The Bird is Done! Turkey Table Topper Craft is Complete!

The children and I spent part of the day working on the turkey table topper centerpiece that I told you about in my last post. It turned out even better than I expected!

Here is the first stage of the process, before adding all the beautiful color:

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

I had some old cooking magazines, as well as some thanksgiving grocery store fliers from last week's mail, so I tore pictures in to small pieces and sorted them into piles according to color. We pasted these pieces on to the feathers. each feather a different color. The pictures really created wonderful texture to the feathers. Plus, some of the pictures I tore in to pieces were pictures of food- rich brown turkey, golden yellow corn...so it fits right in with the theme of Thanksgiving dinner! A few finishing touches, and this bird will be ready to adorn our Thanksgiving table: A large red balloon for the gobbler needs to be placed under the turkey's neck, and a tea towel or large cloth napkin can fit as a liner inside the bag to hold the dinner rolls (Or, whatever you'd want to place in the "body" of the turkey!)

Here's our turkey!:

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Turkey Table Topper Craft

These past few days I've been searching the internet for a unique Thanksgiving craft the children and I can make that can be used to decorate the table. I'm familiar with the usual turkey crafts made from handprints and the like. I wanted something different!

Family Crafts has a great, inexpensive Turkey Table Topper Craft just for your Thanksgiving Table. This centerpiece is like a basket-it can hold your dinner rolls, or decorative pine cones, or whatever your imagination can come up with! This is a craft that you and your children can make together. After all, Thanksgiving is about family, and what a better way to involve your children, in preparing for the big event, than by allowing them to share their talents? Their helping you create a festive home can be a blessing to the guests who will visit on Thanksgiving!

The craft requires a paper grocery bag (save yours from your early Thanksgiving grocery shopping if you don't have one!), some paper plates, strips of colorful magazines, a large red or orange balloon, glue, stapler, and various embelishments you might have around the house. Visit Family Crafts for all the details!

Our family will be working on our Turkey Table centerpiece this week. As soon as it's finished, I'll post a picture here for you to see! If you'd like to share what your Thanksgiving table centerpiece will be, send me a link to the picture, and I'll be sure to post it here as well!


Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

A Thanksgiving Tradition

Gathering for Thanksgiving is a warm and joyful time for families and friends. Do you have any traditions for this day in which we give thanks? It is important to our family to remember why we celebrate, that Thanksgiving is not merely a day when we pile our plates full of food, but a celebration of the beginnings of our nation and how God has blessed it in so many ways!

Our Thanksgiving tradition is remembering the Five Kernels of Corn, calling to mind the very humble beginnings that the Pilgrims suffered through as they endured that first winter and spring on a meager ration of five kernels of Indian corn. How grateful those Pilgrims must have been to have made it through alive to the time of harvest. I can only imagine what a harvest celebration that must have been!

To commemorate our forefathers' humble beginnings in our nation's history, we place five kernels of dried corn at the each person's plate. The poem, "Five Kernels of Corn" by Hezekiah Butterworth is read aloud. The poem describes the tribulations of that first year in Plymouth, and the gratefulness for the mere five kernels of corn given to each person for their rations:

Five Kernels of Corn
by Hezekiah Butterworth

'Twas the year of the famine in Plymouth of old,
The ice and the snow from the thatched roofs had rolled;
Through the warm purple skies steered the geese o'er the seas,
And the woodpeckers tapped in the clocks of the trees;
And the boughs on the slopes to the south winds lay bare,
and dreaming of summer, the buds swelled in the air.
The pale Pilgrims welcomed each reddening morn;
There were left but for rations Five Kernels of Corn.
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
But to Bradford a feast were Five Kernels of Corn!

"Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
Ye people, be glad for Five Kernels of Corn!"
So Bradford cried out on bleak Burial Hill,
And the thin women stood in their doors, white and still.
"Lo, the harbor of Plymouth rolls bright in the Spring,
The maples grow red, and the wood robins sing,
The west wind is blowing, and fading the snow,
And the pleasant pines sing, and arbutuses blow.
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
To each one be given Five Kernels of Corn!"

O Bradford of Austerfi eld hast on thy way,
The west winds are blowing o'er Provincetown Bay,
The white avens bloom, but the pine domes are chill,
And new graves have furrowed Precisioners' Hill!
"Give thanks, all ye people, the warm skies have come,
The hilltops are sunny, and green grows the holm,
And the trumpets of winds, and the white March is gone,
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
Ye have for Thanksgiving Five Kernels of Corn!

"The raven's gift eat and be humble and pray,
A new light is breaking and Truth leads your way;
One taper a thousand shall kindle; rejoice
That to you has been given the wilderness voice!"
O Bradford of Austerfi eld, daring the wave,
And safe through the sounding blasts leading the brave,
Of deeds such as thine was the free nation born,
And the festal world sings the "Five Kernels of Corn."
Five Kernels of Corn! Five Kernels of Corn!
The nation gives thanks for Five Kernels of Corn!

After the poem is read, we each take one kernel of corn and place it in the middle of the table, one at a time, and recall something we are thankful for. Memories and blessings abound as we all enjoy remembering how good the Lord has been!

I hope you'll create some traditions this Thanksgiving that will be meaningful to your family each and every year! I hope you'll share them with us by making a comment!

Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Is Your House Ready for Company?

When throwing a party, hosting an event, or simply having a single guest in your home, making sure your house is clean becomes a top priority. But, when unexpected guests arrive at the door, unless you are in the habit of always keeping your home clean, you may have had to shove clutter into closets and kick the dirty laundry under the beds as you race to the front door to answer the bell!

There is a great, free house cleaning and decluttering online resource I'd like to tell you about that will make those stressful, frantic cleanups a thing of the past! It's at Flylady.com. Flylady focuses on establishing a house cleaning routine and getting rid of the clutter that can so easily take over certain "hotspots" in your home. Flylady does not require you to put extreme effort into getting things perfect before you can start the program-you start where you are and work in different "zones" in your house, using a timer, and attack the mess one chunk at a time. There is very little preparation and little effort to set up the program...Flylady sends you email reminders of what you need to be doing that day!

Most of us have moments of clutter and chaos in our homes from time to time. With Flylady your ability to recuperate from these lapses will be so much easier, and you'll be ready for those drop-in guests and be better able to enjoy their company!

The Ultimate Potluck

Probably the easiest to prepare, and least expensive way to entertain for a meal is to host a potluck! Maybe it's because I love the suspense in not knowing just what the meal will turn out to be, but the potlucks I've hosted have ended up being some of the most fun and stress-free events I've hosted!

There are several ways to host a potluck, depending on how much luck you want to rely on, or how much control you want to have over the types of dishes that are brought. Most of my friends love to cook, so I know that when I have a completely random potluck, the dishes will be filling, unique, and something that was actually prepared homemade, rather than a simple bag of potato chips plopped on the table! (That bag of chips, though, is often quickly consumed by some very happy children, by the way!)


So, you have a range of options: from assigning each guest a specific dish (even offering to provide a recipe for that dish), to requesting a certain type of dish (such as appetizer, main dish, side dish or dessert), to having people bring dishes prepared by various local restaurants (a catered potluck of sorts!), to having everyone focus on a certain theme: Italian, vegetarian, finger-foods, soup and sandwiches, desserts only...the possibilities are limitless!

Depending on the circumstance of your group, you can have guests sign up to bring a dish, drinks, plasticware, napkins, cups, ice, etc. Or, you, as the hostess, can the necessary non-food items. As I mentioned on my post on invitations, you there is a place right on the Evite invitation where guests can sign up for what they want to bring. Even with a completely random potluck, I like to word my invitation in such a way to request that my guests bring a unique (to hopefully avoid repetition in dishes) and preferably homecooked dish.

There are several things you'll want to have available when hosing your next potluck: A table or counterspace large enough to hold all the delicious dishes that will be served, plenty of serving utensils for those who forget to bring one for their dish, and I like to keep plenty of extra napkins, plasticware and cups in case more is needed.

One more thing you'll need, (and this is especially true if you're going completely with luck in what people choose to bring!): Have a sense of humor! It is quite possible that the selection of dishes brought may not be as wonderful as you had envisioned! Perhaps everyone decided to bring the same thing, and all you have to choose from are hot dogs or more hot dogs! If you're hosting a potluck for those who would not have such a sense of humor or who would find this a turn-off, then put a little extra effort into organizing the dishes that are brought to the potluck to avoid such disasters! As for me and my great group of friends, we'd have fun anyways...after all, we're just happy to spend time together! I hope that no matter what ends up on the table at your next potluck, you and your guests will feel that way too!

Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

A Unique, Delicious Dip for Your Next Party

Sometimes when you're thinking about what to serve at a party, you want to offer something new and different, rather than turning to your time-tested recipes that you've collected through the years. I know that when I'm in that frame of mind, I'm looking for something that will be attractive, unique, and a conversation piece--in a good way! And, of course, it needs to be economical!

A wonderful, Middle Eastern dip that I came across is Roasted Garlic Hummus with homemade spiced Pita Chips. It is a great break from the usual, yet the flavors are easy to take a liking to...in all, it's some very delicious eatin'!

I've tried several Hummus recipes, but this one, with my tinkering, has become an absolute favorite. If you're not big fan of garlic, I suggest you decrease or eliminate the amount of raw garlic (but the roasted garlic is mild in flavor--it really is a wonderful addition!)

Here's how to make the pita chips (I adapted to go well with the Hummus):


12 pita bread pockets

olive oil cooking spray

1/4 t pepper

3/4 t garlic powder

1/2 t basil

1/4 t onion powder

1/4 t marjorum

1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray both sides of the pita pockets liberally with olive oil cooking spray. In a small bowl, combine all other ingredients. Lightly sprinkle both sides of the pita bread with herb and spice mixture.

With kitchen scissors cut the pita bread into pie shaped pieces, as big or as small as you'd like. Arrange pieces on 2 ungreased cookie sheets.

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime


Bake for about 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Keep a close eye on the chips-they burn easily!

Instead of using olive oil cooking spray, you can use 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil and mix the spices in before drizzling on the pita bread. I just find that it's less messy for me to use the cooking spray.

Yum!....

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime


Now, for the incredible Roasted Garlic Hummus:



1 small head garlic, roasted (see below for instructions)

1 (15 oz) can cooked chickpeas, (also known as garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed with water.

1/2 cup tahini (Tahini is sesame seeds that have been ground to the consistency of peanut butter, often found at gourmet or health food stores in the peanut butter section.)

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (approx 2 lemons)

1 medium sized clove raw garlic, minced finely

1/4 t sea salt

1/4 cup water

extra virgin olive oil, paprika, and dry parsley for garnish

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Roast the head of garlic by slicing off the top 1/3 of the head, place in small oven-proof container, and add water to cover bottom 1/3 of garlic head. Drizzle garlic with a little extra virgin olive oil and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Cool.



Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Add all ingredients, except garnishes, to a food processor and process until very smooth (2-3 minutes). If necessary, add a tiny bit more water to make a dipable consistency. Place in serving bowl and top with extra virgin olive oil, paprika and parsley. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve

Photo Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Colorful and delicious!

Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime

Invitations

Have you noticed in the past few years how the internet has become so central to most of our lives? Most everyone I know has an email address and internet access. So, for your next party, why not utilize this medium for sending out inviations, all for free?

Used to, I would design my own invitations on a word processor and e-mail the invitations myself. But, recently I received in my inbox an invitation to an event that had been sent from a free invitation service online. When I R.S.V.P.'d to the event by going to the link that was on the invitation, I could see who all was invited, who had replied and comments they had made about the upcoming party. There was even a link to get driving directions: everything I needed to know was all right there!

So, for the next event that I hosted, I decided to use Evite's free service myself. I chose a design for the invitation from among a good selection, and filled out the details of the party. The website took care of e-mailing out the invitation on the day I specified and kept track for me who had viewed their invitation, who had R.S.V.P'd, and any comments people made. You can even have a place for people to sign up to volunteer to bring something to the party. You can select to send a reminder e-mail about the party as many days in advance as you choose, and after the party, you can upload photos to share with those who were invited.

Checking at the Evite website to see who has viewed your invitation is very important because it is possible that the invitation could be sent to someone's spam folder and they may never see it. This very thing happened to me. I noticed there was one couple on my list that had not viewed their invitation, so I called them to tell them about the party and mentioned the invitation that had been e-mailed. For this reason, and just because for some events it's probably more appropriate to send a tangible invitation through the mail, I personally will limit my use of Evite to more informal type events.

For someone who is always on the lookout for a good quality bargain I can use in intertaining (and you can't get a better bargain than free!) I think this is a great find! Maybe you'll want to try this yourself for your next event!

Copyright 2008 Entertaining On A Dime