Smashed Cucumber Salad ( 拍黄瓜)

This year for Thanksgiving we made a salad recipe given to me by one of my friends from school. We work together and love to talk about traditions, food and cooking whenever we have a chance. 

Last week she shared a spicy cucumber salad recipe with me. It is one she always makes for Thanksgiving so we were very excited to add it to our menu!

Miss E helped me gather all the ingredients and prepare this new salad.

First we washed the cucumbers and then crushed them with a clever. It never occurred to us before to crush cucumbers for anything but we followed the directions to a "T" and prepped our main ingredient as instructed.

Once they were crushed Miss E carefully cut them into bite-sized pieces.

Next, we made up the dressing to marinate the cucumber slices.

Easy Peasy! 

Into the frig they went to marinate while the Turkey roasted.

The salad turned out great and was a hit at Thanksgiving!

Of course I shared photos with my friend and she was so pleased that we liked it so much.

It is sure to be a recipe we use often throughout the year.

Happy December!

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

Just popping in to wish you all a . . . 

⤵

Count your many blessings,

Name them one by one....

 "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

 his love endures forever."

1 Chronicles 16:34 

Thanksgiving 2020

This Thanksgiving was unlike any other due to the Covid pandemic and the social gathering rules that were put in place in our state just a week before the holiday weekend. Our gatherings were limited to 6 people from no more that 2 households which of course changed all of our plans. 

Since I always like to set our holiday table ahead of time it was already stretched out and ready for Thanksgiving when the announcement was made so over the course of the week it was reset several times as our kids made new plans to stay home. 

Before we knew about the new social distancing restrictions I had been planning a wonderful appetizer menu which included some cute cheese leaves and acorns. About a week or so ago I decided to try making a few to be sure they would turn out the way I imagined. It worked pretty well so this will be back on the list  next year. 

Ordinarily I make standard size loaves of cranberry nut bread but decided that mini loaves might work better for the four of us. They were the perfect size.

Our Thanksgiving dinner menu is traditional for the most part and stays pretty much the same each year with a few new recipes added in to spice things up. 

Even though Thanksgiving was much smaller this year it was a lot of fun and we are very thankful for Zoom and FaceTime so that our family can get together virtually when we cannot be together in person. We look forward in hopeful anticipation to Thanksgiving 2021. 

Go Beavs!

one more thing....Corn Husk Favors

The absence of those extra days between Thanksgiving and Christmas has not gone unnoticed here. So many things on the to~do list and so few days to check them all off however before I move onto Christmas there is just one more thing I want to share from Thanksgiving...these adorable Corn Husk Favors.

They were so easy to make and fun to fill with homemade Chex Mix or Scramble as it is referred to in our family. It is the recipe I always use and is very similar to other Chex Mix recipes. 

The snack mix fit perfectly in the little corn husks. 

It makes a lot so I put the remainder in a clear glass canister with a lid and put a scoop inside for easy serving. 

Only one more day until I begin my Christmas baking so I will be back soon with more to share. 

Happy Wednesday!

DIY Holiday Table Boxes

Thanksgiving weekend was extra busy this year with lots of fun activities which put me a little behind so bear with me. There are a few wrap~up posts that I am excited to share starting with our Count Your Blessings raffle prizes. 

Earlier in November I had asked the hubs if he could make me a couple table boxes out of his scrap wood pile. As an example I showed him a picture Miss E sent me of one she really liked and his response as usual was "piece of cake". He made a couple of sample boxes which were just what I wanted. In fact, I liked them so much I put in a bigger order and also asked for different sizes. He used all types of old wood including old fence boards he had saved. He stained some of the boxes and I also painted one. To give them a little extra character he added old recycled drawer pulls to the ends which he has collected over the years. 

At this point I decided these would make perfect Count Your Blessings Raffle prizes as well as centerpieces on our Thanksgiving tables.

Our raffle was a hit and we gave away the two Table Boxes that we filled with Poinsettias.  We thought it would be a fun way to start the Christmas Season. 

The 4" mini poinsettias fit perfectly in the boxes.

On the bottom of the boxes I used my wood burning tool to add a heart with the date and our initials. 

The DIY Table Boxes were easy to make, fun to fill and even more fun to give away to the winners of our Count Your Blessings Raffle.   

Happy Monday!

Chocolate Pumpkin Mousse Cake: Thanksgiving dessert

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already over. Everything is cleaned up, put away and the Christmas lights are now up however we are still enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers which includes this   4 layer mousse cake { 5 if you include the chocolate ganache on top }.

This dessert was on my menu early on however I ran into some snags and actually and was not sure it was going to happen. It also required approximately 4 hours to make which made scheduling difficult.

However, I finally carved out some time at 3:30pm on Thanksgiving Eve. Not the ideal time to begin such a big project with unknown results but I pushed forward. I was determined to try it especially since I had invested in all the ingredients. { another reason I hoped it wasn't a flop } So I set in and began the baking. 

This tall cake required a cake collar which I did not have. In fact, I actually started to make this recipe earlier in the week when I realized that I had missed this very important item in the instructions. I made the first layer, which is a chocolate cake, and while it was in the oven I discovered the recipe required the cake collar. There was no time that evening to run out and find one so we ended up eating that cake. Over the next few days it occurred to me that I had some plastic that I might be able to make my own. It worked perfectly! I was ready to try again.  

Several hours into the process of making this cake I ran into another snag. The caramel mousse, which is the forth layer, requires thick salted caramel sauce which I completely overlooked. It was about 8:30pm on Thanksgiving Eve and the cake was so close to being finished I couldn't quit however it was really too late to go to the store and there was a chance they might not even have it. That meant my only option was to make my own salted caramel sauce, which I did. Since I have made it before I knew it would take approximately 30 more minutes but so worth it.  Once it was finished it was too warm to use so I put it in the freezer to speed up the cooling process which did help. Once it was room temperature I was ready to pick up where I left off. To top it off I set another one of my Chocolate Turkeys in a cloud of whipped cream.

Pumpkin Pies are a must so I made two of those as well, however, the Chocolate Pumpkin Mousse Cake was a hit.

It does take a long time to make this recipe and there are a lot of ingredients however I would definitely make it again. 

Happy Saturday!

Thanksgiving Invitations & Raffle Tickets

Thanksgiving is almost here and we are busy getting ready. This year I decided to send invitations because I wanted to invite everyone to participate in our new

Count Your Blessings Raffle!

It is always fun to get something special in the mailbox so I made an invitation with the detachable raffle ticket at the bottom which they can bring and enter in our drawing. Since we are counting our blessings, which in my opinion are many, I made extra tickets that can be filled out on Thanksgiving Day and entered as well.

My hope is the container will be overflowing with blessings. Our drawing will be held during dessert and, of course, there is a story behind the surprise we are giving away which I will share soon. 

As you can see it has been all about tickets the past couple weeks.

Now I need to turn my attention to the kitchen so that everything is ready and on schedule Thanksgiving Day. 

Happy Tuesday!

Thankful for Fall

Enjoying: Mothers quilt and fall roses.

Listening to: Spotify 

Also enjoying: Autumn leaves from our parents trees. 

Counting my Blessings!

from my list of one thousand gifts:

fog :: falling leaves :: family weekend :: interviews :: safe travels :: holidays :: birthdays :: rain :: baking :: organizing ::  

Have a wonderful Sunday!