22 and 21 years ago I had the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving with families in California who opened the doors of their houses and welcomed an English family through them. At not even 8 years old I wasn’t fully aware of how special that was or how much those simple acts of kindness would shape my future life.

20 years later… I look back at the welcome we had with extreme fondness. Particularly on my Mother’s behalf. It is only recently that I have begun to realise what she went through for our family, for her husband. It cannot have been easy relocating a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a baby half way round the world for my Dad’s job, but she did. She would be the first to admit that she gained an awful lot from the experience too, but the catalyst for the trip was to further my Dad’s career.

20 years later… I remember the kindness that people showed towards my family: the invitations, the blueberry muffins that appeared on our first morning in that strange rented house. And I have always sought to make our flat the place where friends, existing and new, are always welcome & to welcome new friends into my life. (which is perhaps in part why I love blogging so much & why I am always keen to meet my blogging pals in ‘real life’).

And so, 20 years later… Thanksgiving is still special to me. We don’t celebrate it as a country in England, obviously, so I don’t celebrate it with my family (although it would be wonderful to see them) but we often have a dinner with friends. Also, this year is our first married Thanksgiving celebration and I let him know how thankful I am that we are married and a family.

Other things that I am thankful for, aside from family, health and home, include the fact that opportunities are arising jobwise again, that I finally demonstrated willpower by NOT purchasing a heavily heavily reduced beautiful bronze leather Mulberry wallet at a sample sale & that I have learnt to be able to say no when I need to.

Small things, but big lessons.

How was your Thanksgiving?  What are you thankful for?

Looking for an easy last-minute crowd-pleaser for your Thanksgiving dessert? Your search is officially over. This Cranberry Upside-Down cake is not only visually stunning, but tastes delicious, is perfectly seasonal, and is appropriate for bakers of all skill levels.

{photo by me}

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From my Home to Yours
Printable Recipe

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups of cranberries, fresh or frozen (if frozen, do not thaw)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup red currant jelly, for glazing the cake

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In my family, we still delight in crowding around my mother’s kitchen for Thanksgiving dinner. I swear, my mom is the best cook in the entire world. (And no, there is not a chance I’m even slightly biased.) Somewhere along the way over the last few years, it became my job to make sure to show up with dessert and a bottle (or three) of good wine. I’m more than happy to oblige. I love baking, but it’s simply not something I take the time to do often enough, so I always look forward to baking around the holidays. I’m the type who doesn’t just show up with a pumpkin pie and call it a day. I like to make at least 3 or 4 things and try at least 2 new recipes every year.

With that in mind, I spent this past weekend researching ideas of this year’s spread of desserts, which proved to be incredibly fun given my massive sweet tooth. I thought I’d share some of my favorite must-try ideas with you in the event you are also working on your ideas for Thanksgiving sweets…

{Cranberry upside down cake on Kitchenography}

{Maple Syrup Scones on 101 Cookbooks}

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With Thanksgiving coming  up, there will be lots of family, friends, and food.  From elaborate to simple, you can create a pretty table to enjoy it aound!

Oranges with clove initials for placeholders are pretty and smell wonderful!

Cream colored pumpkins with cute placecards attached are easy to do and a nod to the traditional.

For centerpieces, something as simple and easy as candlelight is made a little more special with the addition of some dried citrus slices glued to the bases of the candles.

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{Linda & Harriet via With This Ring}

Inspired by Molly, I give you the following items I am thankful for!

1. My husband.  Gah.  I cannot describe the immense love I have for this man. He wakes me up with a smile every morning, even when I make him late by milking every last minute I can out of our warm bed. If I had to pick one person or thing to spend my life with on a deserted island, this guy would be all I needed.  Marriage. Is. Awesome.
2. My best friend. Being in business with your best friend is sometimes difficult but always rewarding. I’m grateful for her honesty and ambition.
3. My family. I have an amazing family who has shown incredible support to the hubby and I.  I’m grateful for every minute they have spend praying for us and supporting our adventures.
4. My creativity.  I have discovered things that I never knew I loved through this online community.  It has revealed a driving need to create.  A need that was buried for a long time.  Thank you to all of our bloggers and readers who inspire creativity in the EAD team!

A.

If you’ve posted on what you are thankful for, leave your comment below with a link!

Domino has a great article on fitting all of those last minute guests into your already full table!  My favorite bit of advice:

Your goal should be to delight and pamper your guests in any circumstance, but at a Big Squeeze dinner party, go the extra mile. Douse the electric lights, and scatter candles and votives liberally throughout the room. Serve a ridiculously rich, fancy dessert prearranged on individual plates. Write out place cards, and center them on top of the napkins. A little unexpected indulgence is a sure sign that you really do care about your guests’ well-being, in a squeeze or not!

Happy Thanksgiving!
A.

Left to right: autumn tree, corn, pumpkins, apple pie

I visited an apple farm in Michigan several weekends ago and brought home more apples than I knew what to do with.  After whipping up several batches of applesauce and apple bread, I wondered if this should be the year that I try tackling my nemesis, the double crusted apple pie.

I consulted cookbooks and called up friends who had had apple pie success in the past and as a result made an apple pie that actually turned out!  Here are some apple pie tips that were key to apple pie deliciousness:

For the filling:
- Never use granny smith apples in your pie, they turn out mushy
- Always pre-cook your apples, that way you avoid shrinkage during baking and space between the crust and the apples when you serve the pie

For the crust:
- A mixture of shortening and butter works best for the crust.  Shortening for the flakiness and butter for the flavor.
- When you roll out your dough, instead of using flour and running the risk of making your dough too floury (which equals hard and unflaky when baked), roll it out between two sheets of parchment. Not only will you avoid absorbing extra flour, it makes it easy to lift the crust into the pie plate.
- A glass pie pan works better than metal, you can watch the pie as it bakes to see just how brown the bottom is getting.

As long as you follow these tips you should have apple pie success!  If you want a little more direction, here is a link to a basic pie recipe I used that turned out pretty well.  I also recommend getting The New Best Recipe Cookbook by Cooks Illustrated for great visuals on dough shaping, I will be recommending this book lots in the future too, it is fantastic!

Another freebie for our readers!  These are easy to use Thanksgiving Cards. I printed my custom drawn little turkeys on curry cardstock from Paper Source.  They’re shy turkeys hiding behind a window frame with nothing to say yet.

I Am Thankful Cards

The file will print on an 8.5×11 piece of paper, cut in half horizontally and vertically!

We’ll be using these cards at our Thanksgiving table this year along with these beautiful pine cone flowers posted on Ritzy Bee.

{Source}

Enjoy!
A.

Feisty’s post on Thanksgiving decor made me ponder what I could add to our family setting at Thanksgiving.  My husband and I both have huge families and do not host dinners at our house, so anything elaborate would not work for transport.  A simple object at each table would work.

{Images from: Once Wed, Evergreen Memories, Martha Stewart, Matthew Mead}

I was especially drawn to these place settings because of their focus on nature.  Excluding Matthew Mead’s paper ornament in the lower right, all of these include a natural element.

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Editor’s Note:  With the change in weather and the upcoming holidays, our posts this week will focus on comfort food and being thankful!  Happy Holidays!

I’m sooo excited about Thanksgiving this year.  This will be the second year we’ve hosted Thanksgiving, and I’ve been surfing the ‘net looking for inspiration for our table.  Here are a couple of snaps from last year’s table:

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