Thanksgiving Turkeys

These turkeys come from this website.

What you need (for each turkey):

7 Candy Corn
2 Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies
1 Whopper
1 Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
1 Tube of black piping gel
1 tube of white icing
1 Yellow and red food coloring
1 Yellow and red food coloring
1 plastic Ziplock bag
1 sharp knife
1 pair of scissors
1 bowl

Prep:
Put your Peanut Butter Cups in the fridge to cool. If you have cold hard chocolate to work with it makes it a lot easier.

Squeeze some of the white icing into a bowl. This will be your orange. Mix red and yellow food coloring with the icing to create your desired orange. Then put that into a plastic bag and set it aside for later.

Creating:
First you will be creating the tail using 1 Oreo cookie and 6 Candy Corns. Gently, with one candy corn pull apart just one side of the Oreo. Don't don't break about the entire thing. Put a good amount of icing in between the two sides. This will help the Candy Corn stay. Place 6 Candy Corn (white side down) in between the cookie. See picture.

Take your white icing and squeeze a generous amount onto the top back of an Oreo cookie. Take the other Oreo and put the bottom into the icing to have it stand up. If it doesn't stand, add more icing! Once you have it stand put it up against something so it doesn't fall until the icing is dry. I use a thick book.


Remove your Peanut Butter Cup from the fridge. Take your knife and cut off the very bottem so you have a flat surface. Put icing on the bottom of it the bigger flat. Bump it up against the bottom and back of your Oreo cookies. See picture.

Next take your Whopper and squeeze more icing on it on one side. Place the whopper on top of the Peanut Butter Cup to make your head.

Find a piece of Candy Corn that has a nice big white end. Using your sharp knife cut the color off leaving you with the white end. Place some icing on it and stick it on your whopper as the beak to your Oreo Turkey. Hold for a moment.

Take your icing and place two white dots as eyes. Get your tube of black piping gel and place a black dot on each eye to make them come alive.

Grab your bag of already created orange. Cut a very small hold in the corner of the bag. Now, pipe feet.

Now you are done! It is that simple!!

Mixed Roasted Vegetables and Pasta

*This is one of our favorite recipes ever--we found it when we were first married and made it almost every week!

1 medium green, red, or yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, cut into 8 wedges and separated
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 pound whole mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped fresh or 2 TBSP dried basil leaves
3 TBSP olive or vegetable oil
2 TBSP red wine vinegar
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Cups uncooked cavatappi or gemelli pasta
2 medium tomatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 package (8oz) shredded Italian-style four-cheese blend (2 cups)

Heat oven to 350. Place bell peppers, onion, zucchini and mushrooms in rectangular pan, 13x9, or shallow 3 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle evenly with basil.

Mix oil, vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper; drizzle evenly over vegetables. Bake uncovered 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook and drain pasta as directed on package. Add tomatoes and pasta to vegetable mixture; toss to coat. Sprinkle with cheese.

Bake uncovered about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender and cheese is melted.

Rosemary Peasant Bread

I got this recipe from the Make & Takes blog

Rosemary Bread Recipe

• 1 packet dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
  
• 2 c. warm water
• 1 T. sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 c. flour (I increase this to 5 1/4 cups)
  
• 1-2 tsp. fresh Rosemary plus more for topping
• Olive Oil, Corn meal, Melted butter and salt

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. (I like to buy yeast in a large package and then store it in a plastic container and keep in the freezer. It lasts forever. OR if you don’t make bread that often, just buy the yeast packets.) Add flour, salt, and 1-2 tsp Rosemary and stir until blended, do not Knead!! Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size. If you have a Bosch Mixer, I keep the dough right in there with the top lid on, it’s nice and moist in there. Or simply keep it in the mixer bowl and cover with a moist cloth to raise.

Remove dough. It will be sticky. I like to put shortening or oil on my hands for taking out the dough and shaping it. I think it works better than flour hands. Place it in 2 rounds on a cookie sheet lightly coated in oil and sprinkled with corn meal. OR you can place it on your silicone baking mat with no oil. Cover with a towel or greased plastic wrap. Then let it rise another hour.

Brush each round with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with more Rosemary and salt. Bake @ 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce temp to 375 for 15 minutes more.

Cool slightly, then cut into nice size bits or rip it apart and dip in a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This bread can’t be beat! It is soooo delicious and a really easy bread recipe. If you’ve never made bread before, Rosemary Bread is a great one to start with.

Evaporated Milk

1 Cup Milk
2/3 Cup Powdered Milk

Mix together. Results in slightly more than 1 cup of evaporated milk.

Apple Pie Filling

1 3/4 cups dehydrated apples
2/3 cup water
2 TBSP cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 tsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil--cook until thickened.

Note: For plumper apples soak in water overnight, then drain off excess water before using.

Makes enough for 1 9-inch pie.

Philidelphia 3-Step Cheesecake

2 pkg cream cheese (8 oz each pkg)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Make graham cracker crust, spread in bottom and up sides of 7" spring form pan.

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix until blended. Add sour cream; mix until blended.

Pour into spring form pan with graham cracker crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Note: Recipe can be doubled for a 10" spring form pan.

Peppermint Swirl Cheesecake

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup margarine, melted
1 1/4 cup sugar, divided
3 pkg cream cheese, softened (8 oz each pkg)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 cup dairy sour cream
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup hard peppermint candy, coarsely chopped
red food coloring

In bowl, combine crumbs, margarine, and 1/4 cup sugar. Press on bottom and 1 1/2 inches up side of 8 or 9 inch spring form pan; set aside.

In bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, vanilla, and peppermint extract until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in sour cream.

Reserve 1 cup batter. Pour remaining into prepared pan.

Using 1 cup reserved batter, add chopped peppermint candies and 1-2 drops red food coloring to reserved batter. Swirl into the rest of the batter in the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 70 minutes, or until center is set. Turn off oven. Leaving door slightly ajar, leave cheesecake in oven 1 hour.

Remove from oven; cool completely. Chill 4 hours or overnight. Remove side of pan.