Turkey Archives - Palmettos and Pigtails

How to have an American Thanksgiving

November 29, 2011 posted by Shara

Martha came to visit from Canada to celebrate her very first American Thanksgiving. It’s one of our favorite holidays around here, and it was especially exciting that it was the first one in the new house! This year, Martha and Loo Loo were around, in addition to Mom Mom, GP, Sue Sue and Papaw. We missed Uncle Chris, who ended up staying home sick =(. But still enough people for two turkeys!

On the menu this year:

Munchies

Rosemary Pecans

Pumpkin Spice Dip with Cinnamon Graham Crackers and Chocolate Teddy Grahams

Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Pita Chips

Hummus and Red, Orange and Yellow Bell Peppers

Sundried Tomato, Pesto and Cheese Torte with Club Crackers

Buffalo Chicken Dip with Tostidos

Dinner

Two Fried Turkeys

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Biscuits

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole (with pecans, not marshmallows on top)

Broccoli and Onion Deal

Stuffing

Collard Greens and Pace

Pecan Pie and Vanilla Ice Cream

Cake Pops

Lots of Wine!

The boys go up to the Man Cave to watch football, while the ladies set out munchies, watch the Macy’s Day Parade, and start cooking the side dishes.

The guys relax and have a cold one while the oil gets hot….

Make sure the children are being entertained while everything is cooking…

Turkeys are done!

Dinner is served!

We decided to go mini golfing the day after Thanksgiving to work off some of the sweet potato casserole!!

That night, we blasted some Christmas music and put up the decorations. We haven’t done the outside yet, but the tree and some of the little holiday knick knacks are up!

And the Holidays Begin!

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Filed Under: Life, Our Humble Abode

Turkey Tee-Shirt Tutorial

November 24, 2011 posted by Shara

Thanks to The Cottage Home’s Tutorial, I made a little Turkey-Tee for both of my little turkeys! Thanksgiving is obviously always a big deal, but this year, it’s extra-special because it falls on the Thursday after Amelia’s baptism, so we have LOTS of family and friends staying in town for the holiday weekend. Also, with it being our first of many Thanksgivings in our new house, I’ve been thinking of traditions to start…got any ideas? What does your family do on Thanksgiving Day? In our house, the men always fry a turkey (or, two, this year!) and watch football, while the ladies cook up some yummy side dishes and catch-up. And the Macy’s Day parade is almost always on in the background!

Back to the tutorial…..unfortunately, I wasn’t able to open Cottage Mama’s template, so I did mine from scratch, based on hers. So bear with me! Included on my template is also the leaf templates from this tutorial.

For the tee-shirts, you will need:

6 different patterns of scrap fabric…ideally in the same color scheme

1 shirt in the size of your little turkey (I actually went a size up so Buggy can wear hers next year too!)

Iron-On Adhesive (that’s the kind that sticks on both sides!)
Sewing Machine

Iron

A couple of hours while your kids nap

Directions:

1. Iron on the adhesive to the fabric squares, leaving the paper backing on.

2. Print out the turkey template, cut out the pieces and trace them onto the paper side of the adhesive. You will need two feathers from each pattern (except for the middle feather…you just need one of those).

3. Cut out all of your pieces, which will have fabric on one side, and the adhesive backing on the other (with the paper still on).

4. Iron on each feather, starting with the middle one.

5. Carefully stitch around each feather and the body, leaving a little edge for natural fraying whenever you wash your shirt.

6. Using embroidery floss, sew a “V” on your bird’s face, for a beak, and one long stitch and three short stitches for the feet. Make sure all of knots are on the inside of the shirt.

These are my knots on the inside of the shirt for his legs.

7. Cut about a half an inch of red rick-rack for the turkey’s gobbler/hully gully/whatever you want to call it. I singed the ends off with a lighter to prevent fraying. Then I used red thread and my sewing machine to carefully sew it down.

8. Finally, I turned them inside out and ran them through the washing machine. Then I attempted to get all three girls to pose in them….but have you ever tried to get three toddlers awake, in a good mood, and dressed….all at the same time? Impossible. So, next best thing….

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s where I am linking up this week!

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Filed Under: Crafts, Life, Tutorials

Albuquerque was a Turkey

November 17, 2011 posted by Shara

I’m not sure what the rest of the words to this song are….all I know is that Jayna is singing it in her Thanksgiving Program at school next week, it is sung to the tune of “Clementine,” and Jayna only knows one line of the song. And that one line is subsequently in my head ALL of the time!

So, in honor of Mr. Albuquerque the Turkey, I made some cake pops in the shape of turkeys for our Sunday School Thanksgiving Dinner….also known as our Meat and Skeet. We all bring our favorite Thanksgiving Day sides and desserts and gather at our friends Lisa and Jordan’s house to fry up some turkeys, shoot some skeet and visit. It’s always a good time, and a great way to kick off the holiday season.

While we were there, Jayna used the rest room and then promptly told me that “Ms. Lisa’s toilet paper is sooooooo soft!” When she told Ms. Lisa how much she loved her toilet paper, Ms. Lisa let her take home a roll!

And now for my turkeys. At first, I was skeptical, but after they were finished, I decided they really were quite cute!

I started to draw eyes and little pointy beaks on them….but then decided that the beaks looked like smiley faces and they looked kind of dumb. So half of them had faces and half did not. They all got gobblers though! (Made out of little colored chocolate pieces I found at Party City).

The heads were made from the all chocolate M&M’s….they are slightly bigger than regular M&M’s and the whole pack is brown! No more digging through the colored bags! The heads were held on with a dab of melted chocolate.

Tail feathers were made from “Indian Candy Corn” and held on by a dab of melted chocolate. Feet were the ends of pretzel sticks stuck into the melted chocolate as soon as I dipped the balls in chocolate.

They were a little more involved to make, but a terrific hit at the party….they were gone so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to photograph them on the table!!