Cranberry Sauce



Picture by Skinny Taste 

Well it was always something I overlooked at the Thanksgiving table when I was a kid. That cranberry sauce, with the lines from the can still visible, never appealed to be. It came as a surprise to most people however because I love cranberry anything, juice, bread, muffins etc... but not cranberry sauce. That is until I had real fresh cranberry sauce. Now I can't have a Thanksgiving meal (or leftovers) without it. I have made it in the past the traditional whole cranberry way, with water, sugar, and cranberries boiled on the stove. This year I am going to be making a new recipe that I got from my favorite healthy cooking blog Skinny Taste (you will recall the sweet potato pie came from that sight too). This gal has done a knock out job on making delicious recipes with less fat and calories without adding fake phony food and keeping the taste.

So this year to lighten up our cranberry sauce by reducing the 2 cups of white sugar that is usually used to sweeten and extract the juices from the cranberries, we are going to be having a Cranberry Pear Sauce. The recipe still uses the whole cranberries but uses ripe pears to help sweeten the cranberries and also uses Agave Nectar.

I did a little research on why agave nectar was being used as a substitute for sugar and found basically two big points. The first is that it is sweeter then sugar and less viscus then honey so it

makes for a good sweetener, the second was that it doesn't effect blood sugar levels like sugar does. So even thought packs 60 calories per table spoon (vs 40 calories in sugar) it isn't swing blood sugar levels and it is 1.5 times sweeter then sugar so you can use less and still satisfy that sweet tooth. I guess it really isn't that new a thing but I'm not diabetic and don't know many who are (that I'm making food with at least), so it is new to me.

I can't wait to try this recipe and please check out Gina's Skinny Taste as well.

Pumpkin Vs Sweet Potato

Well as I said before I wasn't sure earlier what pie I was going to make for Thanksgiving this year. But after an experiment last night my husband and I decided Sweet Potato will be on our menu for this year. My husband was shocked when I told him what was in the pie, he couldn't believe it was so creamy and good. We have done pumpkin pies in the past and to get a really creamy taste we usually have to use half and half or cream and white sugar in the filling, that was simply not the case with this sweet potato pie recipe that I got from Skinny Taste.

I could tell you how to make this pie but it seems silly to do so when Gina has done such an excellent job. So here is where you want to go to get the recipe and step by step instructions.

I will say I forgot to add the vanilla and it still tasted great, I also miss read the ingredients and used twice as much potato as I should have (probably why it took longer to bake and didn't all fit in the pie crust) but because of that I will probably take 1/3 a cup of sugar out of the recipe (it was sweet enough for me as it was) when I make it again. For now we will just suffer through with our less then perfect sweet potato pie.

Thanksgiving Cooking Timeline

For us and our particular situation like, we have Wednesday off and don't eat our Thanksgiving dinner till Mid afternoon (usually around 3-4 o'clock), this is how we plan to make the food and have it hot on the table at the same time. You may verywell need to adjust this to fit your particular meal, situation or kitchen layout (maybe you don't have room in your fridge for much ect...)

From the traditional American Thanksgiving meal from my last post there are some items that can be preped days before the big meal (the challeng in that not eating them in the days that follow). Those items are...
Cranberry Sauce, is ideal 2-3 days before the meal
Cornbread, rolls or biscuts, can be 1-2 days before
Dumplings I admit to knowing nothing about these balls of dough with stuff but I think they could be preped or made here I could be wrong
Pies, can be made up to 2 days before the meal

Some things to get ready or make the daybefore...
Stuffing, you get all ready then stuff the bird but theprep is all the day before
Casseroles, like green bean or anything that you might be doing
Squashes and Potatoes, these can be reheaten in the microwave, oven or on the stove top)

Somethings need to be day of...
Turkey you may have to wake up early to put that bad boy in the oven esspecially if you are eatting earlier in the day (that maybe why we don't)
Gravy (you need the drippings from the turkey for it)
Fresh veggies to be steamed

So this is how I would be breaking down my meal into smaller more manegable amounts of work.

Thanksgiving Menu Planning

Well the first step in planning a Thanksgiving meal is to plan the menu. There are some items that are fairly widespread traditions when it comes to Thanksgiving meals. They are:

Turkey (like you didn't know that)
Stuffing and gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Corn on the cob
Green Beans (sometimes in a casserole)
Winter Squash
Peas
Carrots
Turnips
Cornbread, Rolls or Biscuits
Dumplings

Pies: apple, chocolate meringue, mince, pecan, sweet potato (yam), pumpkin

Now your dinner may also contain  traditions that have been passed down in your families through generations. That's great. We do not include all the things listed above in our meals and we sometimes add other things.

My husbands family usually has A Lime Pear Jello salad, home made rolls, from a secret family recipe that I wont be giving on here (cause we probably wont make them this year but Shh don't tell my mother in law), salad and some of the other traditional items.

In my family Oreo ice cream pie has become a tradition, (my family tends to be a little more on the traditional side though).

So this year with no family coming into town we have the freedom to break traditions, or really start some of our own. We will be bringing with us some of our favorite pieces from our family's meals and creating our own unique to us dinner.

On our Menu:

Breakfast: (Oh yeah it's an all day affair)
Cinnamon Rolls - These are a husbands family tradition.

The main meal:
Turkey - a big 25lb job cause we love lots of leftovers.
Stuffing - This is my mother in laws recipe that is the only stuffing in the world I have ever liked.
Gravy- 'nuf said.
Mashed Potatoes - We do the "not good for you" white potatoes here (something from my family).
Cranberry Sauce - The recipe for this I am taking from here and is for a pear cranberry sauce
Butternut Squash- Gotta have some orange on your plate.
Peas - They are our 4 year old's favorite and something green.
Rolls - These probably wont be the ones from the secret family recipe cause I recently learned how to make bread and rolls in a super easy way and will do that cause it saves time.

Dessert:
Sweet Potato Pie or Pumpkin we haven't quite decided yet
Apple Pie

Next I'm going to address how we handle cooking all this food and what can be made ahead of time and suck. Remember this is only our 2nd Thanksgiving all on our own so if we can do it you can do it too.

We are also deciding now who to invite to dinner, so if you want an invite put in your application now (heh heh)

Introducing.... Preparing Thanksgiving Dinner...?

You are thinking, you know what Thanksgiving dinner is nothing new, The Pilgrims and Indians celebrated it hundreds of years ago. I know that, I do, really. But when I was growing up we almost never had Thanksgiving at my house and even if we did we didn't prep all the food ourselves, other family members would bring dishes to contribute. I grew up with all my family living about 30 minutes away from me, my Grandparents (on both sides), aunts, uncles and cousins. So every year I eat a lot of Thanksgiving dinners. We would have one at my moms side and one at my dad's side. When I was in my 1st year of college I also started to attend a dinner at my boyfriends families as well. Then I got married (to previously mentioned boyfriend), and not only attended the two dinners at my grandparents, and my in laws but my parents also started to have one with just my sister, me and my husband (and our kids once they came along). So "in my prime" I was eating about 4 FULL Thanksgiving dinners every year.

If at this point you are tired of my "life story" then you can skip to the point of this blog that will be marked with *** down towards the bottom.

Then something wonderful happened 2 years ago in 2009 my husband had to travel for work the first week in November for 2 weeks. It promised to be a hard, grueling and torturous assignment so for moral support I accompanied him. We sent our, then 2 1/2 year old, daughter to her grandparents. Then we packed up our bags and got on the plane and flew to Hawaii (I told you torturous). I spent my days lounging on the beach of Waikiki, strolling the open air markets, visiting the pool, taking naps, and seeing the Polynesian Center, while my husband worked. At night we went out for walks on the beach, nice diners, drives up the coast and swimming in the ocean.

When we got back we were exhausted. I do mean that literally. In once sense we were recharged in another we were so tired of travelling. So we told out families (to their disappointment) "We are not coming to Thanksgiving this year!" To that we were kinda given the "well can we come down to see the grandchild" And we said "No!"

That is how it all began.

So now we are getting ready for our 3rd Thanksgiving "On our own." Last year both of our families came down and we had more people here then we had beds for and more people here then we had chairs for at dinner. To top it all off I was 8 month pregnant with our 2nd daughter.

Our 1st year was just us, but we didn't have lots of time to prepare for it, plan menu items and prep food. So it was a "small" (the turkey was a 20lb+ number) meal with few items on the menu but plenty of food.

Our 2nd year we got something from everyone and it was a large meal and very hectic (did I mention I was 8 month pregnant?).

*** This year we are planning ahead. We are not having any family in from out of town and haven't invited any "locals" over (yet). And that brings me to the point of this blog.

I am going to be giving recipes for our menu items here and helping you (who are not veteran Thanksgiving meal makers) prepare for the big day.


Today is step 1. If you choose to get a fresh turkey then NOW is the time you need to be ordering it. Call a local butcher or such and get that baby ordered. Then you just pick it up when you are ready (for us that will be Wednesday before Thanksgiving).

My Other Martha Hat (no I'm not Martha obsessed)

So I made the "jester hat" for my older daughter but for my younger one (who can't make her own decisions) it will be a simple standard 1 pom-pom hat.

As I mentioned in my 1st post. These hats are both taken straight from Martha Stewart's website. The link is here if you would just rather look there. I am using the Solid color hat pattern and there are no mistakes that I found in this pattern (unlike the jester hat where I did find she missed one step).

So what did I need:
Fleece (not much but I bought a yard and could make many)
Matching thread
Pins
Sewing machine (or lots of patience)
Tape measure
Scissors

Step 1: Cutting
I did measure my child's head to know what size to make. K is almost 1 so I wasn't sure if I should use the 6-12 Month size or the 1-3 years size. I went with the larger size of the 6-12 and use 19".

If you are measuring instead of using the given measurements then please add 1/2" to the measurement for the seam allowance.

Cut one piece the width of the head you are fitting (or use Martha's size suggestions), by the length of 10 for a child and 13 for an adult hat.

My piece was 19x10

Step 2: Sewing

All but one section turned up 3" and under 1/4"

1. Pin the long side  (though mine is actually the short side but it is the side of the length of the hat) with right sides together.
2. Sew up the side a 1/4" seam allowance
3. Trim very close to the seam
4. Turn up the hat (to make the cuff) 3" then under turn 1/4" (so no raw edges are showing.)
5. Pin and sew very close the the hem of the cuff.
6. Now pin and sew the top of the hat with a 1/4" seam.

Step 3: Finishing
1. Turn hat right side out.
2. With a needle and thread sew the two corners of the hat together  at the top of the hat.

Step 4: Pom Pom
1. Cut a piece of fleece about 4"x24" (for a large pom pom I used about 17" for a little smaller pom pom)
2. Fold the strip in half width wise and cut frays into the fleece.

3. Roll the fleece.

4. Sew it together by putting the needle through from one side to the other then wrap the thread around the pom pom a few times and re thread the needle through the pom pom.

5. Attach the pom pom to the top of the hat.

Here is your finished hat (actually this is my hat but yours is done now too).

Cloth Napkins (Reduce, Reuse)

Well it dawned on me when I was filling the napkin holder for the millionth time lately that we use just plain too many napkins. Now I have a young child and a husband so napkins get used a lot at meals to wipe messy faces. So decided that cloth was the way to go. I do plenty of laundry so throwing some napkins in with a load seems like no big deal.

So after convincing my husband this was a good idea I went off to buy fabric. I didn't buy anything special as far as a material but I did find some pretty fall fabric (cause Turkey Day is right around the corner). I also bought some Christmas fabric and a pretty cream colored with white snowflakes so I would have a Christmas set and a winter in general set. (You can see these fabrics to the right.)


Here is what I bought
2 yards of each kind of fabric.
Tread
(Wow that is complex)

You will need to decide what size you want your napkins to be. A typical "Dinner" napkin (like you would get at a fancy restaurant) is about a 16" square. I made mine more like the size of a typical paper napkin at about a 13" square.
With a 16" square (and standard 45" fabric) 2 yards will get you about 8 napkins, a 13" square will get you about 12 napkins.
I was more concerned with with quantity over size, even if I used them for Thanksgiving dinner they don't need to be so big in my book, but you are making your own custom napkins so they can really be what ever size you want.

Step 1: Cutting
First wash and iron your fabric, I ironed the fold down the center the fabric back in so that it would make cutting easy for me.

I cut 14" squares (to make 13" when finished), but first cutting a strip of fabric 14" wide off the fabric (width wise).

Then cut 7" off the FOLDED side (you know cause 7x2 is 14). 

Then measure 14" on the remaining fabric (for me I only had to cut off about a 1/2" from the salvage edge).



Do this for all of your fabric.

I then ironed all the fabric to remove the crease from the folded line in the fabric.

Step 2: Pining and Mitering
Next turn in a 1/4" seam and iron flat

Turn it in one more time at 1/4" so you have a double fold seam.

I added 2 pins in the center of the side at this point.

Repeat in a clockwise or counterclockwise if you are left handed (heh heh heh) around the other 3 sides.

Now if you choose you can add some more pins and sew your napkin like it is with the square corner. I chose to Miter my corners to make them look sexy. So if you don't want sexy napkins then skip to Step 3.

To miter....
1. Open your corner and locate the square made by the folds from your hem (I drew lines with a vanishing fabric marker to make it easier to see in pictures but you don't need to do that).

2. Cut the corner off above the square.

3. Fold the corner back down, the fold will be at the bottom corner of the square (I circled the point on my picture to help you see it)

4. Now refold your 2 sides at the original crease lines. And pin.

5. Repeat step 1-5 on the other 3 corners.

Step 3: Sew
Now sew close to the inside edge of your hem (but not so close that you go off the hem like I did oops). Stay as straight as possible and stitch around the napkin, making nice 90 degree corners in your miter.

TaDa! You have a napkin.

Now you just need to repeat Steps 1-3 for each napkin. Don't worry they get quicker as you go.

My Martha Stewart Hat

So last fall when I was pregnant with our now almost 1 year old K, I wanted to make matching winter hats for the kids. So I searched the Internet for some fleece hat patterns. I found a few and tried out a couple before deciding that Martha Stewart's design was the best. I found the write up on line to be a little confusing and it actually had some mistakes in it but the idea was enough to get me going.

Now we are a year latter and both the girls have grown and don't fit in their hats anymore but I really wanted some more matching hats. So we picked out a fabric (actually S, our 4 year old, had most of the input on the fabric) and I just got started on them today. I finished the hat for S. She also got to pick out what design she wanted. Martha has a few designs, a traditional with a pompom on top, a boxy hat with 2 pompoms on either side, and a "jester" hat with 3 pompoms (amongst others). But they all start with the same basic design.

You will want to check out Martha's Post for lost of the details, like how big to make your hats for different ages and such, but I'll be giving you some pictures and notes on the ones that I am making.

S picked out the Jester hat. She thinks it looks like a crow so that is why she chose that.

As you will see out fabric has a very defined pattern to it so I had to modify some of the steps to make my hat look nice.

Step 1: Measuring and Cutting.
Martha says to cut 4 pieces but since I was using all one fabric I ignored that and cut the fabric in the width (child size was 20") plus the 1/4" seam allowance (on both sides) by the length (Child size 10" but I used 11" since my child is a little older).

You can also follow Martha's guides for measuring your child or yourself for a hat too.

Step 2: Sewing
With right sides facing, fold the fabric in half width wise, pin, and stitch with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Trim the seam allowance closely (since fleece doesn't fray you can get close and still have the seam hold forever).

Here is where Martha seems to make a mistake in her tutorial, She says that you now go straight to making the points in the hat but then never gives a place to turn up the cuff on the hat. So now we are going to turn up the cuff of the hat. Fold the bottom of the hat up (still with the right sides facing) 3" then pin.

Fold under 1/4" (so there is a nice clean edge) and pin frequently around the hat.

Sew very close to the edge of the cuff line around the hat.

Step 3: Measuring and Cutting
Take a crown measurement (from one ear to the other over the head like you are wearing earmuffs).

Find the center line of your hat (I had to add this step since I didn't have a center seam)

With a soft tape measure hold one end at the bottom left corner and arc the other end over (to your crown measurement) to the bottom right corner.

Measure up from the highest point on the arch 3" and that will be your bottom line for the points.

Measure up from the bottom line (you just drew) 1 1/2" (for a child's hat) or 2"( for an adults hat). That is your high point.

Now connect the high points to the low points in a V shape (I found the center point on each half and used a straight edge to connect the points).

Sew along the line you drew. Trip the extra very close to the seam)

Turn your hat right side out.

Step 5: Pompoms.

Martha's Pompom description is great for this.

I made my pompoms 2" wide on this hat. My strips were about 10"x2"

Cut 3 Strips

Fold strip in half and then clip leaving about 1/4" of unclipped area in the center.

Roll the strip

Sew through the pompom and wrap thread around the pompom a few times

Sew the pompoms on the hat and poof you are done!

Little Mermaid Costume Pt. 2

Well I finished it and S has been living in the costume since then. I think it was a hit. She is a little bummed that the top is not actually a bra but a shirt (she is 4 and it is Fall in the north country so there was no way that was happening anyway). I made the shirt adjustable with ties in the back so it could go over a jacket or be let out as she grows.

I used the same fabric as I did for the fin except in a blurple (blue purple) color, and I can now say I will never use this fabric again. I hatted it. It was hard to sew without puckering and pulling the fabric, couldn't be ironed without basically melting (even on my lowest setting), and is only dry cleanable. Luckily I only spent 2.50 on it, so if I ever have to replace this fabric I can without worrying about how expensive it was.

Materials: 1 yard of fabric for the top, I used the shinny blurple I described above, but bathing suite fabric would be ideal for this or something else that has a little stretch (I guess I'm not that smart).
4 yards of ribbon (or bias binding). I used a sheer teal color. Matching thread, pins, paper and a pencil.
So how did I do it.

Step 1: Measuring
- Measure around your child's chest (not too tight or anything) we'll call this #W
- Measure from how high on their chest you want it to how low (i.e. how tall the top will be). Here if you want to to be more of  a crop to you could) we'll call this #H.
- I also measured from the center of her chest to under her arm (in a line parallel to the floor not sloped) so I would know how far I had to slop the pattern down to the back part.
- Measure from the top of your child's chest H measurement over the shoulder to the center of her back about half way down (where the top of the shirt will come in the back), we'll call this #S.

Step 2: Making a pattern.
I decided to take some large paper and make a pattern for this step. I took my measurements and a pencil and went to work. I added 2" to all (except the under arm) measurements to allow for a 1" seam allowance (because of my horrible fraying and tricky to work with fabric) if you want a more traditional 5/8ths seam allowance then add about 1 1/4" to your measurement.
The pattern will be placed on the fold of your fabric so you will only be creating half the top (and therefore it will be symmetrical once cut.)

-To get the height of the patter measure up one edge of your paper H+seam allowance.
-Next measure on the adjacent edge (W/2)+seam allowance.
-From the far edge of the mark you just made draw a straight line up (H/2)+seam allowance.
-Now from the top mark (the first mark you made) and the top of your line you just made make a sloppy ski jump type line.
-Now is when you need the measurement you took to under your child's arm. you need to make sure you slopped quick enough but not too quick.
(Once you look at the picture this seems so much less confusing than actually explaining it. It is actually quite easy.)

Step 3: Cutting fabric.
Now cut out your pattern (you can hold it on your child to see if it will be about right just remember to hold it in the center of their chest).
Place the pattern with the H side on the fold of your fabric. Cut one piece.
Repeat so you have 2 of the same pieces (if you wanted you could do this in 2 different color fabrics.) Your top is going to be 100% reversible.

Cut your ribbon.
- 2 pieces at S+seam allowance.
- 4 pieces at about 8" (for tying the back together so give or take what you think you will need).

Step 4: Pinning

With right side of one of the shirt piece facing you pin one shoulder strap into place. I wanted about 4" between the straps so I measured from the fold line to the side 2" and placed the strap there and pined it. Line up the strap so it is even with the edge of your fabric and laying down the front of the shirt. Repeat on the other side.







With the same strap find the spot on the back you would like the strap (the closer together the better for keeping on the should but not close enough that it will be in your seam allowance (I did 1 1/2") and pin it there (it is tricky to find what way the strap should face so it goes smoothly over the shoulder without twisting but take the time to figure it out cause I didn't and had to use the ol' seam ripper). Repeat on the other side.

Next take 2 tie straps and place them on one of the sides and pin..


Now take your second top piece and lay it (with right sides together) over top the other piece and pin around the top, side (with the ties) and the bottom of the top. You will leave the one side open for turning.

NOTE: I added some extra ribbon on the bottom of the top you can too if you want. It just added a little more to it. Just pin it in when you are pinning all the ribbon for the straps and ties but keep it out of your seam allowance on either side. I used some liquid stitch on it so it wouldn't fray the ends.

Stitch around the 3 sides. and turn.






Now fold the seam allowance in on the raw edge and insert your ties and pin.

Top stitch around the entire piece.





I had to tie the ribbons so they wouldn't fray. And you are done!

Hope you and your little one enjoy.

Here is as back view. I had to take some extra ribbon to tie the should straps together in the back cause they were a little long and kept sliding off. If I were doing this again I may cross the straps over to the opposite side. But live and learn.