November Recap

November has been a very busy month around here.  First there was cleaning up all the Halloween décor.  Then there was prepping the house for our Fall dinner party, and of course hosting said dinner party.  Next I had a last minute Thanksgiving panic attack and decided that I just had to put some kind of pretty something on the Thanksgiving table.  That was followed by mad woman cleaning since the in-laws were coming for Thanksgiving.  Then there was the post in-law clean up the house and get back in to our groove session.  All that with a little Christmas shopping, Christmas crafting, and a whole lot of research thrown in for good measure.  And let’s don’t forget meal planning sessions, dental cleanings, and a myriad of other mundane activities along the way.

Starting with a trip to Shapiro’s Deli where my husband had the largest salami sandwich I have ever seen.  Don’t get me wrong, I like salami, but this sandwich made my esophagus burn just looking at it.

Then, we had a little dusting of snow a few days after that.  I was hopefully that meant more was on it’s way, but so far, no dice.  Sorry, the snow was so lack luster that I didn't take any pics!

About a week before Thanksgiving I got panicky because there was no Fall décor in the house.  So I went to Hobby Lobby, and lo and behold all the Fall décor was 80% off.  It was also 75% off at Garden Ridge.  I scored some great stuff.

One of my projects started out with these items (two small carvable foam pumpkins and two sunflower bouquets)…

And turned in to these arrangements.

The table ended up looking like this.

All the items on the table were either bought at Garden Ridge or Hobby Lobby and there was less than $20 in the whole spread of décor.  I know that I should have posted this earlier so others could reap the bounty too, but I did post it on facebook, and quite a few of my friends got in on the deals.

This was our Thanksgiving meal.  Minus the steamed green beans, deviled eggs and the homemade cranberry sauce.  Do you like canned sauce?  I really enjoy making it homemade with tons of orange zest, and it is great on leftover turkey sandwiches.

We had herbed turkey breast, and a smoked turkey leg with gravy (no giblets), Fall salad with walnuts, apples, dried cranberries, bleu cheese and an apple cider vinaigrette, dressing muffins (single serving size and they cook much faster than a pan of dressing), roasted Fall veggies (carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, and butternut squash) with cinnamon, smoked paprika, and cumin, and roasty toasty caramelized Brussels sprouts.

This is what our table looked like once all the candles were lit (that is my father in law in the background).  Can you believe that we did not have wine with dinner?  I was having tummy troubles, and didn’t want to make them worse with alcohol, and lets just say everyone else at the dinner table had less refined taste in beverages than I do.  Can you say chocowine (bleh)?

Just yesterday, I was very excited to find these at Meijers

I had read about them on various other blogs that I follow, and I was just thrilled to find them.  We had them for dinner last night, and I have to say that they totally lived up to all the hype!

Well, folks, that is really all that I have for now.  I know that I did more in November, but alas I was a bad picture taker.