Thanksgiving Week! Homemade Rolls

For the past 3 years, we have been the Thanksgiving hosts for both sides of our families.

I absolutely love it.

It is so much fun to have a houseful of our loved ones.

And, since I'm the host, I just do the turkey.

Everyone else brings the trimmings.

It's a pretty great set up if you ask me.

A couple of years ago I decided that in addition to the turkey, I'd be in charge of the rolls too.

And I wanted to make them from scratch.

If you're only going to bake homemade bread one day of the year, Thanksgiving is the day to do it, don't you think?

I found a recipe in Sunset magazine that sounded pretty straightforward.

I tried it and it was a success.

Now, hot from the oven rolls with Thanksgiving dinner are a tradition.

A simple thing, really.
But something I've always wanted to add to the day.
It's one more way to make the day special.

I haven't made them in a while, so I did a practice run a few weeks back.
Just making sure the recipe is as good as I remember and working out the kinks.
It was also a good time to use my new dish towel as the dough rose.
It looks Thanksgivingy to me, in a non-traditional way.
Isn't it cute?

Like I've done each time before, I change the final preparation of the rolls a bit.
The original recipe calls for rolling the dough and then slicing it into strips.
You then layer the strips in a muffin tin and create pull apart rolls.
I opted for a quicker preparation for my rolls.
I simply rolled them in a ball and placed them in the muffin tin to rise and bake that way.
Much faster.

The rolls came out delicious, as always.

They are light, and springy, soft and the tiniest bit chewy.

They are really, really good straight out of the oven with butter on them.

They are also really, really good the next day with cranberry relish, mayo and turkey.

There was one thing that bothered me this year.

My rolls came out looking a bit like muffins.

I don't know if it was because I let them rise longer in the muffin tins or what, but to my eye the result wasn't perfect.

I think I found an easy solution, though.
This recipe, and a few others I read over the weekend, had directions for putting the rolls together in a glass baking dish for rising and baking.
I think that will be the ticket to ultimate roll success!
I can't wait to try it out.
Here's the link to my roll recipe.
Do you have a must make recipe for Thanksgiving?
Do tell me all about it.


My man will be flying home tomorrow afternoon.
It has been a long 10 days.
I can't wait to see him!
I have a katrillion things to do before Thursday.
And then I'll be enjoying the long weekend with my family.
A post Thanksgiving hike will be in order, hot cocoa and going to see the Christmas trees all lit up on the bay, and oh my, I'll have to start working on Christmas presents.
This time of the year is wonderful but always makes me a teensy bit nervous.
Have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving, my friends.
Love from,
Greta

Thanksgiving Week! How to Make Waxed Leaves

Waxed leaves may be my favorite craft of all time.

They are certainly in the top 5.

We've done them for the past 3 years, even though the ones from the first year are still as good as new.

It is just such a calming, meditative, lovely act; dipping the leaves and freezing a moment of beauty.

Yes, even when you're doing it with kids.
Which I am.
So in case you missed the post last year, or the year before, here's the how-to.
Waxed leaves.


First, collect your leaves.
We use mostly leaves from the Sweet Gum tree (also called Liquid Amber) because those are a colorful leaf in abundance here in so. cal.
Leaves with a long stem work best.
Lay them out on a table top or some other flat surface.

Cover them with books to flatten.
You only have to do this for a few hours or at the longest, overnight.
Any longer and they will start to dry out.
You want them to remain pliable.
Or, if you want to capture the shape of your leaves as they begin to curl, leave them out overnight on the table with nothing on top.
They'll be a little more fragile this way, but still very beautiful.

Get your wax.
I found this wax at the hardware store.
1 box has lasted me 3 years.
You gotta love a cheap craft.

Use an old pan or one of those disposable ones you find this time of year at the grocery store to melt your wax in.
Square or rectangular is a better shape than circular.
You want it rather wide and shallow.
The wax you see in the pan here, is leftover wax from last year.
I just left it in the pan and stored it.
I added another block this year.

To melt the wax, I use this really fancy system: old pan of wax on top of another pan of boiling water.
The wax melts fast.
Keep the water on a simmer on the stove so you can reheat the wax as you're dipping leaves.

After a little talk about hot wax and its sticking qualities, I gave the kids a tutorial and they got to dipping.

The best method for perfect leaves is to gently lay the leaf in the wax.
Swirl it softly to cover both top and bottom with wax.
Don't leave the leaf in too long or the wax will get clumpy.
Slowly lift the leaf from the wax and let it drip for a moment.

Lay it on waxed paper and let it dry.
Every so often you will have to put your wax back on the pot of hot water to reheat.
If you let it get even the tiniest bit cold, the wax will clump and you'll get some really ugly leaves.
I had to reheat our wax multiple times during this dipping session.
The air temp in the house must have been pretty cool.

It's fun to identify the leaves you are dipping.
I picked up our tree book at a used book sale for a dollar.

Isn't this leaf beautiful?

Last fall my friend Alicia went to Paris for a week.
Just her and a girlfriend.
I almost had to stop being her friend for this.
But I swallowed my jealousy (mostly) and was happy for her.
While there she collected leaves and brought them home.

Hello, coolest souvenir ever!
This one was one of her favorites.
We waxed it.
It turned out beautiful.

There are lots of things you can do with waxed leaves.
I've used them like a runner for my Thanksgiving table.

My friend, Jen, used giant leaves from the California Sycamore and hung them from a big branch.
It had an almost sculptural effect.

My favorite thing to do, of course, is to string the leaves and make a garland.
Simple and beautiful.

I know many of you are already putting up Christmas decorations.

But if you need some extra Thanksgiving decor, or your kids need a craft to do one afternoon this week, this is your project!

Or, you can just pin it for next year.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing easy, homemade rolls for your Thanksgiving dinner.

See you then.

Love from,

Greta

PS Just remembered this post from my fried, Andrea.  Her waxed leaf garland is fancier than mine.  Go see, for her take on waxed leaves.

Thanksgiving Week! A Poem and a Hymn

Every month, the kids and I memorize a poem for school.

I love poetry and very much want to pass along that love to them.

This month's poem is a perfect one for Thanksgiving.

Wanting to add more richness to our Thanksgiving celebration, I told the kids that we'd recite this together for our guests.

They're pretty excited about it.

So am I.

It's a beautiful poem.

November

A Thanksgiving

by John Kendrick Bangs 

1862-1922

For summer rains, and winter's sun,

For autumn breezes, crisp and sweet;

For labors doing, to be done,

And labors all complete;

For April, May and lovely June,

For bud and bird and berried vine;

For joys of morning, night and noon,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine!

For loving friends on every side;

For children full of joyous glee;

For all the blessed Heavens wide.

And for the sounding sea;

For mountains, valleys, forests deep;

For maple, oak and lofty pine;

For rivers on their seaward sweep,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine.

For light and air, for sun, and shade,

For merry laughter and for cheer;

For music and the glad parade

Of blessings through the year;

For the fruitful earth's increase,

For home and life, and love divine,

For hope, and faith, and perfect peace,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine.

How do I get my 7, 5 and 3 year old to agree to a public poetry recitation, you ask?

It's easier than you think.

For one thing, I didn't ask if they wanted to.

I just told them that's what we'd be doing.

But also, we recite our monthly poem with our home school group, so it is a normal activity for us.
I think my kids just expect that this is what you do with a poem.

Our group learns a poem together and at the end of the month, at one of our nature study locations, our kids gather and recite.

Some kids recite on their own, some with a partner and some with the whole group.

Even the littlest ones join in.

I am so glad for this opportunity to make poetry a real part of my children's schooling and of their life.

How would you use this poem in your Thanksgiving celebrations?

In addition to our poem, we also learn and memorize a hymn each month.

This month's hymn is a special favorite.

It was played at my wedding.

The words are incredibly beautiful.

They, too, are perfect for Thanksgiving.

For the Beauty of the Earth

Folliott S. Peirpoint

For the beauty of the earth 
For the glory of the skies, 
For the love which from our birth 
Over and around us lies. 
   
Refrain 
Lord of all, 
to Thee we raise, 
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour, 
Of the day and of the night, 
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, 
Sun and moon, and stars of light. 
  
Refrain

For the joy of human love, 
Brother, sister, parent, child, 
Friends on earth and friends above, 
For all gentle thoughts and mild. 
   
Refrain
For Thyself best gift divine, 
To our race so freely given, 
For that great, great love of Thine, 
Peace on earth and joy in heaven. 
   
Refrain




I will be printing up the words to this hymn for my guests on Thanksgiving.
We'll be singing it together.
Maybe I'm trying to introduce a little Thanksgiving caroling into the day.
It's only a week away!
I hope these two pieces help remind you, in a different way, of all we have to be thankful for.
Love from,
Greta
PS. There are lots of different versions of this being played and sung on You Tube.  If you've never heard it, go take a listen.

Thanksgiving Week! Our Favorite Thanksgiving Books

Hi everybody.  

It's Thanksgiving week here at Picnics in the Park.

Thanksgiving is my holiday.

It's the holiday that we've hosted for the past 3 years and it is fast becoming my favorite holiday.

Maybe even, gasp, surpassing Christmas.

Can we still be friends?

There are just so many reasons to love it.

It's not just the food.

I love the focus of thankfulness, and gathering together with loved ones to celebrate that.

It is a good, good day.

This year I thought I'd share a few of my favorite Thanksgiving things with you.

There will be food, crafts, decorating, poetry, vintage books and maybe more?

I know it's Tuesday night, and really this post should have gone out Monday morning, but, my husband left Monday morning for a 10 day trip to a corn field in the middle of Illinois.  (for a press check, at a printers) 

And I've been keeping busy with the kids and feeling tired and sick and this is the first moment I've had to....breathe.

In fact, my house looks like a bomb exploded in it, and all I've managed to clean up is the kitchen.

So that's where I am, typing at the kitchen table, ignoring the rest of the messy house and...breathing.

We'll roll with it, OK?

First up, some of our favorite Thanksgiving reads.

Enjoy.

..........................................................................................................

I have a big stack of Christmas books.

They are stored with the Christmas ornaments and only come out at Christmas.

My kids are so very, very excited to see those books every year.

It's like they are seeing old friends.

Last year I decided to start the same tradition with Thanksgiving books.

Thanksgiving can be underwhelming for kids. (or is it just mine?)

After all, it comes between Halloween and Christmas.

I am working hard to create traditions for Thanksgiving that are as meaningful to them as the ones we have for Christmas.

I am hoping to cultivate a love of Thanksgiving in my kids instead of just a, "can we get this out of the way so we can get to Christmas?" attitude.

I have to say, I think it is working.

My kids are growing more fond of this holiday.

I'm thankful for that.

Now back to the books.

Good Thanksgiving themed books are harder to find than Christmas books, and so my collection is still fairly small.

The 3 I'm sharing today focus on the history of Thanksgiving.

First,

The Thanksgiving Story

written by Alice Dalgliesh

illustrated by Helen Sewell  

(more of her art here.  i love her work)

Published in 1954

This is my favorite Thanksgiving book.
The illustrations are amazing.
They are graphic and rich and colorful.

The writing is great too.
It is a simple tale, following a family on their journey to America.
There is some history about the people who were on the ship and the different reasons many of them were coming to this new land.
The rest of the story is about their first year in America.
It doesn't whitewash it--it was hard and people died.
But it also talks about how they lived.
Did you know the Indians taught them to put a dead fish in the ground when they planted the corn?
Fertilizer!

My favorite part of the story though, is this sentence: "The Pilgrims decided to have a special day to thank God for all He had given them."
It doesn't skirt around the fact that the Pilgrims had a belief in God and wanted to thank Him.
He was the reason for their celebration.
Many books now say things like, "the Pilgrims gave thanks."
To WHO?
The dead fish that fertilized their corn?
Sorry, tangent.
I just think it's important to acknowledge that God was a part of the original Thanksgiving.

My kids love this book.
I leave it out through the month and they pick it up and look through it again and again.


Next up, more history.

Squanto, Friend of the Pilgirms

Written by Clyde Robert Bulla
Illustrated by Peter Burchard
(he did this and wouldn't you love this?)

Published in 1954

We're reading this book for the first time this year.
My kids love it.
There are a few illustrations with each chapter.
They are black and white and very graphic.
(very different style from the cover--it was illustrated by someone else and, I must admit, if I judged books by their cover, I would be totally turned off by this one.  see original cover here.  it's way cooler than the new one.  but it feels a lot less friendly.  probably why they changed it)
I really like the illustrations.
The story is good also.
It is very simply written.
It's not a picture book, per se, but even Lilly, my 3 year old, can easily follow along.
I never knew much about Squanto.
It's a pretty fascinating tale.


And last, more history still.

Meet The Pilgrim Fathers

Written by Elizabeth Payne

Illustrated by H.B Vestal

Published in 1966

We read this book for the first time last year and my boys, especially James, my oldest, loved it.

It covers a lot more of the history of the Pilgrims than the other two books do.

The book begins with the stories of the Speratists as they worshiped God in secret, fleeing England for Holland and then returning to England to set sail for America.

The rest of the book is full of details of the Pilgrims journey to America and their new life there.

I learned a lot reading it.

I don't like the illustrations at all, but the kids liked all the detail.

In addition to the books explaining the history of the Pilgrims and the origins of Thanksgiving, I am including books that convey an attitude of thankfulness.

For example, Ox Cart Man is now in our stack.

What are your favorite Thanksgiving books?

Please share.

I'm looking to expand our collection.

Love from,

Greta

More Waxed Leaf Crafting

Well it seems waxed leaves have been a big hit.  

I have been happily surprised at how many people decided to give it a try.

And I have been happy to see their own spin on it.

Like my friend, Jen.

I was at her house on Friday and snapped a few pictures of her own take on the waxed leaves crafts.

Just look at her magic.

I just love that she used some really big leaves along with her smaller Liquid Amber leaves.  (just learned the Liquid Amber is also called Sweet Gum.  never knew that) 

The big leaves are from the California Sycamore.  

I also love that she tied them to a fallen branch she and her boys discovered on a walk.  What a beautiful, natural way to display her leaves.

Here is a picture of the all of it in its autumnal glory.

I love it.

If you want to see other ways Jen uses branches to decorate, check out her blog here.

And if you made waxed leaves, send me word so I can link you up.  I'd love to see what you create.

Despite our 90 degree heat today, my boys are fired up about decorating for Thanksgiving and the rest of fall.  So we'll be doing some leaf hunting and waxing of our own soon.

Hope you are enjoying fall days, however warm or cold they may be, where ever you are.

Love from,

Greta

Bookmark This for Next Fall: Turkey Handprints

Do you make turkey hand prints with your kids?

Sadly I didn't start until last year, but now, it has become tradition.

I like to see how their hands, and artistic technique changes from year to year.

Last year Lilly was only 6 months old and I couldn't get her to lay her hand flat, so she did a turkey footprint. Isn't it cute?

That year we used paint, brown for the body (palm) and red, orange and yellow for the feathers (fingers). Then we painted on the legs, beak, eye etc with paint brushes.

This year I made it easier and we used a big red ink pad for a whole hand print. Then we used markers to add color to the feathers and, in the case of Lilly, the rest of the picture.

I love that last year she couldn't even lay her hand flat and this year she was scribbling all over her page. William's turkey has fat, fat legs and James took extra special care to write his name neatly.

These are sweet, simple keepsakes and you know I am a big fan of simple.

Thanksgiving Rolls (or Christmas, or Easter, or Just Because)

Remember I wanted to find the perfect roll recipe for Thanksgiving dinner?

Well, I think I succeeded.

Perfect for me meant I could make them ahead of time, put them in the fridge then pop them into the oven right before dinner.

That turned out to be harder than I expected.

The 2 recipes that I tired first turned out rolls that were rather dense and heavy. I wanted light. But after 2 failures, I was concerned maybe refrigerated dough and light couldn't coexist.

This tells you 2 things about me as a baker.

1. I don't have a lot of patience to try recipe after recipe. 2 recipe failures seemed like a lot to me. (I do have 3 little kids though, and not a lot of extra time to spend in the kitchen, so cut me some slack.)

2. I don' really know anything about the science of baking, rising, yeast, gluten and all the rest. I think I want to learn more, even though reading anything scientific means I have to really concentrate. That is hard to do when you have 3 kids running around or, when they're not, you are tired. But I think I'll still give it a whirl.

In the end, the 3rd time was the charm and I found a recipe for Chive and Thyme Pull Apart Rolls in Sunset magazine. The thing that caught my eye about this recipe was that I could put the rolls in the fridge after the first rise, pull them out and hour and a half before baking time, let them rise again, bake and voila! Fresh, hot homemade rolls!

I found the recipe in their November issue, but you can just click here and get it.

I made a few variations in the recipe, as all good cooks do, right? I didn't use the herbs cause I thought my audience might want traditional rolls instead. I think next year I'll do a batch of each.

I also didn't cut the dough into strips to lay in the muffin tin. Instead, I made 3 little balls of dough and put them in each muffin cup. It worked perfectly.

So perfectly that I didn't get a picture of any rolls before they were gone. In the mad rush that comes after the turkey is sliced, the gravy is hot and the rolls are coming out of the oven, I forgot all about taking a picture of my rolls.

But I promise you , they were good. Next year I'll be in charge of the turkey and the rolls.