Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

What are you thankful for this year?

Me?

I'm thankful for a God that is bigger than my circumstances.

I'm thankful for friends and family that will help when we are in need.

I'm thankful for healthy children.

I'm thankful for a new healthy baby.

I'm thankful for so many things that I couldn't name them all. These are just a few.

So - what are you thankful for?




Until next time...





JenT

leftover turkey

How do you use up your leftover turkey?

People think that with 9 children we must eat a lot of food. Well, we do eat more than the average American family, but no as much as you might think. Of course, that will probably change when they get older. (We'll have 3 boys in a row entering their teens - whoa!). But for now, they are still pretty young and so their helpings are still small.

So that means we did in fact have leftover turkey.

We picked all the turkey off the bones and put it in the refrigerator. The next day we had macaroni and cheese with turkey in it.

Then we had turkey and cheese quesadillas.

And third, we had turkey in mixed vegetables and brown rice.

Sorry I don't have any pictures of any of these delicious turkey leftover recipes. :)

And that sums up our turkey leftovers. Simple, easy and we all liked them.

So what did you do with your leftover turkey?


Until next time...

new dishes for Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I wanted to try out some new dishes. I presented the idea to my family and they were agreeable. (BTW - my brother couldn't get off work this weekend, so we had Thanksgiving this past Saturday at my mom's. We'll probably do something at home on the actual day, but the meal with my mom and brother is already a done deal).

So for our large family Thanksgiving meal we had all new dishes.

Lemon-Herb Roasted Turkey
Lemon-Butter New Potatoes
Honey-Pineapple Sweet Potatoes
Sweet & Sour Brussels Sprouts
Colorful Corn Medley (the website calls it Fresh Corn Medley, but it's the same recipe)
Comforting Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Then we added an old favorite. One of my aunts recipes, Four Layer Dessert. (This one I posted here).

The new recipes I got from a booklet sent to me from Taste of Home magazine. They were fun to make and delicious to eat.

And...I've got more marked in the book to try for Christmas. :) Fun and yum!

What's on your plate this Thanksgiving?


Until next time...

a little history lesson

Who will you have around your table this Thanksgiving? How would you like to cook for 53 people this year? Actually, maybe some of you are cooking for that many people. I won't be. At least I don't think I will be.

Anyway, consider the very first Thanksgiving in our country. From www.pilgrimhall.org I copied this guest list of that first memorable meal.

4 MARRIED WOMEN : Eleanor Billington, Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White Winslow.
5 ADOLESCENT GIRLS : Mary Chilton (14), Constance Hopkins (13 or 14), Priscilla Mullins (19), Elizabeth Tilley (14 or15) and Dorothy, the Carver's unnamed maidservant, perhaps 18 or 19.
9 ADOLESCENT BOYS : Francis & John Billington, John Cooke, John Crackston, Samuel Fuller (2d), Giles Hopkins, William Latham, Joseph Rogers, Henry Samson.
13 YOUNG CHILDREN : Bartholomew, Mary & Remember Allerton, Love & Wrestling Brewster, Humility Cooper, Samuel Eaton, Damaris & Oceanus Hopkins, Desire Minter, Richard More, Resolved & Peregrine White.
22 MEN : John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Brown, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, [first name unknown] Ely, Samuel Fuller, Richard Gardiner, John Goodman, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Edward Lester, George Soule, Myles Standish, William Trevor, Richard Warren, Edward Winslow, Gilbert Winslow.

Quite a guest list, huh?

These people had a lot to be thankful for. They were the remaining survivors of the Mayflower after a harsh winter in a strange country. The natives had been friendly and even helped them to find food.

In the words of William Bradford, author of Of Plymouth Plantation:

"They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports."

I hope you enjoyed your history class today. :) For homework, find interesting facts about that first Thanksgiving so long ago.

Until next time...