These felt stars are easy and adorable to craft (from Purlbee) and are the epitome of the primitive look.  You could easily make them into a string garland  or incorporate them into a primitive theme (along with salt-dough ornaments below) with some burlap garland!

I absolutely adore these wood ornaments with scrapbook paper modged podged on (from Brown Paper Packages)  – another easy project:

These swirl nail polish ornaments (from Beautylish) are gorgeous:

My kids have made salt dough ornaments before and with the stamping here, they make a nice personalized ornament (from Design Editor):

It would be a great idea to host an ornament crafting party to make these for friends and neighbors who lost their Christmas Ornaments.  These are all fairly easy to make and you could definitely crank a bunch out over some hot cocoa (maybe with some schnapps). I hope you are as inspired as I am!

Happy crafting!

Bakerella has simply adorable Thanksgiving-themed cake pops over on their site:

This site is all about fun and baking.  Go visit and explore the various recipes, desserts and decorating ideas for goodies such as cupcake pops, cakes, pies, cupcakes, cookies, brownies and more.

Turkey 411

Hopefully you already have your turkey and if it was frozen, it is thawed (not on the counter folks!).  If you need some assistance in figuring out cooking times check out Butterball’s site which has several calculators to help you figure out cooking times etc.  Here is a a tip for you: start your oven at 500 degrees and roast your turkey at that temperature for a half hour to brown it.  Then lower the temperature to 325 degrees and make your aluminum tent.  This will brown your turkey nicely.

Alton Brown of Food Network is, to me, the king of cooking.  He is all about the science and, when you read some of his material, it all makes sense.  DO NOT BASTE THAT TURKEY.  If you need some liquid in your pan ok, but it won’t do anything for the turkey – its skin is waterproof.  Also, the less you open that oven door, the better – it creates temperature fluctuations and lowers the temperature thereby lengthening cooking time.  We actually brined our turkey this year and used Alton’s Good Eats Brined Turkey Recipe.  I’ll let you know how it turns out – should be delish and everyone raves about the results. Visit Alton Brown’s page to see his Thanksgiving Menu.

One of my favorite sites is Food.com (formerly recipezaar) – great community and recipes.  Visit their Thanksgiving Headquarters for ideas for tasty side dishes, drinks and more.

Whats on the Menu?

So the traditional fare – Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes – is what is customarily on the Thanksgiving Day Menu but what else is everyone making?  Desserts are all important too.  You have your usual delicacies like Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie etc.   In addition to making Pumpkin Pie, I made Cooking Light’s Cranberry Swirled Cheesecake.  A little complicated but it looks mouth watering (can’t wait to try it!).

Well, I have to get my Sweet Potato Casserole together, remove the turkey from the brine and prepare for roasting.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving and remember – while it seems to be much about the food, it isn’t – its about being with the people you love so relax and enjoy!