Pumpkins & Turkeys

Per usual, life has been a bit busy. It has been almost 2 months since I have posted! I fully intended to post about pumpkin carving and Halloween... then the calendar said it was November. So I decided to post about Thanksgiving instead... now the calendar says December. Seriously?!? Where is my "universal" remote that will allow me to pause time?


So this post will be a bit of a rewind into October and November.


PUMPKINS


I went through 4 pumpkins this year in efforts to get 2 jack-o-lanterns. No, I didn't mess them up. 


The boys brought home the first jack-o-lantern from daycare on Columbus Day. Of course, that meant that within 2 weeks, the poor thing was rotting and decaying. Bye-bye, Jack #1.


In the meantime, I had purchased another pumpkin to carve and keep Jack #1 company. My oldest, CT, wanted to be completely in charge of Jack #2... this meant it took a week for him to finish carving the darn thing. Of course, Jack #2 became rotted and decaying. Bye-bye Jack #2.


So my youngest, IG, and I purchased to more pumpkins the week before Halloween. I waited until the weekend to carve them and knocked out some quick knife-work in 10 minutes. I think Jack #3 and Jack #4 turned out very nice :)

TURKEYS


This year was my turn to host Thanksgiving. My mother and alternate: one of us hosts Thanksgiving while the other hosts Christmas. It's not that huge of a deal: it's just the 4 of my immediate family plus my mother. The most difficult part is not making TOO MUCH food!


This was my menu:

     Brown Butter & Sage mashed potatoes

     Herb Biscuits

     Cider-Glazed Turkey

     Sausage & Apple Stuffing

     Cranberry Pineapple Sauce

     Broccoli

     Caramelized Butternut Squash

I love to cook, and getting the opportunity to experiment with willing victims taste-testers is great.

The biscuits are missing from the picture? What? I didn't notice... okay, maybe I did. I over-baked the biscuits and they came out a little lot dry. So they were shunned from the photo. Every great chef makes mistakes. Right? Right??


So I hope to remember to photograph my next few projects. I am going to be crafty this month for my book club and for my friends. I am also going to be baking cookies and items to give as gifts. I seem to remember after I make something that I wanted to take pictures for my blog. Such as the delicious batch of applesauce I made 2 weeks ago. I love having an apple orchard 1/2 mile from my house! I want to make more applesauce to freeze so maybe I will remember to grab the camera then. We'll see.