Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hello again,

I hope that everyone has had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with good food and good company.  I certainly did.

Preparing for Thanksgiving: Turkey Brownies

My standard contribution to the Thanksgiving feast has always been the relish tray.   This consists of fruits (apple slices, strawberries, grapes & pineapple) and veggies (carrots, tomatoes & bell pepper slices).  These are primarily eaten by little ones or to compensate for the number of deserts consumed.  Several weeks ago my mom came across "Turkey Brownie Placement Cards."  With my go-to quick bake of cupcake brownies, I was asked if I would attempt to make them for the great Thanksgiving desert table.  As can be seen below, I did.  With only 2 hands and contending with a lot of chocolate, I did not take any pictures during the creation process.  I will however mention what I had done.

Brownie Batter:

No, I am not a made from scratch girl, I'm a box girl with an affinity for the Ghirardelli Brand.  I used 2 boxes of the Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Brownie Mix for a total of 24 standard sized cupcakes.  I followed the instructions including amounts except with the following substitutions...

• Milk instead of Water
• Melted Butter instead of Oil

1. Mix
2. Bake for 30 minute
3. Remove to cool (I let them sit for 1 day)
4. Add frosting and chocolate sprinkles

I began to work on the head and tail feathers while the brownies were baking.  My goal amount to make was 30 sets.  This way I would have 6 extras to cover mess-ups.  Using my double boiler I melted down a total of 3 bags of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers, yep Ghirardelli again.  Depending on your melting system, you could get away with 2 bags.  With it being a crime to wast chocolate in my book, the remaining chocolate went into candy molds to be eaten later.

Turkey Heads:

Supplies:

• Pretzel Sticks
• Tootsie Roll Midgees
• Candy Eyes
• Rainbow Candy - Yellow (mini candy coated chocolate chips)
• Fruit Roll-up (Strawberry)
• Mustache Candy (for Turkeys in disguise if you desire)

Instructions:

1. Prep Fruit Roll-up by cutting in half long ways and 1/2" strips fat ways.  Do not remove from cutting board or else it will stick to each other.
2. Place 1-1.5 cups of the Tootsie Rolls in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften them
3. Stab unwrapped Tootsie Roll half-way up the log with a pretzel stick almost all the way through (7/8's way through)
4. Fold  and pinch ends of Tootsie Roll to the Pretzel Stick, shaping as you go (recommend front and back of head to be flat for easier candy placement)
5. Holding onto the end of the stick, dip into chocolate
6. Place on Parchment Paper
7. Repeat for 3 more heads (candy will rapidly slide off if place immediately on chocolate)
8. Add eyes
9. Take Fruit Roll-up sliver from cutting board
1. In the middle of the strip, twirl between 2 fingers
2. Snuggly wrap the strip around the yellow rainbow candy into an omega shape 
3. Pick up the the candy omega by its ends and place on the turkey head where the beak would be
10. If using mustache instead...
1. Place mustache
2. Place Yellow Rainbow Candy below mustache
11. Repeat steps 3-10 until your goal total is complete (30 heads)

Turkey Tails:

Supplies:

• Nilla Wafers
• Candy Corn

Instructions

1. Dip 1 Nilla Wafer into chocolate
2. Place on parchment paper ( I put the rounded side down)
3. Repeat 3 more times
4. Add Candy Corn (5 pieces to the flat side)

For traveling purposes, I assembled the turkey brownies at the event.

1. Placing the tail feathers at a 45 degree angle 1/4 from the back edge of the brownie
2. Head in the middle of the brownie.

This will be a repeat tradition for next year, but I think next year I will keep them at the desert table so that little ones will actually eat their meal without the desert brownie taunting them.

Once the men folk left to go target shooting, we women stayed inside with the children.  Kaitlin showed off her current crochet project.  

My mom came prepared with games that the little ones could play.  This included "Don't eat Pete" and "Candy Shop" (which can be seen below).  Both of which were enjoyable.

Well that's been my Thanksgiving.  I have been working on my Radiant Jubilee: Sugar Plum Dress, bt that can wait until next time.

Be back in a week.