Thanksgiving Dinner, Weekend, and Kicking Off Christmas!

I started my Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday night. I was trying out a new pie crust recipe for the pumpkin pie, so I wanted to make sure I made it early enough in case it didn't work out. It did! Even the dough tasted yummy! (Shhh.... no, I was *not* eating pie crust dough!)

Thursday (aka T-day), I'd like to say I woke up early and made a big breakfast and was cooking away from the crack of dawn. But then my entire family would laugh their butts off and call me a liar! So the truth is, I slept in until about 10:00.... *then* woke up and began my cooking for the day :) I made the pumpkin pie first because my oh-so-strange husband likes his pumpkin pie cold. As in, has been refrigerated for a few hours before he eats it. Anything to make him happy! I only made one pie this year because last year I made two and no one ate the second one. At all. Not even for leftovers. I did, however, buy (*gasp*) a Sara Lee apple pie.... "just in case".

I prepped for my stuffing early in the day as well. This is a granddaddy of stuffings, I must say. Although no, there's no sausage in it. Next year I'll add that. I used 5 kinds of breads, though: pumpernickel, white, wheat, bagel, and rye. I bought them all on the discount bakery rack. In the past I've bought them several weeks out and frozen them. I dice all the bread in to 1 in. x 1 in. bite size pieces. The recipe says to "tear" the breads, but I like how diced bread looks better. I have tons of bread leftover to make another stuffing, and bread crumbs. The recipe is from the Taste of Home- October/November 2009 issue (by far one of my most favorite issues), and was submitted by April Greenwood. So first the recipe from the magazine, and then I'll write what I changed or substituted.

~Scarborough Fair Stuffing~

10 cups (torn or diced) assorted breads. - such as what I mentioned above
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced fresh sage
2 tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
2 tbsp. minced fresh thyme
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1 can (14.5 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions: In a large (**my note: very large!) bowl, combine the breads, herbs, salt and pepper. Combine the eggs, broth, and butter; add to bread mixture and stir until moistened. Transfer to a greased 13"x 9" baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350* F for 25-30 minutes or until a thermometer reads 160*.

My changes: I did not have any fresh herbs. I used all dried herbs and didn't measure them, just eyeballed it. When using dry herbs versus fresh, you don't use the same amount as in the recipe. You have to convert the measurement. I also didn't use rosemary because I don't like it. I mixed it all *in* the baking pan instead of a bowl. My large bowl was being used for something else, and 10 cups of bread is a lot!

My turkey, for those who are wondering, is cooked in this. Yes, really. I even found an ad for a 1951 Westinghouse Roaster. The one I have was my Granny's. She always used it to roast turkeys, hams, etc. And so do we! It still works great.

The food was delish, the family all loved it, and I even got sweet Husband to clean up after me. As per tradition, we rounded off our T-Day evening with a family viewing of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Yes. Really.

Husband and I woke up at 1:45 am to get ready for some Black Friday shopping. He wanted to get to Wal-Mart by midnight to check out the cheap-o movies, but I wanted a little sleep. We got to Wal-Mart around 3:00 am, but the movies were mostly picked over. Shucks! That's really what I went out so early for. We *could* have waited for 5:00 am at Wal-Mart to see what movies they were bringing out, but had other stores to hit. The only one we really wanted that we didn't get was How to Train Your Dragon for $9. We finally got home around 10:00. We'd hit up about 7 stores and ventured in to the mall. We didn't see any big fights or fun stuff that makes going out on Black Friday worth it! Got some really good deals on things we'd either been needing for awhile, or wanted to get the kids for Christmas anyway. I don't mind shopping in the crowds. It doesn't bother me a whole lot. And when I got home I took a long nap!

The rest of the weekend has flown by far too quickly. Being the only weekend I've had off (with father-in-law's funeral being an exception as it wasn't a "fun" weekend) since I started working full weekends in the beginning of September. Not getting that down time with the kids and my husband every weekend has made me appreciate this time with them even more.

We were fairly productive in getting most of our Christmas decorations up, too. Both inside and out. We got a lot of cleaning done, played games together, made decorations, decorated cut-out cookies, went to a Christmas parade, and the boys had hockey practice. I got to sleep in three out of the five days! Now that, in itself, is huge!

Oh, and did I mention the snow?! Ya, it snowed. A LOT! Though it could be worse, I realize. This picture was just the beginning...