Happy Thanksgiving!

This post is a day late, but Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians.  This weekend was jam-packed with seasonal fun and visiting with friends and family. We decided to have our feast on Saturday because K's parents were still in town and we wanted to celebrate with them before their flight back to Alberta on Saturday evening. So ten of us gathered at our comparatively small apartment on Saturday afternoon to indulge in the season's finest and freshest foods. I made the traditional turkey, something I have done multiple holidays before, but this was the first time I did it from start to completion without my mom's help and was definitely the largest bird I have ever cooked. At 19 pounds it barely fit in my apartment sized oven!

For decorations, I had my Pom Pom Tom's stashed away, but I also wanted to do something with flowers. I went to the nearby florist and got flowers in seasonal red, orange and white. For the vases, I decided to take my inspiration from this picture on the Martha Stewart website and carve out various gourds. I picked out a selection last week in Kensington Market and set to work. If you are trying this yourself, make sure you pick gourds that sit sturdily on a flat surface or you will have problems with tippage.

My gourds waiting to be turned into vases. 

They were fun and easy to make, although I carved them on Friday night when my guy had some friends over for a game night. I think the three of them thought I was surely going to cut some fingers off, because gourds are really hard! Who knew? Anyway, I managed the carving with no injury and they are still water tight and displayed on the dining room table.

Gourds in the middle of carving. I used the giant knife to cut off the top (much harder than it sounds!), the smaller knife to carve out the flesh at the top, and the mellon baller to scoop out the goo and seeds. 

With my gourds, PPT's (which I used for place cards and a take-away for guests), and owl candles the table looked very autumnal.

Pom Pom Tom's used as name cards. Everyone got to take home their Thanksgiving friend. 

One of my favourite bumpy gourd vases. 

A view of the table. 

Lola wanted in on the action and decided that if we couldn't see her then no one would dismiss her from the dinner table.

Peek-a-boo!

For the meal, I regrettably forgot to take pictures. Frankly, by the time it went on the table I was ready for a nap, but this is what we prepared.

• Roasted Turkey with Apple, Cranberry and Pineapple Sage Stuffing (my Mom's recipe with some modifications)
• Mashed Potatoes with Caramelized Shallots
• Maple Glazed Carrots
• Local Corn off the cob
• Purple and Orange Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce (classic recipe from the Joy of Cooking)
• Cranberry and Dried Cherry Sauce (one of my favourite things to make. So easy and you will never go back to the canned stuff again!)

All of the veggies were local, either from my mom and K's garden or the Aurora Farmer's Market. My mom, the baker, made not one, but 2 pies for dessert. Pumpkin Pie Delight (a cross between Pumpkin Pie and Cheesecake), and her famous Apple Pie with apples she picked herself from a local orchard. With the addition of whipped cream and a sprinkle of peanut brittle, it was heavenly.

My Mom's famous pumpkin and apple pies. Yummy!!

After dinner K's parents headed to the airport for their flight home and the rest of us engaged in a lively game of Apples to Apples. My cousin, Shannon, was also able to join us from Montreal. It was great to catch up with her as well!

Lola was very thankful for a snack of turkey and a nice nap on Matt's blanket. 

Dishes done and apartment cleaned up, my guy and I had a wonderful date day on Sunday. We went out for brunch and then meandered through the St. Lawrence Antique Market for a couple of hours, where I got some awesome vintage buttons for my collection. Afterwards we headed to Queen West to pick up some supplies from my favourite beading store, Chaton Beads, as they were having one of their famous 50% off days. I used these supplies to make Beaded Stars on the holiday Monday. I have decided that this year I want to get a full sized Christmas tree and I want to decorate it completely with handmade ornaments. So I figure I better get started ASAP. Between now and Christmas I will be making a new ornament every weekend and either posting a tutorial or the link to a tutorial here. I will post pictures and instructions for the beaded stars soon. They are gorgeous and very simple to make.

I hope you all have a tummy full of turkey and have had time this lovely weekend to contemplate the things you are thankful for. I for one am thankful for my amazing guy, family and friends who made the weekend memorable.

msi.

Rainy Fall Weekend

This weekend was a busy one. My guy was a groomsman in a wedding on Friday so we took the day off and were there to celebrate with friends Todd and Joanne as they celebrated their special day. It was a lovely wedding and my guy looked very handsome in his tux. Will try to get some pictures up soon, they are on my guy's camera.

About the same time as we were at the wedding my grandparents, K's parents, Marg and Ken, were arriving from Alberta for a visit. So on Saturday afternoon I headed up to Aurora to visit with them and my mom and K. It was K's mom's birthday on Saturday so we had a lovely dinner and relaxed. We started on a Thanksgiving craft which I will show you at the end of this post. It was a very involved 2-day crafting event, but the results are cute enough to make up for it.

Sunday, we had big plans to go to a local apple orchard and go for a long walk. Unfortunately, when we woke up the weather was cold, rainy and just generally crummy. So we decided to stay home and to warm up we had this yummy breakfast. This is one of my favourite breakfasts I remember from my childhood. Red River cereal with brown sugar, fruit and milk, mmmm! On Sunday we had the biggest blackberries I have ever seen, which got mixed in with the last local strawberries of the year.

Another great way to keep warm was cuddling with Alfie, my parents adorable, but wild, orange cat. Alf is an outdoor beast, it's rare that he is indoors and will tolerate a bit of cuddling and attention. But on this rainy afternoon he consented to me taking some photos and to giving him a good ear rub.

I love his stripey tail the most. Always flickering, even in the deepest of sleeps.

Dirty paws from gallivanting in the mud.

"Ok, you can rub my ears. I don't mind. Ahhhh....."

We also went to Costco to pass some time. My grandparents have a membership and we always make a trip when they come to visit. K gets really excited about the biggest block of Asiago and a gallon jug of maple syrup. I got a couple of new cookbooks, one about quinoa that I have had my eye on for a while and another Canadian Living collection. Looking forward to trying out some of these recipes soon. For supper, my guy headed up to Aurora and we all went to my Aunt and Uncle's place for an amazing dinner including my favourite Mulligatawny soup and a Mario Batali chicken that is to die for. 

So for our big Thanksgiving craft we decided to make Pom Pom Toms from Martha Stewart. I found the pattern through craftgawker and just had to make them. I bought all of the supplies last week and carted them up to Aurora so that Marg, Mom and I could craft together. They are quite involved with many steps. First, you need to make the pom poms.

Much labour and love went into making these pom poms.

This may seem simple enough, but I never realized how much work it is to make a pom pom. Martha has a fancy pom pom maker that she uses, but I was unwilling to spend the $15 to buy one. So I made home made pom pom makers. This is how you can do this:
1) Draw a circle of the required diameter on a piece of cardboard and then cut it out. Then draw a smaller circle within that one, I leave about 1/3" of cardboard and then cut the inner circle out. You also cut out a wedge shape so that the finished product will look like a "C". Make 2 of these.
2) Once you have 2 C's, snip a piece of yarn (about 8 " will do) and sandwich this between the cardboard C's. Make sure the ends hang loose below the tips of the C shape.
3) Use the yarn from the ball to wrap around the pom pom maker several times until it is even and completely covered. The more you wrap the fuller your pom pom will be. I continued wrapping until the middle of the C-shape was almost completely full.
4) Now take the two ends that have been hanging down and tie them together as tight as you can at least twice.
5) Slip the tip of your scissors under the yarn and between the two pieces of cardboard and snip the yarn all the way around. Remove the cardboard C's. Tie your loose ends a few more times to make sure they are really secure.
6) Fluff up your pom pom and give it a haircut all the way around. The more you trim your pom pom the denser it will be!

The next step in the process is to download the templates and cut out the tail feathers. We used red, brown, white and golden yellow felt.

Tail feathers waiting to be joined to turkey bodies.

There are a few more steps which are detailed on the website linked above. You make the wings and eyes by sewing different colour yarn through the body and head. This makes a contrasting colour patch that looks really neat. You may need to do this in multiple steps to fill in any areas that you miss on the first round. Finishing touches of some eyes, beak, waddle and legs and you have a Pom Pom Tom!

My first Pom Pom Tom

A turkey line up!

They are so super cute. We are hosting a big thanksgiving dinner next weekend so I am going to use them as place card holders. 5 down, only 5 more to go! I would recommend if you are making them to have helpers because 4 hands are faster than 2!

msi.