Different Turkey Recipe...YUMMMMM!!!!

 I always make my turkey different each year. I like to try new things and they always turn out great and look good. Can you make a bad turkey? This year I combined 2 different recipes into one! I had fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage and marjoram) and chopped them up. Added salt and pepper and melted butter. I brushed that all over the bird and under the skin. I placed bacon stripes on the top of the bird as well. We basted the bird every 3o minutes for 3.5 hours. We basted her with apple juice, and then next time would be a brown sugar and maple syrup mixture, then back to the apple juice.

The turkey came out delicious!! Very earthy with all the herbs yet savory with the bacon.
Of course we had homemade rolls with homemade jams and jelly's, Margene's homemade stuffing, twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy....My mouth is watering...

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hosted Thanksgiving at my home this year and it was wonderful. There were 20 people there!

 

We held our fist annual pie making contest! We placed the pies with a # and the name of it and everyone tasted whatever they wanted and voted for their two top favorite. Aleigh WON with her homemade lemon cheesecake! YEAH!!

THANKful Wreath

On Thanksgiving I had everyone outline their hands and cut them out. Then, everyone colored them with their own style. Next, they had to write one thing they were thankful for. We had over 30 colored hand prints with thankful messages on them.
We sure have a lot to be thankful for!

Turkey Cookie

On Thanksgiving, before the big dinner, the boys and I made these adorable (and YUMMY) Turkey Cookies!

             

It was a fun and easy craft. The kids enjoyed making them and the company thought they were cute!

Thanksgiving Crafts and Decorations

We went sledding this morning, watched a movie in the afternoon and then make some cute, fun crafts for the house. (We're off to go sledding again as soon as I'm done typing this up!!)

The "Give Thanks" banner.

The "Turkey Hand Prints for Table Cloth "

The day before...

The day before Thanksgiving the turkey goes in the sink to defrost.....The bread gets sliced up and placed around the kitchen to dry out to make Margene's Homemade Stuffing... Pies are baked...and crafts begin!

Turkey Day!!

This year we decided to stay in Mesa for the holiday. (Scott had to work and needed to study!)We have a little family ritual we do on Thanksgiving morning. We do family pictures. It takes a long time to get 5 kids sitting ready for posing. I bought black Polo's for everyone, but of course couldn't them all this morning. So, I decided to have some of the kids to wear white instead. But still. It takes a long time to get everyone dressed, hair combed and happy. It was raining this morning, so we had to take them inside. Bummer. I took individuals first, then TRIED to take all the boys. It was HARD. None came out that I LOVE. We didn't even take any family pic's! Another day I guess. Here are a few of the cute shots I got.

Jackson was first, and oh, so easy. He is a very photogenic kid.




Of course he couldn't sit and stay in the pose I wanted. And of course he had to have some random item in his hands during the photo shoot.

Will too, is really easy. The older they get, the easier it is to have them sit the way you want and just smile.

Brigs was way to giggly and moving all over the place. This was on the only half decent one I could get. I'll try another day!

Tyler was excited to make up poses as I acted like a professional photographer, but unfortunately there was a bad shadow in most of them. Bummer!

Scott is grabbing my butt and making me laugh. I am trying to push him away, but he's not letting go!

We had a very YUMMY dinner and went for a walk around before and after the big meal. We watched some football, a few people took a nap, we played the Wii, did some cute Thanksgiving crafts, and had a fun day OFF!

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is looking through the paper and finding the sales for tomorrow! This year some of the sales start tonight at midnight! Then the others are at 4am! What's up with that?! We are taking off tonight (Kmart and CVS have a few things we want), then we're off to a movie. Just Scott and I! YEAH!

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL day!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Homemade Stuffing

I really enjoy Thanksgiving time. I love to eat turkey with a ton of cranberry sauce on it. YUMMY! Several years ago I celebrated Thanksgiving with all my Walker cousins at my aunt's house in SLC. My sweet aunt Margene made the MOST delicious homemade stuffing I have ever had. I LOVE stuffing! I got her recipe and have made it a couple of times. I started the LONG process 2 days ago, and I can't wait till tomorrow to eat it up! I wanted to share this TRULY YUMMY (and incredibly fattening) homemade stuffing with you.
Enjoy!!

1 C. butter
1lg onion finely chopped
3/4 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1t. Sage
1 lg loaf bread
2t. poultry seasoning
1C. chicken stock base
3 lg eggs


Two to three days before the feast cut the bread into cubes. Lay them out on a cookie sheet or cookie rack. Flip every 4 hours or so.




Saute chopped onion in melted butter. Add salt, sage, pepper, and seasoning. Pour butter mixture over bread and mix. Add turkey/chicken stock and eggs. Mix thoroughly and place into turkeys cavity. (Under skin, breast, legs and thighs). The rest can be placed in a separate pan. Enjoy!!
(She would always triple the recipe. I double it)

Thanks Margene for this FABULOUS recipe. I will be thinking of you with every bite! :)