how I did both! Let's start with the Pecan Bundtcaken.

I started by making an 9" pecan pie. I would suggest measuring the dimensions of your pie dish compared to the dimensions of your bundt pan to make sure that the pie will fit inside the cake. And, when you crimp the crust, do it small and towards the inside of the pie rim. A heavy rim of crust is not what you want in your pie bundt caken. Here is my recipe for pecan pie that I used. Click on the photos below to see how I put the Pecan Pie Bundt Caken together!

I greased an floured my bundt pan. Then I found a glass to use as a cutter to cut out the center of my pie. This one fit well, It would make a hole just large enough to keep the pie suspended above the first layer of cake batter.

Carefully remove the pie from the dish. I cut out the center of the pie. That center piece made a tasty treat for my husband.

I used a spice cake mix. I put a layer of the batter in the bottom of the bundt pan. It was less than half of the mixture, maybe 1/3 of it.

Slide the pie into the pan so it sits on the first layer of batter.

Now, pour the rest of the batter over the pie. Be sure to spread it to the sides so it will drip down and cover the pie as it bakes.

This is the one time that you do not want to cool your bundt cake upside down. When it comes out of the oven, just let it cool in the pan until it begins to pull away from the sides.

It flipped out of the pan so nicely! You can't even tell that there is a pecan pie in there!

Since there is already so much going on in this dessert, I decided to only give it a drizzle of frosting. I made a regular buttercream frosting and added a tsp of pumpkin pie spice to it. It is so good! I made it a little thinner so that I could drizzle it over the cake.
When you go to serve the cake, look at the surprise inside!

What a delicious surprise on your Thanksgiving dessert table!

Now, let's move on to the Raspberry Piecupcaken. First, you have to make the raspberry tarts. I still had pie crust left after making the pecan pie, so I just used that to make about 14 tart shells. I formed them in small muffin tins so that they would fit inside of a cupcake.

Tiny Raspberry Tarts

To make the piecupcakens, I used a lemon cake mix this time. Then, just like I did for the bundt cake, I ladled a little batter in the bottom of a regular sized cupcake tin (lined with a paper cup) and then placed the tart on that. Finally I covered the tart with the more batter. These were pretty full and came out pretty large! I baked them for the longest amount of time specified on the cupcake mix. Bake them until they are golden brown and spring bake when touched.

I let them cool in the pan and used a knife to slip them out of the pans when they were cool. They came out pretty easily.

I frosted them with a plain vanilla buttercream and drizzled them with left over raspberry jelly and topped with another fresh raspberry.

These would be good not only for Christmas, but how about Valentine's Day or even Halloween!

These recipes are a little more time consuming than just an ordinary cake or pie, but this time of year is when it is fun to do something a little bit extra!
Don't forget the bundt pan sale on Amazon! One of the extra fancy ones would make a nice gift for the foodies on your list!
If you would just like to make a bundt cake to celebrate National Bundt Cake Day, here are a couple of other recipes:

Lemon Bundt Cake

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Thanksgiving Prep 101

11/13/2017

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This post contains affiliate links. I will be compensated for any purchases made through those links at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!

Are you cooking for a crowd this Thanksgiving and you are stressing out about pulling it off? Growing up in a large family and raising a large family of my own has taught me a few tips that I can share to help make your Thanksgiving meal prep much easier and successful. A little pre-planning can take the stress to a much lower level. Since the big feast is only 10 days away, time is of the essence, but still doable.

Menu & Recipes: First things first, make a menu and choose your recipes! If you decide that you want to try something new, you may want to give it a trial run, but time is short so that may not be possible. I suggest trying something that you feel pretty confident will turn out well and be a crowd pleaser. Also, it may be best to keep your new recipes down to 1 or 2 dishes. Traditional Thanksgiving recipes are looked forward to, comforting and expected by many and changing things too much could leave some people disappointed. A couple of new dishes added to the traditional can be surprising and fun! You might even start a new tradition. I wasn't raised with pecan pie growing up, but it is a tradition in my home now. Also, I can still remember the year pumpkin rolls first appeared and we have enjoyed them ever since.
Speaking of pies, we have a whole category devoted to pies on our blog. You can start with my mom's absolutely best crust recipe here and go onto the many other varieties of pies that are all delicious, here. You might find a new one to add to your Thanksgiving dessert table this year!

Before You Shop: Before you head off to the grocery store, clean your fridge! I am lucky enough to have two refrigerators, so I have to clean them both. But seriously, you are going to need a lot of room. You will be bringing home produce, a turkey, butter, veggies of various varieties, cream, dips, cranberry sauce, pickles, olives...And then you have to plan on the leftovers! Don't forget that if people are bringing dishes to add to the feast, you will need a place to put any cold items that may need to be chilled until serving time. So, get in that fridge and get rid of those little dabs of leftovers, throw out the old, expired condiments, flush away the "science experiments" tucked away in the back corner, and wipe everything down so that you have a nice, clean refrigerator. If you think that you may not have enough space for everything, break out or purchase a cooler to handle some of the overflow. This one on wheels would be great!

Shopping: Now it is time to look at your recipes and make your shopping list. Right now there are tons of good sales on all of the fixings for a Thanksgiving Dinner. (This is also a good time to stock up on canned goods for your pantry and to buy food for donations to food banks!) Check your ads! If you will also want a turkey for Christmas, get one now and put it in the freezer because the prices are at their best right now! Here are a few things to add to your shopping list that you may not have thought about:

Freezer Storage Bags!
Containers that seal and won't leak. Here are a couple suggestions:

Pyrex Snapware

Rubbermaid brilliance, guaranteed not to leak.

If you are using paper plates, get good sturdy ones. I prefer to use real plates for big dinners, because they look prettier, they are sturdy enough to handle the gravy and other juicy foods and won't fall apart under a knife. Also, make sure you have enough dessert plates! I like to check the clearance aisles for good deals on pretty dishes. Here are some dessert dishes I picked up for just .59 a plate! I love the color!

Here are some nice white, go with anything dessert plates from Amazon. And I love these from Target that are in their new Magnolia line!

Plastic wrap, or another fun thing to do to send home leftovers in is to make your own wax cloths like Maddy blogged about here. We use them all of the time and they are a great way to be a little more green. They would be a nice little gift to send home with your guests, wrapped around some leftover dinner rolls perhaps!

Make a Timeline: Once you are finished shopping and have everything you need, make yourself a timeline of things that need to be done. Here is an overview of how I generally organize myself the week of Thanksgiving.

Make sure the turkey is in the refrigerator defrosting by Monday at the latest. Big turkeys take longer.
Clean the house really well on Tuesday.
Bake the pies, rolls and other desserts on Wednesday, because the oven will be very busy on Thursday with the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, etc.
After baking on Wednesday, sweep and straighten the house and set the table, unless you have very tiny children who will just mess it up. Then you can have someone help you with it on Thursday.
Thursday morning, make the stuffing. I put a couple of Tablespoons in the bird for flavor, but bake most of it in a casserole dish. Prepare the turkey by rinsing it and removing the giblets. When the turkey is done roasting later on, don't forget to remove the stuffing from the inside.
When the turkey comes out of the oven, pop in the stuffing, sweet potatoes and green bean casserole while it rests. Move the turkey to a platter to rest and make the gravy in the bottom of the roasting pan.

One Last Tip: Accept help! Let others put out the cranberry sauce, pickles, olives and other condiments. Allow someone to mash the potatoes, put out the rolls and butter. You can give instructions as you make the giblet gravy! Then, at last, it will all come together, everything will be hot and you will have a feast to be thankful for.

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Friday Faves #40~Top Thanksgiving Choices

Pecan Pie Bundt Caken & Raspberry Pie Cupcaken

Thanksgiving Prep 101

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