Happy Thanksgiving!  Yeah, I know I’m a few days late, but I decided not to work, blog or check email the last few days.  It was wonderful.  Not that I don’t love all of you! :)  But it sure was a nice quiet holiday.

I hope you all had wonderful feasts and more wonderful times with loved ones.  And, I’m guessing, more than a few of you have oodles of turkey leftover.  So, please share your favorite ways to use leftover turkey!  I’ve got TONS and I don’t want it to go to waste!

You also need to share your menus for the week….here’s mine!

MONDAY:
- Turkey a la King? Turkey pot pie?

TUESDAY:
- Something with turkey…waiting for your fantastic ideas!

WEDNESDAY:
- Spaghetti
- Salad

THURSDAY:
- Tacos

FRIDAY:
- Leftovers

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Beef stew with some yummy bread

PS - We did in fact cook the turkey in brown paper bags and it worked great!  We needed to cook it a little longer than we did, but other than that, it was a super technique.  I definitely recommend it!

I think it’s time for dessert! This year we’re making Chocolate Mousse (in fact, my mom is making it as I type!), Pumpkin Pie and Apple Bavarian Torte. Click on the Recipes - Sweet Things page for the Mousse & Torte recipes…as for pumpkin pie, I’m just going to do what the can tells me…unless you have a fantastic pumpkin pie recipe to share!

And feel free to share any other dessert recipes. There were some pretty fantastic-sounding desserts on your Thanksgiving menus, so I think it’s time to share recipes!

Quick note: if you are going to make this mousse recipe, you need to make it one day ahead.

It’s time to announce the winner of the Anna Maria Horner giveaway!

And the lucky person is…

bigmimi who said, “I need to make a few more quilts and this would be just perfect!”

Enjoy the book and those fat quarters!  They are wonderful!  And to the rest of you, don’t forget to add Anna Maria to your blogroll, and buy her book right away!  Thank you for the giveaway, Anna Maria!

This year we’re having 60-second brussel sprouts, stewed green beans and sweet potatoes as our vegetable sides.  Be sure to click on the brussel sprouts and the green beans for some great recipes!  As for sweet potatoes, I think I’m just going to mush them up and add some butter, maple syrup, salt and pepper.

If anyone has a great vegetable side dish recipe or preparation tip, please share!

How are you cooking your bird this year?

Last year I decided to roast it, breast side down.  I didn’t have the turkey raised high enough and the white meat at the top of the breast (usually the best part of the turkey) was like jello.  Literally.  So sad.  So, if you decide to go that route, make sure your turkey is on a rack high out of the juice!

This year I think we’re going to try cooking our turkey in a brown paper bag.  My friend Dottie from Boston swears by it and the way she describes the finished product sounds delicious.  I’ve got my bags ready…I’ll report back next week on my success (hopefully!).

Click here to see last year’s “Turkey” post, which has lots of good info, including directions from Dottie on how to cook the turkey in a brown paper bag!  And please share your favorite turkey tips here on this post, too!

Thanksgiving is just a few days away…so we’ve got a lot of work to do this week!

If you click here on Thanksgiving Prep,  you can see all of my Thanksgiving posts, including last year’s posts.  Last year we talked about gravy, stuffing and more!  Over the next three days I’ll share more recipes and tips and, as always, please share what you know!

Today’s your last chance to enter the Anna Maria Horner book and fabric giveaway.  Click here and enter a comment before midnight (PT) today (Monday, 11/24).  Good luck!

Clementines are on sale…the holidays are here!  Yea!

Be sure to check in the next three days for some serious Thanksgiving planning and cooking!

MONDAY:
- Kitchen Sink Quesadillas
- Guacamole & Chips

TUESDAY:
- Waffles

WEDNESDAY:
- Leftovers

THURSDAY:
- Pizza? Just kidding…

FRIDAY - SUNDAY:
- LEFTOVERS!!!

Time for your menus!  And, if you’d like to share or see Thanksgiving menus, click here!

As I’ve already mentioned, last week I went to San Diego for a fun weekend with some friends.  The weather was warm, the ocean blue, and the food delicious!  I have to share a few of my favorite San Diego haunts with you!

Extraordinary Desserts is hands down my favorite food spot in San Diego.  Once again it did not disappoint…although, they did not have The Viking that night, which was very sad.  But my Caribe chocolate cake and Caramelized Apple & Pumpkin Bread Pudding helped ease the pain.

Breakfast at Pipes Cafe in Encinitas was a must. The food was great, as usual, and being able to stare out at the ocean while I ate…as heavenly as my buttery french toast.

The trip was so wonderful.  I can’t believe we got to live in PARADISE for as long as we did.  I miss you, San Diego!

Now that the holidays are here, I’m sure many of us will be entertaining friends and family.  I recently received a cookbook called “The Gathering of Friends” as a gift and it is a great one to help with all the festivities!

The book provides menus for several different types of get-togethers, complete with recipes and pages for notes. One of the authors is also an interior designer, so there are some great suggestions for decorating and centerpieces, something I always fall short on.  The recipes are also very approachable and look delicious!  A great help for the holidays and a great gift idea.  You can visit the website to purchase the book, see some videos and grab a few recipes!

Happy day!  Today I feel honored to be a guest blogger over at Shutter Sisters, a beautiful and engaging photography blog.  *click on over to see my post!

Everyone seems pretty excited about the Cranberry Slush on my menu, so I think I better get the recipe out there!  Plus, it’s one of the items you can make way ahead of time, so it’s perfect for this week’s planning.  In fact, you need to make it at least 1-2 days ahead so it has time to freeze.

It’s my Great-Grandma Blomquist’s recipe.  Everyone in my family, from coast to coast, serves it on Thanksgiving.  Definitely a family tradition and one I’m excited to share!

CRANBERRY SLUSH:
There are two versions - the original and the fast. We always do the fast version and it’s fantastic.
Original Recipe:
- 1 lb cranberries
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- 2 quarts cranberry juice
- 2 quarts ginger ale

Cook cranberries, sugar and water until thickens. Run through collander. Add 1 quart cranberry juice. Freeze. When ready to serve, mash up frozen cranberries with 1 quart cranberry juice and 2 quarts ginger ale.

Quick Recipe:
- 4 cans whole cranberry sauce
- 3 quarts cranberry juice
- 2 quarts ginger ale

Run 4 cans of whole cranberry sauce through collander. Add 2 quarts cranberry juice. Freeze. When ready to serve, mash up frozen cranberries with 1 quart cranberry juice and 2 quarts ginger ale.

For those of you who like to make it “interesting”…feel free to spike your slush. I have a few friends who evolved dear old grandmother’s recipe with a little alcohol and were quite pleased with the results. Grandma’s rollin’ in her grave!

Time to bite the bullet and settle on a menu. I need to get my shopping started!

DINNER:
- Turkey
- Gravy
- Stuffing
- Mashed Potatoes
- Green Beans
- Squash OR Sweet potatoes
- 60-second brussel sprouts
- Cranberry sauce
- Butterhorn rolls OR Squash rolls
- Cranberry Slush

DESSERT:
- Chocolate Mousse
- Pumpkin Pie
- Apple Bavarian Torte

I will provide more details on my menu items over the next few days, including recipes. Until then, once you have YOUR menu planned, please share it with us! You may inspire me to switch it up a bit and you’ll certainly inspire one another!

I have a scrumptious Thanksgiving recipe that you can make this week, long before all the Thanksgiving cooking really begins.

I recently purchased the Muirhead Pumpkin Butter from Williams-Sonoma. Love this stuff. (Try whipping it up with some heavy cream or cream cheese. Pure heaven.  Or use as a base for pumpkin pie!)

But at $10 a jar, not the most frugal of purchases. So, I decided to try making my own. The recipe I found here was delicious. It’s just as good as the stuff from Williams-Sonoma. Although, not as sweet, which isn’t bad actually. (I do think I’ll add more sugar next time.)  Not only is pumpkin butter great for Thanksgiving, but also as a gift for friends this holiday season.

One quick note. When it’s time to simmer the butter for 15 minutes…well, it’s so thick that it pops and makes a huge mess as it “simmers.” I put the next-size-up lid on my saucepan and kept it propped open with my wooden spoon…that way the moisture could escape to help thicken the butter, but your kitchen doesn’t look like the battleground for the Great Pumpkin War of 2008.

Tomorrow I am going to finalize the Thanksgiving menu!  I’ve got some tough decisions to make…

This giveaway is now closed.  Thank you!

Today’s free giveaway is too cool for school.  Remember my post last week about Anna Maria Horner?  Well, she’s as fabulous as ever and offering a great giveaway for TWFD readers!

One random (and oh so lucky) winner will receive a signed copy of Anna Maria Horner’s new book Seams to Me (retail $24.99) and an assorted mix of 16 Garden Party fat quarters (that’s fabric, for those of you non-sewers out there, retail $38.00).  If you sew, you are gonna LOVE this package.  If you don’t sew, this will make a fantastic Christmas gift for that special sewer in your life!  Just look how cute my copy of the book looks sitting on my desk (picture above)…it’s even better when you open it up!

Be sure to check out Anna Maria’s lovely blog…and you can buy her book here (unsigned) or here (signed) and the fabric here.

To enter the random giveaway, please leave a comment on this post by Midnight PT, Monday, November 24.

Good luck to all and thank you, Anna Maria!