Thanksgiving

Chickadee Thursday

On Thanksgiving, you have to play with a stuffed turkey, right?

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At Thanksgiving dinner the turkey and mashed potatoes were a hit. The green beans were not. After playing with those a bit, Chickadee said, “Naughty!” and threw them on the floor. It was very hard not to laugh.

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Finishing up dessert (she loved the butterscotch pie!) with a whipped cream beard!

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Thanksgiving is exhausting!

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Tasty Tuesday–Pie!

It’s almost Thanksgiving! Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving-ready pie recipes:

If anyone’s wondering, I just use the standard Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe…nothing too fancy there!

The Thanksgiving Haul

We did our annual pre-Thanksgiving grocery shopping today. This is always An Event. The children really look forward to us all going together, which probably sounds crazy, but it’s one of our family traditions, so I love it. We’ve learned to go to the store early on Saturday morning, before the mad rush, and it works for us.

This is what groceries for Thanksgiving, plus a regular grocery trip, and extra baking supplies, looks like for a family of seven (or at least for our family of seven):

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Yes, we go two turkeys, that total about 45 pounds together. One for Thanksgiving, and one for…later. We’ve had turkey for Christmas, Epiphany (Ryan’s birthday), and just because in the past. I don’t know yet when we’ll make the second one, but I know that I’ll be happy that I bought it on sale whenever that day is!

The shopping trip required two fairly full carts, and a lot of Tetris-like arranging once we got home and realized that everything needed to be put away somewhere. We did manage to get everything in fridge, freezer, pantry, or cabinet, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen when the actual cooking begins, and even more stuff needs to go in the already full refrigerator! It’s a good problem to have though…I am very thankful that we don’t have to worry where our next meal is coming from!

2103-14 School Year–Week Thirteen

This week, we took a break from our ancient history lessons and Scotland read-aloud to have Thanksgiving school. I used the same general outline for reading that I came up with last year, but this time, we only did one craft, plus made one special food item. We also watched The Mayflower Voyagers, which is a favorite Peanuts special. It’s surprisingly accurate, given that it’s a Snoopy cartoon! Every year when we watch it, I lament the fact that This is America, Charlie Brown isn’t available on DVD. I can only imagine how loved all of the shows would be, especially NASA episode! We still have a few more books to read and crafts to do next week to finish off Thanksgiving school, plus all of our Thanksgiving preparations!

In addition to our Thanksgiving studies, we kept up with our standard “reading, writing, and arithmetic.” Turkey and Bunny are finally getting more comfortable with long division and division with money. I’m very thankful for that! We also had a new hymn to memorize: “Prepare the Royal Highway.” I needed to get started on Advent now, if we’re going to make it through a few Advent hymns and a Christmas hymn before our vacation! Maybe the next hymn I pick will have an easier tune to sing, because the last few have been a bit challenging for those of us with no musical abilities (OK, me).

We did also take a break from our normal science lessons this week to watch some Magic School Bus episodes. It’s nice to occasionally have a low-key week, especially leading up to a big holiday! It was also helpful to me, because I needed to be out of the house on Wednesday, so this gave them something to do that was at least somewhat educational, without bothering Ryan while he was working!

We also kept adding leaves to our Thankful Tree…I’m very happy with how it looks! And we still have another week to go…we have so much to be thankful for!

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Next week, we’ll just be having two days of school, reading a lot of fun books, and doing my favorite craft of the year…hand and footprint turkeys!

Tasty Tuesday–Pecan Pie

Today I’ll share a bonus Tasty Tuesday pie recipe, in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday next week. You can never have too many pies at Thanksgiving! (Trust me, I should know…I got roped into making six of them this year!) I like this particular recipe because it doesn’t use corn syrup.

  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup butter, melted
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp. milk
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
  • 1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 400.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until foamy, and stir in melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar, white sugar, and flour; mix well. Last add the milk, vanilla, and nuts.
Pour into pie crust. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until done.

Tasty Tuesday–Butterscotch Pie

Thanksgiving is next week…can you believe it?!? Here’s another family favorite pie recipe…this is the one that Bunny requested (demanded?) that I make this year. It’s truly a labor of love, for me at least, because I hate tempering eggs! It’s worth it though…there’s nothing quite like a homemade butterscotch pie!

  • 1 9-inch pie crust, baked and cooled (make sure to poke holes in the crust with a fork before baking!)
  • 3 Tbsp. butter (no substitutions)
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 3/4 cups whole milk
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • Whipped cream for topping

In 12-inch skillet, cook butter over medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes or until butter melts and turns deep golden brown in color, being careful not to burn. Add brown sugar and stir until blended. Carefully stir in boiling water; boil 1 minute, stirring constantly until smooth. (If there are a few lumps of brown sugar, that’s OK.) Remove from heat.
In 3-quart saucepan, combine cornstarch and salt; with wire whisk, mix in milk, cream, and brown sugar mixture. Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils, stirring constantly; boil 1 minute. Remove from heat.
In small bowl, with wire whisk, lightly beat egg yolks. In thin steady stream, whisk about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into yolks. Gradually whisk yolk mixture back into milk mixture, stirring rapidly to prevent curdling. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick and coats the back of a spoon well. Stir in vanilla.
Pour hot filling into cooled pie crust; press plastic wrap onto surface. Refrigerate overnight until filling is set. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Hymn of the Day–“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come”

This is the hymn we’ve been memorizing in school the last two weeks. It’s the hymn I mostly strongly associate with Thanksgiving, because I’m pretty sure we sang it every year on Thanksgiving Eve when I was a child. It’s sung to the same tune as “Songs of Thankfulness and Praise,” which is an Epiphany hymn.

Come, ye, thankful people, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.
All be safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied.
Come to God’s own temple, come;
Raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field,
Fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown,
Unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear.
Lord of harvest, grant that we
Wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord, our God, shall come
And shall take His harvest home,
From His field shall in that day
All offenses purge away,
Give His angels charge at last
In the fire the tares to cast,
But the fruitful ears to store
In His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come
To Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified,
In Thy garner to abide:
Come with all Thine angels, come,
Raise the glorious harvest home. Lutheran Service Book #892

Tasty Tuesday–Caramel Apple Pie

Since Thanksgiving approaches, I thought I’d share the recipe for one of our Thanksgiving standards…caramel apple pie. It even won second place at a church pie contest a while back!

20 individually wrapped caramels
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
5 large Granny Smith apples–peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat oven to 350.
Unwrap and cut caramel candies in half. In a large bowl, mix candy with flour. Stir in apples, ice cream topping, and lemon juice. Pour filling into pie crust.
Place in oven on a sheet of foil to catch the drips. Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes, or until golden and bubbly.