Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving 2015

I know I’m late with Thanksgiving wishes for everyone but we had our Thanksgiving today instead of yesterday so I didn’t have much to post on the actual day.  My brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew came for Thanksgiving today in addition to my mom, Olivia and Davis.

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I used my Lenox Autumn china (Yippee) and my Wallace Grande Baroque silverware (Yippee again.)  I love both of those tableware choices.  I picked those out of a magazine when I was 17 years old and have loved them ever since.  I see now that my plate is a little crooked.  I guess I would get in trouble on Downton Abbey. They measure every little placement of glass, silver, and china.  No butler here.  No measuring here either.

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Here is Olivia looking pensive as she contemplates the Thanksgiving array. Rarely do my offspring willingly smile at a camera.  But at least this is better than the faces I sometimes get from the both of them when they know I’m trying to take a picture.  They take photobombing to a new level.  In fact, they sabotage their own pictures most of the time.  No help needed.

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One of my favorite parts of the meal was this Thanksgiving bread I got at Publix.  Love it!

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Olivia always starts us out with her famous cheese trays.  You get your hands slapped if you try to sneak cheese early. That is, if she catches you…

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I still have a few herbs growing on my deck so we garnished with oregano and lemon thyme.  We also used fresh mint in our flavored water.   Those three plus basil and rosemary are my favorite herbs to grow and eat.

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A new recipe we tried which also came from Publix was Kale-Mushroom Stuffing

 

Kale-Mushroom Stuffing

1 fresh leek, rinsed and thinly sliced

2 tablespoons butter

8 ounces presliced fresh baby portabellas

1 teaspoon dried thyme

8 ounces deli morel and leek cheese, shredded

2 9-ounce packages frozen chopped kale or spinach

4 cups cubed bread stuffing

1 10.75 ounce can condensed cream of chicken with herbs soup

1 cup whole milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Coat a 9X9-inch baking dish with spray.  Cut leak in half and slice (white part only, about one cup.) Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 minutes.  Add butter, mushroom, thyme, and leeks; cook and stir 3-4 minutes or until softened.  Combine stuffing mix, soup, milk, and cheese until blended.  Stir soup mixture into kale mixture, cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until hot.  Spoon stuffing mixture evenly into dish.  Bake 15-20 minutes or until top has browned slightly.

Let me take a minute to jump ahead to our leftovers.

We also had fun with stuffing leftovers and made “Staffles”.  I made up that name so you can call them what you want but we made waffles with the stuffing. We actually made two kinds of stuffing this year, and the one shown below is the basic one from Pepperidge Farm and not the recipe given above.

DSCF4555 Here is a picture before we loaded them with potatoes and gravy.  You get the idea.  They were super good and I will definitely be making these again.

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Back to the original dinner.  After meals when we get together, we play lots of board games and then have some grab bag prizes. This particular game is a favorite of ours, Mr. Bacon’s Big Adventure.  You have to put a time limit on it though.  It’s a long one.  Elyse busted me back to Gristle Grotto and it was all downhill from there.

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Boosted by her stunning victory at Mr. Bacon’s Big Adventure, Elyse ended up being the big winner today and got to choose last.  She got a “fabulous” Star Wars water bottle. She’s living right, I guess. I got frog chip clips.

dogAs the day came to an end I realized that I didn’t finish my turkey door hanging,  but since I actually started it last year I don’t feel too bad. What’s one more year? Does it take anyone else three years to finish a craft? Probably not.  Maybe I’ll crank it out tomorrow.  I can extend this belated holiday one more day.  Don’t you think?

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4 Responses to Thanksgiving 2015

  1. Merry Carol November 27, 2015 at 9:49 pm #

    Loved the blog…everything looked good and/or clever.

  2. Gina November 28, 2015 at 2:32 am #

    Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!

  3. Barbara Murphy November 28, 2015 at 3:29 pm #

    Really cute. Enjoyed reading about your Thanksgiving very much.

  4. too bad we could not get togethr. dorothy November 28, 2015 at 11:37 pm #

    happy belated thanksgiving! too bad we could not gt together. dorothy

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