And yet, it is one of the most important holidays of all, because instead of focusing on material things and “stuff to buy”,  we can spend this time focusing on family, gratitude and thankfulness…the things which are truly important in life.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to share with you some fun ideas, tips and recipes to help celebrate this most wonderful Thanksgiving season.

Today’s idea:

A Thanksgiving Gratitude Tablecloth

This is an easy and inexpensive way to  start a Thanksgiving tradition in your home.  All it takes is an inexpensive, washable, light-colored cloth tablecloth and some permanent fabric markers, which can be bought at any craft or fabric store.

On Thanksgiving Day, before  your family sits down for the Thanksgiving Feast, spread out the tablecloth and have them gather around the table.  Ask each family member to think about 3 things that they are thankful for this year. Have them write on the tablecloth these three things, along with their names and the year.  The idea is to help your family (and yourself) focus on the things they are thankful for.  As you bring the tablecloth out each year it will bring back many happy memories as the family reads and reminisces over what they wrote in previous years. This memory tablecloth is a simple, yet meaningful,  Thanksgiving tradition.

Perhaps the feeling of gratitude can be best summed up by this quote…

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
– Melody Beattie

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

*Enter a comment at the bottom of this or any other post, and be automatically entered in this week’s giveaway!

Gobble ’til You Wobble!

A perfectly acceptable motto for one day of the year, don’t you think?  Well, maybe you could stretch that out to two days, if you have enough leftovers.  But three days?  Don’t try it unless you are expecting a gym membership for Christmas.

The star of every Thanksgiving feast is certainly the turkey.  And probably nothing strikes more fear into a cook than taking that heavy, slimy, pale blob of meat and bones, and turning it into the perfectly golden delicious main dish.  I myself have only cooked one turkey over the years, as that Thanksgiving tradition  has always been left to my mother and mother-in-law.  I’m sure my day is coming.

I  found an amazing website that will take all of the guess work out of preparing your Thanksgiving turkey…

SeriousEats.com

They have everything you could ever want to know about cooking a turkey.

Serious Eats’ Ten Turkey Tips You’ll Be Thankful For

• What Kind of Turkey to Buy
• What Size Turkey to Buy
• Thawing Time
• To Brine or Not to Brine?
• Calculating Cooking Time
• Roast Turkey Recipes
• Non-Roasted Turkey Recipes
• How to Carve a Turkey
• Still need help? Turkey Hotlines
• What to Do with Turkey Leftovers (Yay!)

So those of you attempting to tackle the big bird this year…be brave. With these tips, I’m sure your Turkey Day will be a grand success.

And here’s a little Turkey-day wishbone FYI for you, sure make you look like Mr. or Ms. Smarty-pants at the Thanksgiving dinner table discussion.

Apparently the origins of the Thanksgiving tradition of breaking the wishbone date back to 2,400 years ago with the Etruscans who lived on the Italian peninsula.

The Etruscans believed fowl were fortune tellers because the hen announced she would be laying an egg with a squawk and the rooster told of the coming of a new day with his early morning crowing. A circle was drawn in the dirt and divided into twenty wedges that represented the twenty letters in the Etruscan alphabet. A piece of grain would be placed in each wedge. A hen would then be allowed to peck at the grain. As she ate, a scribe would list the letters in order and those letters would be interpreted by the high priests to answer questions.

When one of these chickens was killed, its collarbone was considered sacred and left under the hot sun to dry. Anyone was permitted to stroke an unbroken bone and make a wish, thus, the name wishbone. The Romans took many of the Etruscan customs as their own and since everyone wanted good fortune, they fought over the bones, breaking them.

It is said that the phrases “I need a lucky break” or “I never get a break” come from being the loser in this tug of chicken bone contest.

The English heard of this superstition from the Romans and called their wishbones merrythoughts after the merry or happy wishes that most people desired. When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in the New World, they brought along the custom of breaking the wishbone. When they discovered the northeastern woods of North America were filled with turkeys, they changed their custom from the chicken bone to the turkey bone.

And remember…

Gobble ’til You Wobble!

~Kate

Enjoy your Coffee Break!

Anywho, this week, I wanted to bring you super simple project to adorn the Thanksgiving table. Not sure what else to call them, so we’ll just call them Veggie Candles.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Desired number of candles

• Green beans (about a half-pound per candle)

• One bunch asparagus (that will do one candle, as well)
• Rubber bands
• Ribbon of choice

Making the candles:

• Wrap rubber band around candle
• Slip the veggies under the band. You can cut the veggies to same height for uniformity if you want.
• Tie with ribbon

And we’re done. Talk about an easy way to bring the harvest to the table! Not to mention a sure fire way to serve waxed green beans I’m JOKING!

Kate and I hope you enjoy this project – and that your creative juices are starting to flow. Because next Friday, our 2nd Annual Craftdown to Christmas returns! And it’s not too early to send us your favorite crafts, recipes and homemade gift ideas! Just leave your ideas as a comment or email lizandkate@live.com!! We’d love to see the photos, too! We’ll be waiting…

My how things change. This year, a host of stores will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Theories are aplenty – perhaps it’s because lots of people want to beat the Black Friday crowds, or maybe stores are trying to generate the additional sales. Or maybe we’ve just lost touch of Thanksgiving all together.

Is it that difficult to stay clear of the stores for one day? That difficult to stay at home, eat some turkey, watch some football and chill?

I realize the movie theaters and bowling alleys are usually open Thursday. And I really don’t have as big a problem with that, because I’ve done the family movie and family bowling on Thanksgiving. But that seems different from going shopping. Why is that, I wonder?

Let’s face it – if you’re that desperate to shop on Thanksgiving, there’s really no need to leave your home. Just jump on the internet and shop until your heart’s content.

It just seems as if we continue to fall even deeper into the consumerism trap, further away from our values and closer to the total annihilation of the family. So I’m curious. What will you be doing on Thanksgiving? How will you spend the day?

Is Thanksgiving a day of gratitude and blessings? Or just another day of the year?

-Liz

President Truman with the 1947 turkey, who wasn't lucky enough to be pardoned.

Yep, this is it – the day of days for the gobblers out there. The day when one lucky bird gets the ultimate gift: a pardon. Meanwhile an estimated 45 million will be landing on our dining room tables. For that, I am thankful.

Anywho, the presidential pardon will be given today. This whole pardoning thing began in 1989 with the elder George Bush, and has continued since. And two turkeys are pardoned, not one. (Think of it like the Miss America contest or something – if the winner can’t fulfill her duties, the alternate takes over…).

-Liz

It’s really a great craft for kids – and requires a relatively short list of supplies.  Chances are,  you already have everything you need on hand.

What you’ll need:

• One paper grocery bag
• One small paper bag
• Old newspaper for stuffing bags
• Duct tape or other wide tape
• Glue (whatever you have on hand)
• Scissors
• Construction paper in colors of choice

Instructions:

1. Begin by stuffing the large (body) and small (head) grocery bags with wadded up newspaper. You can gather the bag as you stuff to get a feel of how full you’d like the turkey.

2. Once the turkey is “stuffed” to your likings, insert the open end of the small bag into the open end of the large bag. Using duct tape or other wide tape, secure the two bags together.

3. Now that the body and head are ready, get out the scissors and construction paper, and cut out feathers (as many as you’d like), eyes (I used a large yellow circle and a small black circle), bow tie, feet, beak, and gobbler (not pictured as I forgot it until I began assembly

4. Assemble the feathers onto the back side of the body. As I was creating this, I realized the easiest way to do this is by gluing the feathers onto an oval-shaped piece of paper. Then you can glue the oval onto the bag. Trust me on this one.  Allow glue to dry a bit if using white glue, and attach feathers to back of turkey. In the future, I may be tempted to use a hot glue gun for this project – watch out for the little ones if you go this route!

5. Lay turkey on its backside. Glue on eyes, beak, gobbler and bow tie. Once these parts have dried, turn right side up. Tilt turkey-lurkey back and glue on feet.

6. Done! Ours now holds a special spot on the fireplace hearth. Trust me, it’s an attention-getter!

I think you’ll really like this project. And start to finish is less than an hour! So what are you waiting for?!? Go make a turkey!!

-Liz

Just so you know, this isn’t a Liz Original. I think I ran across the idea at some point last year, when Coffee Break brought you the Craftdown to Christmas. And for whatever reason, it came to mind as a perfectly simple yet snazzy idea to try. Frankly, I’m pretty pleased. I think you will be, too!

So here’s how you make this centerpiece:

What you’ll need:

• A pumpkin or gourd
• Fresh or artificial fall flowers
• About 15 minutes

How to do it:

• Cut the top off the pumpkin, as if you were making a jack-0-lantern, being sure to scoop out all the guts. Set seeds aside, if desired.
• If you have time, allow the pumpkin to dry out for a couple of hours. If not, no big deal.
• Arrange fresh or artificial flowers in pumpkin. Don’t forget to add water and maybe a little flower food if using fresh flowers!
• Voila!

See how easy that was? So easy that you could wash off the pumpkin seeds, roast ‘em and snack on ‘em while sitting back and admiring your new centerpiece. Kate gives you step by step directions here!

-Liz

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of In the Kitchen with Liz and Kate: Practically Painless Recipes!

I think Kate would agree that we have plenty to be thankful for – and that list of blessings most certainly extends to you, our readers. We’ve watched the site grow from a handful of visitors to more than 30,000 and should mark  our millionth hit by next week sometime.  Needless to say, we’ve welcomed a few new friends into our hearts.

Of course, none of this would be possible without Kate and her husband, who’ve done a fantastic job in getting this website up and running, tweaking it, attracting visitors, etc, etc. For this and a plethora of other reasons, I’m very thankful for Kate.

There are so many things to be thankful for,  it’s difficult to find a beginning – or end – to the list. This past year has been no exception.

Sometimes, getting to that point of true thanksgiving isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do,though – especially when we focus on what isn’t working, as opposed to what is working.

Maybe you’ll be spending time with family tomorrow, enjoying a mega-meal with turkey and all the trimmings.

Or maybe you’ll be alone, marking the day as any other.

Maybe you’re struggling to make ends meet or trying to mend a relationship with a dying relative, as is the case for one of my friends. Maybe you have no place to go, nowhere to turn.

Maybe you’re stationed overseas, away from the ones you love, for no other reason than to allow us to gather in freedom and celebrate the bounties of life.

My wish for you, regardless of where you are, is that you remember just how amazing grace can be – especially when life seems so hard that giving thanks seems impossible. But grace is always there.

So wherever you are and whatever you face, know that I’m thankful for you. This Thanksgiving, may you find grace.

Happy Thanksgiving.

-Liz

The Etruscans believed fowl were fortune tellers because the hen announced she would be laying an egg with a squawk and the rooster told of the coming of a new day with his early morning crowing. A circle was drawn in the dirt and divided into twenty wedges that represented the twenty letters in the Etruscan alphabet. A piece of grain would be placed in each wedge. A hen would then be allowed to peck at the grain. As she ate, a scribe would list the letters in order and those letters would be interpreted by the high priests to answer questions.

When one of these chickens was killed, its collarbone was considered sacred and left under the hot sun to dry. Anyone was permitted to stroke an unbroken bone and make a wish, thus, the name wishbone. The Romans took many of the Etruscan customs as their own and since everyone wanted good fortune, they fought over the bones, breaking them.

It is said that the phrases “I need a lucky break” or “I never get a break” come from being the loser in this tug of chicken bone contest.

The English heard of this superstition from the Romans and called their wishbones merrythoughts after the merry or happy wishes that most people desired. When the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in the New World, they brought along the custom of breaking the wishbone. When they discovered the northeastern woods of North America were filled with turkeys, they changed their custom from the chicken bone to the turkey bone.

1.According to popular legend, where did the male “tom” turkey get its name?

2.What foods were served at the first thanksgiving?
A. Deer
B. Codfish
C. Bread
D. Milk
E. Boiled pumpkin
F. Pastries
G. A, B, and E
H. A, C, D, and F

3. What Indian tribe was invited to spend thanksgiving with the pilgrims?
A. Sioux
B. Wampanoag
C. Red Sox
D. Comanche

4. What is a baby turkey called?
A. A chick
B. A squab
C. A poult
D. A goblet

5. What was the name of the Indian chief that helped the pilgrims survive the winter?
A. Massasoit
B. Geronimo
C. Washaki
D. Sitting Bull

6. What vegetable did the pilgrims have available for thanksgiving but did not use because they thought it was poisonous?
A. Beans
B. Pumpkin
C. Tomatoes
D. Potatoes
E. Cauliflower

7. Who was the first president to pardon a turkey from thanksgiving dinner?
A. Truman
B. Jefferson
C. Clinton
E. Lincoln

8. What percentage of pilgrims who sailed on the mayflower survived to celebrate thanksgiving?
A.50%
B. 100%
C. 20%
D. 75%

9. What does cornucopia mean?
A. Horn of plenty.
B. The goddesses’ blessings.
C. May your table always be full and your friends many.

10. The original thanksgiving lasted how long?
A. 2 months
B. 14 days
C. 7 days
D. 3 days

Thanksgiving Trivia Answers:

1. B, Benjamin Franklin named it after Thomas Jefferson when he would not allow it to be the national bird.

2. G, A. B. and E. – Deer, Codfish and boiled pumpkin. (The pilgrims had no ovens to bake bread and no sugar or milk when thanksgiving came around. Their food supply that they came with was very low.)

3. B, Wampanoag

4. C, A poult

5. A, Massasoit

6. D, Potatoes

7. A, Truman

8. A, 50%

9. A, Horn of plenty

10. D, 3 days