Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving was a little while ago, but I never got around to sharing pictures from it. So, here we are January 6th and I'm going to share them. Haha!

We hosted Thanksgiving for the 2nd year at our house for Shane's side of the family. It turned out wonderful again and I look forward to doing again next  this year. :) This year we had 3 new family members join us and we couldn't have been happier to welcome them to KS and share a wonderful day together.

Isn't the veggie tray cute they made it look like a Turkey, so festive I love it!

All the yummy food! I just love Thanksgiving and the delicious food!

We had to have 2 tables for all the food. Haha!

This year we moved the dining room table into our Pub area so we could all sit together. We also had to have a kid table with adding 3 more people this year, but it all turned out great!

It was actually pretty nice weather outside this year again. I decided I wanted to take some family pictures this year so I could hang more pictures in our gallery hallway I have been working.

This is Shannon (Shane's Brother), Stefanie (Sister-In-Law), Sydney and Paige! I love this picture of them.

All us pretty ladies. :)

All the handsome guys. They are a little out numbered by all us girls. Haha!

Nieces & Nephew, aren't they so cute!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and had lots of yummy food.

After we finished with Shane's family we had to head out to my Grandma's house for Thanksgiving with my family.



Photo Shoot: Thanksgiving/Christmas Celebration

A little over a month ago a friends mom asked if I could shoot their Thanksgiving/Christmas family celebration. The celebration was a little over an hour from me so I had to get up early and head out for a day of photo shooting. My friend that I did this for her family I have known her since middle school and she currently lives in Florida, so it was nice getting to spend sometime with her and seeing her be with her family. I had a good time at the celebration and got lots of pictures.

To see more from this shoot, please visit my Facebook Page.



30 Days to Being Thankful {Day 22} - Thanksgiving

Day 22: I'm thankful for Thanksgiving. I enjoy the time spent with both Shane and I's family on this day! We get to cook lots of yummy food and eat till we are so stuffed we can't eat anymore! 

This is the first year Shane and I will be hosting Thanksgiving in our new home! We both are very excited about this. There will definitely be pictures to come! 

Thanksgiving Decorating

Halloween has now passed and it was time to take down the decorations and put up Thanksgiving stuff! I didn't plan on putting up Thanksgiving decorations till today but that instead I put them up Thursday night while Shane was making pizza for us. I got all the Halloween stuff down and Thanksgiving up. I was very happy how all my decorations turned out! 

The centerpiece for our dining room table.

 This idea was found on Pinterest, but  instead of using pumpkins I used pine cones.

 Our table by the front door.

 Fireplace

 This idea was also found on Pinterest. I had to order the acorns online. 

30 Days to Being Thankful {Day 1} - Life

As Thanksgiving comes around we all start thinking about the different things we are thankful for.  

This year I decided to do the 30 Days to Being Thankful Challenge. I haven't done a blog challenge before so I thought it would be fun to try one!

As we arrive on the 1st day of November....Wow November already.

Day 1 of being Thankful...I'm thankful for Life

I don't say it enough that I'm thankful for my life and were it has brought me today. 

I will be posting everyday something new that I'm thankful for. It may be something small or something big. But just being Thankful is what this challenge is about. 

Pumpkin Pie

Yes I know I'm sure everyone knows how to make pumpkin pie. But I am sharing recipes from Thanksgiving so it's a must I share the recipe I use. :) I love pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream! Yum!

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 (9in) unbaked pie crust
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 15oz can Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 12 oz can Evaporated Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Mix together
3. In large bowl beat eggs lightly, stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mix. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
4. Pour into pie shell
5. Bake 15mins. Reduce temp to 350 degrees. Bake 40-50mins or until knife comes out clean.
6. Cool on wire rack for 2hrs

Cranberry Sauce

A few years ago we were left with the task at Thanksgiving of bringing the cranberries. Well Shane didn't want to just get cranberries and dump them out of a can, so he went on a hunt for a good cranberry sauce recipe. And let me tell you he found the best one! This is requested as a must every year. It's super good. I recommend that everyone try it at least once!

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 5 (3in) Cinnamon sticks
• 8 whole allspice berries
• 8 whole cloves
• 6 cups fresh cranberries (2 bags)
• 2 1/4 cups orange juice
• 4 Gala apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 4 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and diced
• 3 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Place cinnamon sticks, allspice berries and cloves onto the center of an 8 inch square of cheesecloth. Gather together the edges of the cloth and tie with kitchen twine.
2. Place the sachet into large saucepan along with cranberries and orange juice
3. Bring to boil over heat and cook until berries burst, about 10mins
4. Stir in apples, pears, white sugar and brown sugar. Return to boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until apples and pears are slightly soft, 25mins
5. Remove and discard the spice sachet.
6. Pour into bowl and over
7. Refrigerate overnight
8. Serve cold

Green Bean Casserole

This year at Thanksgiving at my Grandma's I got asked to make the green bean casserole. I had no clue how to make this but everyone said it was very simple.

A girl I work with gave me her recipe she uses every year that is a big hit. So I decided to try this out. And it turned out to be great! :)

Green Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

• 3 cans french style green beans (Drained
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can French's dried onions
• 1 1/2 packages saltine crackers (Crushed)
• 1 small thing of Velveeta cheese (Sliced)
• Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix the green beans and cream of mushroom soup together. Layer in a baking pan then layer with slices of Velveeta cheese.
3. In a bag crush the saltine crackers
4. In small pan/cup melt butter. I prolly used about 1/2 cup. You need just enough to cover the saltine crackers. Pour butter into baggie with crackers and mix together.
5. Spread the crackers over the green beans and cheese.
6. Bake for 30 mins and then cover with dried onions and bake another 5 mins or until brown..

Sorry I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of this done. I was in a hurry trying to get out the door.

Next time I will have one! :)

Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole

This was the first time we made this recipe at Thanksgiving. Shane decided he wanted a sweet potato recipe so he found this casserole one. It turned out to be really good! I'm sure we will be having this again.

Sweet Potato-Pecan Casserole

• Cooking Spray
• 3 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• Kosher Salt
• 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat over to 350 degress. Mist 8-inch baking dish with cooking spray
2. Bring a few inches of water to boil in a pot with large steamer basket in place. Put the sweet potatoes in the basket, cover and steam unit tender, 20-25 minutes. We didn't have a steamer basket so we just boiled the potatoes and it worked just fine.
3. Transfer the potatoes to a bowl and let cool slightly. Add the honey, egg, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, the nutmeg, ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of salt; whip with an electric mixer unitl smooth.
4. Spread the sweet potato mixture in the prepared baking dish.
5. Mix the brown sugar, pecans, and the remaining 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl, sprinkle over the potatoes. Bake unit hot and beginning to brown around the edges, 40-45 minutes.

Ingredients

Slow Cooker Stuffing

I mentioned a few weeks ago in my Thanksgiving post that I would post the recipes to all the yummy food that we made for our dinner. Now finally that I got some time to get these posted here is the first one I wanted to share.
Shane found this Slow Cooker Stuffing recipe. We decided to make this for the first time this Thanksgiving. We always had the problem in the past where we didn't have enough room in the oven or on the stove to keep everything warm. We thought this slow cooker recipe would be great since it cooks in the crock pot and would free up some space for us to cook other things. It turned out wonderful! I can't wait to make this again.

Slow Cooker Stuffing

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 12 ounces sliced mushrooms
• 12 cups dry bread cubes
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 cups chicken broth, or as needed
• 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Melt butter or margarine in a skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, celery, mushroom, and parsley in butter, stirring frequently.
2. Spoon cooked vegetables over bread cubes in a very large mixing bowl. Season with poultry seasoning, sage, thyme, marjoram, and salt and pepper. Pour in enough broth to moisten, and mix in eggs. Transfer mixture to slow cooker, and cover.
3. Cook on High for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to Low, and cook for 4 to 8 hours.

We had so much cooking to do I didn't have time to take a lot of pictures while making this.
This pictures is when it's completely done and ready to eat!

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a good one with lots of yummy food. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen getting ready for Thanksgiving. The night before we had a few errands to run then we came home and we spent about 3 or so hours in the kitchen cooking. Then on Thanksgiving Day we got up early to finish a few things and we spent an hour or so in there that morning. I actually enjoyed being in the kitchen getting stuff ready and all cooked up. I can't wait to have a house and more kitchen space so it will be easier for both of us to cook in the kitchen :)
On Thanksgiving Day we went over to Shane's dads house to help get everything else ready and hang out with the family. His dad had to work till 3pm that day so we didn't eat till he got home, but he came home to a nice cooked meal and just got to sit down and eat.
After his dad's house we had to head over to my Grandma's. I didn't eat much over there due to the fact that I just ate like and hour and half before I got there, but we did have lots of yummy food there too. I did have some desserts over there instead of eating a big meal again. :) I love me some pumpkin pie with lots of cool whip!

Here are the sides that Shane and I made to have at his side of the family. Everything turned out SO good! And of course I ate way too much but it was too good not to enjoy.

Pumpkin Pie they aren't super pretty but sure were yummy!

Cranberries...Love these!

Slow Cooker Stuffing...First time we made this receipt. Turned out great!

Sweet Potato Casserole. First time we made this. Turned out good.

Shane's niece made this soup for us to snack on before dinner. It's looks really gross, right?

 But it was actually not too bad.

The turkey was done by Shannon (Shane's Brother). It came out wonderful!

All the food ready to eat!

The table all set. Isn't it pretty!!

I will try and get the recipes posted soon for all the yummy stuff that we made on Thanksgiving. Everything turned out so yummy. I kinda wish I could more now. HaHa!