Patiently waiting for Thanksgiving dinner!
Thanksgiving
Quote of the Day
The holidays are coming!
But let me share with you a typical Thanksgiving at the Turk household: It starts with my mother yelling at my sister for yelling at my grandmother who’s yelling at the television screen, which happens to be the microwave. And then my militant brother Jabari – formerly Bob – gives my father attitude for using the word black, even though he’s referring to the turkey. Which, by the way, only got burnt because instead of turning the oven off, my bi-polar aunt Leslie tried to shove her head in it. But you know what we do? We kiss… and we hug… and we apologize for all the things we said… ‘Cause a month later, we gonna get together and do it again at Christmas! Donald Faison as Dr. Chris Turk on Scrubs
Thanksgiving 2017
Around here, Thanksgiving is really a three-day event. It started yesterday, with the baking of all of the pies, and it won’t end until tomorrow, when we eat pie for breakfast, build our new Christmas Lego set, and have turkey soup for dinner. But today is the Big Deal…the Thanksgiving feast!
I love making the table look pretty:
Thanks to Ryan, we even had flowers this year!
We had a nice selection of beverages:
And our traditional Thanksgiving dinner:
It’s a lot of food!
No Thanksgiving is complete without pie(s) for dessert!
There was a rumor going around that I was under the weather this year. But seriously…if I wasn’t feeling well, do you really think all this could have happened? I’m not allowed to be sick on Thanksgiving ever!
Chickadee Thursday
Chickadee spent most of today (not to mention yesterday) asking if it was time to eat pie yet. She was very excited about the pumpkin pie she picked this year!
Piestravaganza 2017!!!
After the record NINE pies I made last year on the day before Thanksgiving, this year’s seven pies didn’t seem like quite as much work!
We’re having our standard lineup, as follows:
- Ryan–Caramel apple
- Me–Cranberry apple
- Turkey–Nutella
- Bunny–Pecan
- Moose–S’mores
- Ladybug–Butterscotch
- Chickadee–Pumpkin
This day is a lot of work, but it also makes the house smell like a bakery, so I can’t complain too much!
Tasty Tuesday–Nutella Pie
Just when you think I’ve run out of new pies to try!
Last year, I found a recipe for a Nutella pie, and Turkey immediately decided he wanted it to be “his” Thanksgiving pie. He liked it so much, he decided he wants it again this year, and I don’t blame him…it’s delicious. Of course, I’ve made my own little tweaks in the meantime, so here is my updated recipe!
For the filling:
- Pre-made Oreo pie crust
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 3/4 cup Nutella
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Beat cream cheese, Nutella, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. In another bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form; fold into Nutella mixture. Add to crust and chill for 30 minutes.
For the topping:
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
- 2 tsp. butter
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 Tbsp. hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
In small saucepan, bring the cream, corn syrup, butter, and salt to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; let stand five minutes. Stir until smooth; cool to spreading consistency. Spread over pie; sprinkle with toasted hazelnuts. Chill for at least one hour.
Thanksgiving 2016
We had another fun and happy Markel Family Thanksgiving celebration today!
This year, we had two tables, which were twice as much fun to decorate. I also tried my hand at napkin folding, and was pleased to discover that even though it wasn’t intentional, the napkins rather looked liked turkeys:
We had an extra dish in our food lineup, so the beverages got their own counter:
We had all of our favorite Thanksgiving foods: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, green beans with almonds, carrots, brussels sprouts, corn and wild rice casserole, and cranberry sauce.
And a record NINE pies for dessert!
I love our Thanksgivings…I hope your day was as happy and filled with love and laughter as ours was!
Chickadee Thursday
Chickadee has Thanksgiving all figured out at this point…it’s a day that involves a lot of waiting! But she’s a good-natured little girl, so it doesn’t bother her too much!
2016-17 School Year–Thanksgiving Week
This was definitely a short week of school!
We did some work in our two days of school. We continued talking about the means of grace in Lutheranism 101. We covered confession and absolution and the first of several lessons on the Lord’s Supper. Turkey and Bunny had math and science tests, and Ladybug worked some more on her current chapter in science. We also continued our study of the Constitution, where we learned about freedom of expression and religion.
We also had some fun this week. We finished our study of Thanksgiving with some of our favorite, more whimsical books. Our thankful tree is also almost complete, and very full of all the things for which the children are currently grateful.
And, as always, today we made hand-and-footprint turkeys. I know the year is coming when no one will want to make them, but I’m glad that for now, everyone at least tolerates this craft!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Pie Day 2016
It took me about seven hours to make the nine pies we need for Thanksgiving this year. We’ll be enjoying caramel apple, cranberry-apple, chocolate hazelnut, pecan, s’mores, butterscotch, pumpkin, apple, and vanilla cream pie…but definitely not all at once!
