Hello, everyone! I hope you’ve had a fabulous week and are still swimming in leftovers! We still have some, but they aren’t going to last much longer so I suppose it’s time to get back to my weekly menu planning!

MONDAY:
– Turkey a la King with rice
– Salad

TUESDAY:
– Naan pizzas

WEDNESDAY:
– Taco night

THURSDAY:
– Leftovers

FRIDAY:
– Chicken Caesar Salad

SATURDAY:
– Eat out night

SUNDAY:
– Breakfast for Dinner: Waffles and fruit

Click here for the free printable of this week’s menu plus the shopping list!

You know the drill…please share your menu for the week! THANK YOU!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful holiday! Ours was beyond lovely and I woke up this morning feeling overwhelmed with gratitude.

So, if you’ve ever wanted to laugh at me, now’s your chance.

On Wednesday while my sister-in-law Jessica, my friend Allison and I were cooking a bunch of the food for Thursday, I dumped milk over 3 hot burners on the stovetop AND poured a bowl of cooked sweet potatoes into the sink. My crowning glory, however, was cooking a turkey upside down without realizing it. Everyone decided I can’t possibly write a food blog and must have a ghostwriter on the books. I assure you this is not true, but am wondering if maybe it should be! 😉 Every time I think about checking the temperature on the turkey breast (i.e. the back of the turkey) and the probe hitting bone and me saying, “This is so weird, it’s like there isn’t even any meat in this turkey breast, I think we got a bad bird,” I bust out laughing.

Despite my apparent lack of skill on Wednesday, I was able to pull it together and, with a lot of wonderful help, we had a glorious feast yesterday!

A quick note on the turkey. This year we needed a lot of food, but I decided to cook 2 12-pound turkeys instead of 1 giant turkey. I followed my friend Amy’s technique and these were the best turkeys I’ve cooked in years. I’ve tried cooking turkeys every which way and Amy’s recipe is now my favorite way to do it. I also think cooking smaller turkeys probably made a difference. I cooked one turkey on Wednesday and one on Thursday. The Wednesday bird was carved immediately and we stored the meat in the fridge for leftovers. It worked great!

Happy Leftover Day!

This post is sponsored by the National Education Association (NEA) and reflects a collaboration with NEA’s Raise Your Hand for Student Success campaign. All thoughts and opinions are, of course, my own. Be sure to visit the NEA Parents’ Page for great resources for parents!

My kids have this entire week of Thanksgiving off from school. I remember back in the day only getting Thursday and Friday off, leaving you with just a few days to enjoy the holiday. I actually really appreciate having three extra days to relax with our family and enjoy some time off together. But having the whole week off means almost 10 days of no school!

I’m not one to buy workbooks and pull out the flashcards on school breaks. Honestly, I love getting a break from the homework grind. But just because homework and class time are on hiatus doesn’t mean learning has to be. Here are a few things we’ll be doing this week as a family to facilitate fun learning during the Thanksgiving break!

• COOKING! Of course we’ll be cooking up a storm this week and you can bet the kids will be involved. Not only will having the kids cook with me help form lasting memories, but there are ample learning opportunities in the kitchen, especially around math. Anna even got up this morning and made up her own “recipe” with yogurt and milk, so she is ready to go in the cooking department!
• READING! I am lucky that we have kids who love to read, so they’ll do plenty of reading on their own over the break. But even if kids don’t love reading, Thanksgiving break is a good time to get them excited to read. I always buy Christmas books during this week and we kick off the holiday season by reading those books together as a family. We also have fun Thanksgiving books to share together, too.

This is our newest Christmas book, which I bought just last night!

• DAY TRIPS! We have passes to the Natural History Museum in LA as well as the San Diego Zoo. We will be visiting one of those spots for sure this week! Museums really are a great way to mix learning with fun!
• CRAFTS & LEARNING ACTIVITIES: My Anna loves science more than a million ice cream scoops, so I’m sure we’ll break out our Green Kid Crafts science kit and do a science project together. My friend Marie also has about 1 billion projects on her website Make and Takes, so I’ll be seeing what ideas she has for us, too!

What do you have planned this week with the kids? I’m sure you all have all kinds of creative ideas, so please share them with the rest of us!

It’s Thanksgiving week – I can’t believe it! Today it’s mostly all about the Thanksgiving menu, but I’ll also share our menu for the whole week, which is pretty sparse because all the attention will be on the turkey!

This year we will have Nate’s sister Jess and her family here with us for the entire week, and the Czarnecki family will be joining us on Thanksgiving. We will be surrounded by people that we love dearly and I can’t wait!

Time for the Thanksgiving menu! Here’s what we’ll be having. As usual, we’re sticking with everyone’s favorite classics.

• Turkey
• Classic Mashed Potatoes
• Classic Stuffing
• Gravy
• Crescent Rolls and/or Squash Rolls
• Cranberry Slush (my great-grandmother’s recipe that we have EVERY YEAR NO MATTER WHAT)
• Cranberry Sauce (as per Jess’s request, there will also be canned jellied cranberry sauce)
• Sweet Potato Souffle
• Broccoli Casserole OR Green Bean Casserole from Scratch
• Butternut Squash (I’m going to cube it, roast it, then pan fry it in browned butter)
• Rose’s Creamed Onions (this recipe is from Nate’s great-grandmother)
• Pies: Pumpkin, Apple (either this Swedish Apple Pie or Crumble Apple Pie), Chocolate Chip Pie

As for the rest of the week…here’s the menu plan!

MONDAY: Malibu Melt Wraps

TUESDAY: Taco Night

WEDNESDAY: Taco Leftovers

THURSDAY: THANKSGIVING!

FRIDAY – SUNDAY: Leftovers Galore!

Please share your weekly menu as usual…but we REALLY want to see your Thanksgiving plans! Share, share, share!

This post is sponsored by Q Squared NYC.

I was recently chatting with my dear friend Amy about the holidays and she mentioned the dishes her mom used when she was growing up. Amy talked about how those dishes are firmly entrenched in her memory and that the dishes themselves are as much a part of the experience of the holidays as anything else. As she got thinking about it, she found she felt the same way about the dishes her grandmother used, too.

I loved this conversation because it really got me thinking. Often when I look back on holiday meals with the family, the food is what I focus on. In fact, when I pass traditions on to my kids it’s almost always focused on the food and sharing family recipes. But I haven’t thought much about the significance of the dishes we used. After chatting with Amy I realized my experience was the same as hers, that the dishes actually played a large role.

When I was very young, most of our holidays were spent with the extended family, so a lot of the memories of dishes I have are from my grandmothers. My Grandma Wallin was the type of woman who would bring china to the beach for a picnic, so you can imagine what her table would look like for the holidays. Crystal glasses (perfect for serving 7-Up!), crystal bowls and china dishes abounded. As a young girl, I loved it. Her dishes made those family dinners feel extra special and fancy.

My Grandma Blomquist had 7 children, so when that family got together it was always a large group. I’ll never forget the tall stacks of plates on the buffet table or the basket she used for her giant rolls. What stands out most, however, is the silverware. She had several sets of silverware, complete with intricate patterns. I remember helping get the silverware out of the drawer in her china cabinet (and how that drawer was always a bear to open!). We would wipe the silverware down with a towel and, when dinner was done, carefully put it all back in the drawer.

Eventually we moved far from our extended family, at which point the dishes my mom used for the holidays take over my memories. My mom had a set of Christmas china that made an appearance very year at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We loved those dishes and using them at Thanksgiving quite literally marked the start of the holiday season in our home. Once the holidays were over, we would scour the post-Christmas sales to find more pieces to add to the collection. Those dishes are firmly planted in my holiday memories and, to this day, whenever I see that set of dishes at a store, I am transported back in time.

As I mentioned before, while I’ve always had these memories, I’ve never stopped to think about how strong they are. And, on a related note, I haven’t really thought much about the dishes I use for the holidays and whether or not my kids have the same kinds of memories. Our family is young, relatively speaking, so I’m still in the phase of collecting those dishes that will play a special role at our holiday dinner table year after year. After doing all this thinking about these particular memories, it makes me that much more excited about adding new dishes to our holiday collection and setting the table with my kids each year.

I want my children to have similar memories to what I have, memories like polishing silver and pulling china down from the high cupboard. Of course I have fond memories of the food, but as I ponder those holiday meals from the past, I find that the act of preparing the table for those meals is where the strongest memories lie. Making the table special and beautiful with the women that meant the most to me in my life ended up being the times where we talked and bonded most and I will be forever grateful for those memories.

I hate ending posts with open-ended questions because it feels super cheesy, but I’m breaking my own rule today because I really want to hear from you! Please tell us about your own memories!

Pictured above: I’ve added some really lovely pieces to our holiday dish collections from Q Squared NYC. For Easter we use white dishes combined with serving dishes from the Heritage collection. For Thanksgiving we’ve added serving dishes from both the Ruffle and the Diamond collections, both of which are pictured above. Also pictured is the Maple Apple Bijou candle, which is the perfect scent for Thanksgiving and looks beautiful on the table, too!

The giveaway in this post is now closed, but keep reading for the succotash recipe!

This post is sponsored by Libby’s. All opinions are 100% my own, this recipe is delicious and there’s a sweet giveaway, so lots of goodness to be had!

I grew up on frozen corn. In fact, I don’t remember ever seeing canned corn in the house. I didn’t actually try canned corn until I was married, believe it or not, and I actually love it! Unlike frozen corn, I like how canned corn retains more of a crunch and has a nice sweet flavor. It’s one of my pantry staples for several recipes in my repertoire.

I have a new use for canned corn that I am especially loving: succotash! I was thinking about potential appetizers for Thanksgiving because I stink at Thanksgiving appetizers. I get so caught up in prepping the main meal that I forget to serve food earlier in the day. This recipe for corn succotash flatbreads is a perfect pre-Thanksgiving snack and I promise it’s easy to prepare.

I gave this particular succotash recipe a bit of a southwestern twist, replacing lima beans with black beans, adding tomatoes and bell peppers, as well as adding a bit of cumin and fresh cilantro. The corn is perfect for Thanksgiving but the cumin and cilantro offer a different flavor than any of the classic Thanksgiving foods you’ll be scarfing down later in the day. Just make sure you don’t fill up on succotash flatbreads – save room for turkey!

In addition to today’s recipe, Libby’s is offering up a great giveaway! One lucky, randomly-selected commenter will win a KitchenAid® 6-Quart Slow Cooker With Glass Lid plus an assortment of Libby’s products. I used Libby’s corn and black beans in today’s recipe and LOVE that they have organic canned goods! To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post! Prize must be shipped to a U.S. address and comments need to be posted by Midnight PT on 11/26/14.

One last thing, Libby’s is hosting its Cansgiving sweepstakes through November 19. Participants must post a photo of what they are thankful for on Twitter, Instagram or Libby’s Table Facebook page using the hashtag #Cansgiving for the chance to win a $350 grocery gift card toward their Thanksgiving meals. You can view the full rules at www.getbacktothetable.com/cansgiving.

Get commenting to enter the giveaway and here is the recipe!

Southwestern Corn Succotash Flatbreads

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

An easy and delicious appetizer with a southwestern twist!

Author: Jane Maynard

Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

• ⅓ cup chopped red onion (about ¼ of an onion)
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ of a red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic
• 1 can corn
• ½ can black beans
• 1 cup quartered grape tomatoes
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• Fresh shredded parmesan cheese (optional)
• Chopped avocado (optional)
• Flatbread crackers

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and bell pepper and cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic, which has been pushed through a garlic press, stir, then add corn and black beans and heat for a few minutes.
3. Turn the heat up to medium-high, stir and cook for 1 minute to reduce some of the liquid.
4. Reduce heat to medium again then add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and cumin. Stir and heat for about 2 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
6. Serve succotash on flatbread crackers, topping with fresh parmesan cheese or avocado if desired.
7. You can serve right away or store in fridge and serve cold.

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Hello, everyone! It’s been a bit of a crazy week for a family, but we’re hanging in there! Despite the crazy we still gotta eat, although I will admit we ate out a lot more last week than I was planning on!

Here’s the plan for this week!

MONDAY:
– Pesto Tortellini Soup
– Homemade bread

TUESDAY:
– Malibu Melt Wraps
– Fresh fruit and chips

WEDNESDAY:
– Naan pizzas (I’ll be in SF meeting Rick Bayless with Negra Modela – I can’t wait!)

THURSDAY:
– Leftovers

FRIDAY:
– Hot dogs and/or hamburgers
– Baked beans and carrots

SATURDAY:
– Eat out night

SUNDAY:
– Breakfast for Dinner TBD!

Click here for the free printable of this week’s menu plus the shopping list!

Please pretty please share your own menu plans for the week! Thank you!

Today I bring you the best English muffin you will ever eat. Seriously. You owe me. I mentioned this English muffin trick on Facebook once, but it is sooooo delicious I have decided it deserves an entire blog post.

Have you ever read Ree’s post on cooking cinnamon toast the right way? It’s pretty great. Hop on over and check it out if you haven’t. (For the record, I regularly employ Approach #3, a.k.a. Approach #Gross, because I am always strapped for time and my kids never complain. That said, when I give myself 10 minutes for the cook time, the “right” way is tremendously more delicious.)

I recently applied Ree’s technique to English muffins and, well, it was DIVINE. (Thanks for the inspiration, Ree!) We were transported to toast heaven on the spot. As great as Ree’s cinnamon toast is, I would bet money these cinnamon sugar English muffins are better.

You’re welcome.

Cinnamon Sugar English Muffins

 

Print

Prep time

3 mins

Cook time

12 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

As inspired by Ree Drummond's technique for making perfect cinnamon toast. There are no measurements because you can easily wing it - promise!

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• English muffins
• Butter, softened to room temp
• Cinnamon Sugar (click here for recipe if you need it)
• Vanilla extract (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven or toaster oven to 350º F.
2. Option 1: Mix together softened butter with cinnamon sugar and a splash of vanilla extract. Spread a generous layer over the cut side of an English muffin, making sure to spread the butter mixture all the way to the edges. (The advantage of Option 1 is you get vanilla flavor added into the mix.)
3. Option 2: Spread a generous layer of softened butter on the cut side of an English muffin, then sprinkle heavily with cinnamon sugar, then press down with your fingers or a knife to incorporate the cinnamon sugar with the butter. (The advantage of Option 2 is that it's a wee bit easier and faster and still just as delicious.)
4. Place English muffin on a piece of foil or a cookie sheet (I would line the cookie sheet with foil to make clean up easier).
5. Bake for 10 minutes then finish off under the broiler for about 2 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven or toaster oven, let sit a couple minutes then eat! Seriously, let it cool down for a bit as the English muffin is literally covered in bubbly molten cinnamon sugar lava. Also, these are beyond buttery. You've been warned.

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Today’s Gifts & Giveaways post is pretty much completely and totally awesome. Are you ready? Brace yourself!

I have partnered up with some of my most favorite blogging friends (and in-real-life friends) EVER, Christine Koh (Boston Mamas), Audrey McClelland (Mom Generations), Allison Czarnecki (Petit Elefant), Heather Flett (Rookie Moms), Morgan Shanahan (The 818), Rachael Herrscher (Today’s Mama), and Sarah James (Whoorl), to offer one lucky follower a 128GB wi-fi iPad Air 2 ($699 value)!

Enter to win between November 10-21 via the Rafflecopter widget below; you have 8 entry options and of course we encourage you to enter all 8 ways to maximize your chance to win! Once the giveaway ends, the winner will be chosen randomly and contacted by email, with 48 hours to respond. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hello! I hope you’re all having a great holiday weekend! Ours has been filled with soccer games, which  are {thankfully} over! And Nate and I are going to see Jake Bugg and the Black Keys tonight. I am beyond excited!

I have to be totally honest with you, I am SO not in the mood to plan a menu today. I keep putting it off, but I’m finally just sitting down and getting it done.

MONDAY:
– Swedish Meatballs (I found some already made up in the freezer – happy surprise!)
– Potatoes, lingonberry jam, salad

TUESDAY:
– Pesto Tortellini Soup
– Homemade bread

WEDNESDAY:
– Rachel sandwiches
– Fresh fruit and chips

THURSDAY:
– Leftovers

FRIDAY:
– Chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons

SATURDAY:
– Eat out night

SUNDAY:
– Roasted veggie frittata
– Smoothies

Click here for the free printable of this week’s menu plus the shopping list!

Phew. Glad I got that done! Your turn! Share your dinner plans for the week!