I Still Can't Believe We Went To England!

It was a whirl-wind trip and I loved every minute of it! It was a long flight there and even longer on the way back. I'll post when I've had a chance to go through my photos so I can share them here. It's good to be home!

Turkey and Clover Leaf Rolls

I actually did what I set out to do, get the turkey in the oven so we can get it carved and ready for tomorrow, and make two batches of dough for our traditional clover leaf rolls, go me! Or, I should say, "go us" because my hubby was at my side the entire time! I wish I could have gotten photos, but we were both elbow-deep in dough, so I did the next best thing.

Bagged and in the oven, breast-side down for the juiciest turkey, evah!

There are actually two bowls of dough rising, hubby did one and I did one. I can't wait to taste the first one, fresh out of the oven. The recipe I use is the closest I've found to my dad's, which was filed away in his head, a flavor that brings me close to my father's memory. We'll be making my mom's sweet potatoes, one of the triggers that brings her memory closer to the surface as well.

I use Betty Crocker's recipe for Refrigerator Roll Dough

My dad used to put the entire Thanksgiving meal together for our large family (7 kids w/spouses, kids, and friends), and the first one without him took our entire family pulling together, each making something we learned from him. There will still be a few things missing as we all can't be together, cornbread dressing being at the forefront; the sister who makes it may not be with us much longer.

This will be a time to catch up with those we never seem to see enough of, for farewells and getting to know the newer members of our family (a brand-new nephew!). I'm looking forward to this year's gathering of family and friends, because through sadness and joy, gatherings such as this reminds me how very grateful I am to be blessed with so much love!

Have a meaningful Thanksgiving, everyone!

Cookie Exchange

 

Photos by Dawn Walker

My niece hosted a Christmas cookie exchange last year and has announced she's going to do it again this year! We had a lot of fun putting ours together last year, so I'm looking forward to seeing how we'll top it.

My Peanut Butter Cookies, photo by Dawn

My Wedding Cookies, photo by Dawn 

Both recipes were taken from my tried and true Betty Crocker cookbook, a wedding present of over 30 years ago from my life-long best-friend Lauri. I can't tell you how many recipes from this one book I've used through the years.

My daughter Dawn photographed the cookies and created recipe cards which we shared with the group.

We packaged them up in Christmasy goodie bags and attached award-type ribbons (see first photo) I bought on sale (super cheap) at Michael's.

 

It was well-worth the extra effort because they were a hit! We enjoyed everyone's cookies just as much (the home-made ones, anyway...it never occurred to me people would actually use store-bought).

This time my niece and I talked about including cupcakes and things like pumpkin bread. I like that idea because, really, there were tons of cookies and it would have been nice to mix it up a bit with other goodies (not a complaint, just an idea). And with everyone watching their waistlines (me, not so much, but it's coming), maybe we can even find a good Weight Watcher's recipe and provide the points.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!