1.

Please welcome my friend’s baby to the UK!  It took a month to get her name out of her beautiful mama but a belated welcome to darling Marie-Aibhlinn Teresa-Benedicta!

2.

Our Thanksgiving menu includes brussels sprouts.  Not only do my kids love them, but they will be disappointed if we don’t have it!  Here’s my recipe, so easy!

Brussels Sprouts Supreme

Ingredients:onion, bacon, frozen brussels sprouts (thawed), salt, pepper.  (Use 1 onion and 8 oz. bacon per pound of sprouts)

Chop bacon into bits about the size of you pinky nail (yes, this is really how I cook.  This is what I mean by disorganized and discombobulated.) Cook in a large, heavy skillet.  While the bacon cooks, chop the onion into bits, too, about the same size as the bacon.  Add onion to skillet, cook in bacon fat.  Add thawed, drained brussels sprouts, cutting large ones in half.   Stir it around, add salt and pepper.  Cover and cook until brussels sprouts are heated through.  Stir occasionally, and don’t let the heat get too high or your onions will burn and the sprouts will get gray and mushy.  Serve!

3.

I kind of wonder at all the articles about how to have Thanksgiving meals cheaply.  If you make things yourself, Thanksgiving is a very, very cheap meal!  What I’ve spent so far on Thanksgiving:

Turkey, 23#, $6

Cranberries, 12 oz. $2

Canned pumpkin, 15 oz., $1

12 oz. shelled pecans, $3.77

6# sweet potatoes, #1.20

1 loaf of bread for stuffing $1

2 tins oysters, $2.50

16 oz. MSG free sausage $2 (estimate, I haven’t bought it yet!)

36 oz. brussels sprouts, $2.40

8 oz. bacon, $1.50

1 onion, $.25

1/2 c. orange juice, $.15 (made from frozen concentrate)

1 pint heavy cream, $2

1 can evaporated milk (free with purchase of pumpkin)

celery, $1

oil, flour, sugar, corn syrup, which I have on hand.

Total: less than $30, and we’re serving 6 adults and 12 children.

(Husband is also cooking a brisket we have in the freezer, because he’s weird and always wants an alternate meat on T-Day!)

4.

Our Thanksgiving menu:

We’re cooking: Turkey, brisket, sweet potato gratin, oyster dressing,cranberry relish, brussels sprouts supreme, gravy, pecan pie, pumpkin pie.

Guests are bringing: mashed potatoes, green beans amandine, broccoli rice casserole, fruit pie, and chocolate chip cookies.

What are you having?  Is your Thanksgiving potluck or do you do all the cooking?

5.

We’re having guests and family for Thanksgiving!  It’s been a long time since I’ve entertained at a holiday meal.  I’m not very good at it, so I hope my friends will tolerate my learning curve!  The first (planned) faux pas?  The kids will be eating off of plastic plates.  I don’t have enough real dishes to go around!  I love having a houseful of fun, though.

6.

Tomorrow my Little Red turns 4.  She wants a princess cake, but the traditional doll/dress cake won’t serve enough people, so I see a variation on the Mermaid Cake in my future!  Miss C wants a pink cake, so I’m going to experiment with strawberry juice in the frosting.  I’d love to take a Wilton’s class someday, but for now fruit rollup roses and doctored up Barbies will have to do!

We’re going to have our usual family style party, in which we invite family and friends of the birthday child (including their families), eat cake and ice cream, and just hang out and have fun.  I just don’t have it in me (energy wise or budget wise) to do the traditional big party with games, prizes, expectations, and so on, especially since we have a birthday every single month almost (exceptions: September and December!) We’re low key around here and I think it’s important to celebrate with all of the people whom we love, not just 4 year old girls.

We do occasionally have a traditional style party about once a year, so the kids have to take turns.  But they usually want to invite whole families over, too.

7.

More Thanksgiving links!  This post is two years old, so I apologize in advance for any broken links.