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 Today we are making our Thanksgiving turkey shirts. They are the same as the ones we made 2 years ago, but I'm hand-stitching them with embroidery floss instead which I like so much more. There were no turkey shirts last year as there was an overdue turkey in my oven (Charlie.) Kate's shirt was finished until I cut a big hole in it when I was trimming the inside fabric. So we are starting over on hers. Awesome. This one is Henry's.  Onto other turkey related news- although we are going to my Aunt's for Thanksgiving, we are going to roast our own turkey because what is Thanksgiving with no turkey leftovers? Last year our turkey was brined and this year we are doing it again. My sister sent me a recipe that she LOVES from a friend of theirs which I'm going to share here. I hope they don't mind because…I forgot to ask.. Brined turkeys are super moist & delicious. Last year we kept ours in a cooler  as well and it worked great. The brine has to sit for 24-48 hours so get that turkey in some brine!

Brined and Roasted Turkey Delight (10-12 lbs)

Brine:

1 cup salt

1 cup brown sugar

2 oranges, quartered

2 lemons (or limes), quartered

6 sprigs thyme

4 sprigs rosemary

To make the brining solution, dissolve the salt and sugar in 2 gallons of cold water in a non-reactive container (I like to use a clean garbage bag placed in a cooler). Add the oranges, lemons, thyme, and rosemary. Brine for 24-48 hours.

NOTE: If the turkey is larger and needs more brine than this, use ½ cup salt and ½ cup brown sugar for every gallon of water, and I usually throw in an extra orange and lemon.

Roasted Turkey:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1 large yellow onion, cut into 8ths

2 large oranges, cut into eights

1 lemon (or lime) quartered

1 stalk celery, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 bay leaves

2 sprigs of thyme

2 sprigs of rosemary

½ cup apple cider

½ cup chicken stock

Salt and Pepper

1 turkey sized roasting bag

Preheat the oven per the directions that come with the turkey and/or turkey bag.

Season the inside of the turkey with the salt and pepper (use your expert eye). Stuff the turkey with the onion, oranges, lemon, carrot, celery, thyme, rosemary, and bay leaf. Season the outside of the turkey evenly with more salt and pepper, and unsalted butter. Place the turkey in the bag along with the cider and chicken stock. Bake as directed.

NOTE: I bake the turkey upside down. It doesn’t look great when it is done, but the white meat is very juicy.

Another NOTE: Again, if the turkey is larger add more “stuffing” until the cavity is completely full.

 

(click picture to enlarge)

Mark your calendars! The next Holiday Craft Night will be Saturday, December 4th @ 6:00 p.m. here in West L.A.  One night only! Check back for in this space for what we'll be making. Dinner & munchies will be provided. Come and have a great night out with the girls and get some holiday crafting in! Space is limited. Click the "Buy Now" button below to secure your space.

Happy Holidays!

Henry and a friend dragged a giant tree branch from the park to our backyard last week (it was of mammoth proportions.) I finally had some time to pull off the dead leaves and break a few branches for our project. I wanted to do something where we could collectively sit and think about all the things we were grateful for and then put it in a place where we would see it often (our front entryway.)

Here's how we made our Thanksgiving Tree. Start with a pot or any other container you have around. I purchased a foam floral square from Michael's to put in the pot to secure the branches. I grossly underestimated the size of my pot because, as you can tell, the foam is a bit small and didn't quite do the job of totally securing the branches in so make sure you get a block of foam large enough so it's almost the same height as the top of your pot. You want it to be a snug fit so the branches will stand straight up. Keep adding branches into the foam. I think we ended up using 4 or 5 branches, breaking them as we went along so they were all around the same heightI found some foam that I broke up and wedged into the pot to secure the sticks. If you get a block of foam big enough this step can be completely avoided (I blame the lack of sleep.) While you are at your local craft store buying a foam block, pick up a bag of moss like this: There were a couple of different varieties but I liked the softness & look of this one. Gently pull it out of the bag and begin to pack it on top of your foam. Keep adding the moss until the top of the foam is completely covered. You'll need to work quickly or it might mysteriously turn into the "Forest Moon of Endor." Next up, we punched some leaves out of cardstock with our thrifty leaf punch. The one we had also embossed the leaves which looks nice but it's a little more difficult to write on, so whatever you have will work. If you don't have a punch, just cut it freehand out of cardstock.  Next up, have everyone write what they are thankful for:Punch a small hole in the end of the leaf and tie to the branches with thread or string. And there you have it. A Thanksgiving Tree.

Kate is thankful for: Dragonflies, Nutcrakers & M&M's.

Henry is thankful for: Lego's, friends, books, the park and his family.

I am thankful that the 2 smallest kidlets have finally stopped puking their guts out (that's not on the tree.) It's been an exhausting 2 days to say the least.

It's been on my calendar for weeks. Nov. 11th. That's when I would finally get to meet Ina Garten. I was majorly geeking out about it. Majorly. I can honestly say that she is pretty much the only celebrity in the entire galaxy that I had any interest in meeting (I've been watching too much Star Wars.) I bought my first Barefoot Contessa book 11 years ago. I have been a die hard fan ever since. I am not going to lie; I was nervous (read: FREAKING OUT) about it. Hardly slept a wink! She was coming to my local Williams Sonoma for a book signing. I called the store to see if I could get any more details about it. They told me that last time Ina was there, over 1,200 people showed up. She was to be at WS from 1-3 p.m. I decided to go early. I left the house at 11. I stopped to get a frosty beverage (I did have a lot of waiting ahead of me) some gum and carmex (carmex?? I haven't seen that stuff since High School!) at my local sev. I drove up to the store at 11:30. THE LINE WAS ALREADY 150 people long. I couldn't believe it. I parked & got in line. What was I going to say?? This was my big moment after all. Chris had the kids at home so I could go but he was going to bring them to me at 1 so he could go to work. Henry & I talked about meeting Ina that morning and how completely amazing it was going to be. Maybe Ina would be so enamored with my cute kids that she'd ask me to her house in the Hamptons? The pressure was killing me!! And then it was time. Time to go in. I felt a little (read: A LOT) queasy. I passed my camera off to a Williams Sonoma employee. I wasn't sure how I felt (read: NOT GOOD) about having my backside photographed with my idol, but at this point, I'd take whatever I could get. We make it to the front. It's our turn. Clamy  hands. Shortness of breath. Henry says, "Tell her that we watch her on T.V." "He wants me to tell you that we watch you on T.V." I say. And the rest…THE REST IS A COMPLETE BLUR! I have no memory of what happened next. Surely there was an "I love you!" thrown in there. All  the excitement and adrenaline left the details fuzzy!! She signed our books. I tried to wrangle and keep all three kids close.  Doesn't she look like she likes us? Like really likes us? Like maybe we could be her new best friends (she has the best!)  That's her adoring Kate who is hiding on the other side of me. And just like that. It was OVER. I felt myself saying, "What just happened? It's already O-V-E-R???" It was.  They don't mess around at Williams Sonoma, you know (I am a former employee as you may or may not know.) They were cooking up Ina's recipes & delivering them to us in line:  I can't remember what that was. I didn't taste it– you know, the nerves. But this, this I tasted & the kids liked it, too:   Chicken & CousCous. It was good. We loaded ourselves into the car and talked about it the whole way home. And speaking of chickens, this gave us a laugh on the way home:  Thanks for the good times, Ina. It was worth every (blurry) second.

Ever your biggest fan, 

xoxo

Charlie turned 11 months at the end of October. This little whipper snapper is almost a year old. I can hardly believe it. He's pulling himself up alot, has mastered straws & sippy cups and is overall an absolute dream. He started the month of October with no teeth and ended it with 8:

He was a bit behind on his vaccinations (long story) but we finally got him to the Dr. last Monday.  I explained the situation to the Dr. and we set up a schedule to get him all caught up. He left the room and then 15 minutes later returned with a SOCIAL WORKER from the DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES. Seriously. Seriously. I had all 3 children with me. I then was questioned about whether or not I was able to pay for food & clothing for my children and a whole host of other delightful questions. It was awesome. Don't get behind on your vaccinations. You never know who will show up at your Dr.'s appointments!! Sheesh!

Last week was exhausting. Chris was offered a 2-year contract for a job. The job was in Utah. We seriously considered. The stars didn't align. We are staying put in L.A. for now. Glad that's behind us. I've never been so stressed.

Halloween is getting packed up. 6 Christmas storage bins are sitting on our living room floor. We can't find our Christmas Tree stand. Eek. I know what we'll be doing tomorrow.

I poked my head into their room only to find that Kate had climbed out of her bed and into Henry's to read books together.These two are just crazy about eachother.
I am crazy about them, too.

  

This week was a busy one. I feel like I need a 2 week nap. I am one of the room parents in Henry's class and volunteered to make the Halloween goodie bags (inspiration here) for the children for their party. It was a simple bat clipped onto a brown lunch bag. A handful of parents contributed little knick knacks or goodies to the bag and our contribution to the goodie bags were these: Tootsie Pops wrapped in cheesecloth (fancy, I know.) I attempted to wrap them in a mini orange & black polka dot fabric but then I thought, who am I kidding? What 5/6 year old is going to appreciate this? None. So I scrapped it and went with the cheesecloth. It worked. We took the children trick-or-treating on Friday night at Disneyland where they danced in the streets and 'treated' a ridiculous amount of candy. It was so much candy I felt like I was lugging around another child. I decided to weigh the bag of candy…..wait for it….it weighed….15 lbs. Did you catch that? 15 lbs! We re-treated it at tonight's Trunk-or-Treat (which was a bit counter-productive as they were bringing candy in as fast as I could give it away.) I think we are down to about 8 or 9 lbs and it's not even technically Halloween. Henry wanted to be a Clone Trooper this year. The conversation went a little something like this, " I want to be a clone tropper but I don't want you to make my costume. I want to buy it at the store. If you want to make a costume, you can make Kate's." There were lots of back-and-forth conversations on the subject. Then, one day he found out that his friend, Leah, was going as Princess Leia and he immediately decided he wanted to be Luke Skywalker and suddenly he was pleased as punch for me to make his costume (thank you Leah for sparing me having to make a clone trooper costume!) And so it was: Luke Skywalker. Easy Peasy because it's basically like wearing pajamas. I don't have the pattern in front of me but it was a pajama pattern for a robe, pants, etc.,. I had to alter the pattern a bit for the robe because the arms were a bit too fitted on the wrist but aside from that it's your basic robe/pant pattern. I headed downtown to the Michael Levine loft where I scored lot's of linen (for the robe and pants) and fabric for the boots & waistband. Total cost to make entire costume: $6.00. I couldn't buy something for that. The pants are straight legged and look really comfy. I'm going to talk him into wearing them to school. He's happy- I'm happy. I think he makes a very handsome Luke Skywalker!

We had a few friends over this weekend for a bit of a Halloween Dinner if you will. Corn Dogs, Chili,  Cornbread, etc., We decided to make our own corn dogs and I am here to say they were fantastic. Did I just say  corn dog & fantastic in the same sentence? I did and they were.  We used a turkey dog and they actually ended up nice and light (if that's possible.) Here's the recipe- you should try them if you never have. They were really fun for kids & adults alike!

Corn Dogs

1 C yellow cornmeal

    1 C flour + 1/2 C

dash of black pepper

1/2 C sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 1/4 C milk

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

(2) 16 oz pkgs of turkey or beef hot dogs (or smart dogs if that's the way you roll)

16 wooden skewers

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl  (reserving additional 1/2 C of flour).  Wisk in eggs & milk. Pour batter into a tall drinking glass. Set aside. Preheat oil over medium heat. Place additional 1/2 c flour on plate or bowl. Dry hot dogs with paper towels (dogs need to be completly dry or flour/batter won't stick.) Coat dogs with a flour, removing any excess. Place skewer into the entire length of dog. Dip into batter and shake off any excess. Fry, two at a time, for 2-3 minutes. Drain on paper towel.

Here's to lots of fun Halloween parties!

was loads and loads of fun. It was a wonderful group of gals that came and the night was spent chatting & crafting (and eating) away. I unfortunately didn't take a single picture that night but have a few snapshots of what we did. First up, the "SPOOKY" banner above. There are black felt bats between each letter that aren't showing up in the photo but they were a hoot to make. We also did reverse applique pumpkins and bats and ran out of time to do the spooky tealight holders so the girls were sent home with them to complete on their own. Next up, we spent some time in the kitchen making spooky black marbled marshmallows and candy corn cookies.I had gift bags for each of the girls which included the recipes from the night, a bat template and black cardstock to cut out & make your own bats (as seen in the top photo.) It has to be one of my all time favorite Halloween crafts. It's inexpensive and look awsome on the wall. I cut mine free-hand but there are a bunch of places online you can track some templates down. I also included a CD of some of my favorite Halloween music:An instrumental version of "Ding, Dong! The Witch is Dead" by Shorty Rogers is pretty much at the top of my list of favorite Halloween Songs. They also had treat bags of marshmallows & candy corn in their gift bags: I met a lot of great women for the first time and I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did!

It was such fun that I have decided to do a Christmas Craft Party! Stay tuned in this space. I'm shooting for the first weekend in December and will have (2) parties, one on December 3rd & the other on December 4th. I'll announce more in November and will open up sign-up's then. For now, I'm off to snuggle with Kate on the couch. The fireplace is on and we're watching the Nightmare Before Christmas (it's been rainy all week and we are LOVING it!)