Thanksgiving is next week and I know many of us are already looking around for recipes for our turkey leftovers. Here is a fabulous Turkey Tetrazzini recipe from Emeril Lagasse.

Enjoy!

Emeril’s ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):Emeril’s ESSENCE

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 2/3 cup

Are you ready to have some fun craft time with your children or if you are a teacher, with your class? This easy and fun autumn craft project makes beautiful Autumn “leaves” that can be used to decorate the Thanksgiving dinner table or even framed and hung on the wall.

You will need:

• Black construction paper
• Brown paper grocery bag
• Black paper for leaves (If you outline the leaves on the pattern with green Sharpie, you can copy on black paper)
• Leaves  (Download leaf pattern here.)
• Water
• Iron
• Glue stick
• White glue
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Cut down the seam of the brown paper bag, and cut the bottom off of the bag.
2. Scrunch the paper into a ball and unfold it again. Then dip the paper into the water, take it out, ball it up again and then squeeze as much of the water out as you can, being careful to not tear the paper.
3. Smooth the paper out flat, and keep in mind that it will look pretty wrinkled.
4. Iron the paper to dry it. When dry, cut half of the former paper bag to fit the copy machine to print leaves on. The rest of the bag will be used to tear squares or rectangles for the project.
5. Choose the leaves from the pattern that you want to use and then cut them out.
6. Tear two or three squares or rectangles to back the black leaves. The brown leaves will be glued on the background sheet.
7. Glue the leaves to the black background. Hold the leaves down for a little while so they adhere.
8. Using the gold glitter glue, glue over the edges of all the leaves. Also draw veins, inside the leaves, with the glitter glue. Add a few curved lines that show the leaves fluttering down.

This craft project courtesy of Kids and Glitter.

This delicious and easy bread pudding recipe is perfect for the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays as it brings everyone into the kitchen, warm with the smell of cinnamon and vanilla fresh from the oven. This is a very large recipe and will feed quite a crowd!

Enjoy!

Ingredients for Bread Pudding

• 8 loaves stale French bread, broken into large chunks
• 1/2 tablespoon butter, softened
• 5 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
• 5 cups milk
• 6 ounces butter
• 7 ounces crushed pineapple
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Using the 1/2 tablespoon butter, lightly grease a 13×9 pan
• In large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, sugar and cinnamon.
• In a medium pot on medium heat, combine the milk, remaining butter, pineapple and vanilla. Once butter has melted, remove pot from heat.
• Whisk the milk mixture and the egg mixture together, adding a big of the milk mixture at a time so as to not scramble the eggs.
• Pour the mixture over the bread and let soak for 30 minutes.
• Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Ingredients for Praline Sauce

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 quart heavy cream
• 1/4 cup rum
• 1/2 box brown sugar
• 1 cup pecans, chopped

Directions

• Combine butter and sugar into a medium pot and cook on low heat until the sugar is melted.
• Add heavy cream and bring to a simmer.
• Whisk in the rum and add pecans. Cook for an additional 4-5 minutes.
• Pour over warm bread pudding.

Tasty Turkey Treats

Make the Thanksgiving holiday special for your fur-family with these tasty turkey treats. These healthy snacks will put the woof in their holiday feast.

Rrrrecipe

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground tureky
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 8 ounces peas
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 apple, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and combine well by hand.
3. On baking sheet, form mixture into the shame of a large dog bone.
4. Bake for 45 minutes
5. Let cool and serve to your four-legged best friends!

This Thanksgiving, keep your little turkeys busy creating easy-to-make cookies that you can enjoy after the big feast is done. This family kitchen activity is fun, easy and delicious.

Ingredients

• 1 roll (16.5 ounces) refrigerated sugar cookies
• 1 container (16 ounces) white frosting
• 1 container orange sprinkles
• 1 bag of Candy Corn
• 1 tube black decorating gel

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Cute cookie dough with a turkey-shaped holiday cookie cutter
3. Bake cookies as directed on the packaging and let cool completely, about 20 minutes
4. Cover the cookies in the white frosting and shake orange sprinkles on the frosting
5. Place candy corn around the edges of the tail to create the feathers
6. Squeeze black gel for the eye
7. Serve and enjoy!

About this day of Thanksgiving…

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the next-to-last Thursday of November rather than the last. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought this would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would aid bringing the country out of the Depression. At the time, it was considered inappropriate to advertise goods for Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

However, Roosevelt’s declaration was not mandatory; twenty-three states went along with this recommendation, and 22 did not. Other states, like Texas, could not decide and took both weeks as government holidays. Roosevelt persisted in 1940 to celebrate his “Franksgiving,” as it was termed. The U.S. Congress in 1941 split the difference and established that the Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes the next to last. On November 26 that year President Roosevelt signed this bill into U.S. law.

Since 1947, or possibly earlier, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys. The live turkey is pardoned and lives out the rest of its days on a peaceful farm. While it is commonly held that this tradition began with Harry Truman in 1947, the Truman Library has been unable to find any evidence for this. Still others claim that that the tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln pardoning his son’s pet turkey. Both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches.

In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, in case the original turkey becomes unavailable for presidential pardoning. Since 2003 the public has been invited to vote for the two turkeys’ names and the event has been updated in recent years to include a bird-naming contest, with votes cast on the White House Web site.

Since 1970, a group of Native Americans and others have held a controversial National Day of Mourning protest on Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Thanksgiving Fun

Be sure to visit Operation Letters to Santa’s Thanksgiving section where you will find all kinds of wonderful things to keep you busy and entertained during the month of November. Be sure to visit our Halloween desktop wallpaper section where you can download vintage FREE Autumn and Thanksgiving desktop wallpapers for your computer every day!

These beautiful and FREE desktop wallpapers are our gift to you.  Here is how you do it:

Choose your favorite wallpaper: Right click on the thumbnail image of the wallpaper you want to use and ”Save Picture As”. Then simply locate the image in your picture folder and set it as your background.  

To save all of the wallpapers: Just click on the “Download All” button, save the zip file to your machine and change your Autumn and Thanksgiving wallpaper every day if you like.

For more Autumn and Christmas desktop wallpapers please visit Operation Letters To Santa today.

Enjoy!