Cooking: Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Brown Butter Icing

Coffee Cake is a recipe that deserves a revival. I hadn't made one in years but I remember my husband enjoying it the last time I did, so for his birthday breakfast I scoured recipes and came up with my own ultimate coffee cake recipe.

It's beautiful baked in a bundt pan or a tube pan. A bit more dressed up and so perfect for a holiday brunch or dessert. We aren't coffee drinkers but it doesn't stop us from enjoying this traditional accompaniment. I served hot cider with this cake and it was delicious.

The sour cream in this recipe ensures that the cake is moist, the brown sugar cinnamon struesel creates a sweet crust, and the brown butter icing really puts this over the top! Yum.

Click through for the recipe.

Cooking: Thanksgiving Turkey Sandwiches (Recipe)

 

I don't know about you, but our family may enjoy the meal the day after Thanksgiving even more than the big day's feast. In year's past my mother-in-law has been responsible for some critical parts of the menu: the cranberries, the stuffing and the sweet potatoes, which meant that we went back to her home after dinner with those yummy leftovers. And we've always roasted a turkey of our own to have on hand for a day-after dinner with turkey sandwiches. My husband's family is strong in tradition, and for good reason when it comes to the food they fix--it's delicious!

 

Things were different this year. My sister-in-law made the cranberries and the sweet potatoes, which were as good as ever, but not easily packed home on a plane, and someone else made the stuffing, which meant it wasn't exactly the same, and not as available for leftovers. So when our little family of five (not so little I guess) returned home after our Thanksgiving travels we had in our bags a loaf of the traditional rye bread purchased from a Jewish bakery and a plan to buy a turkey breast to roast for sandwiches. I ran away with the idea and decided to fix the important parts of the meal. So I bought sweet potatoes and all the ingredients for my mother-in-law's stuffing and spent Monday afternoon cooking. Happily, I had made some cranberries before we left so they were there waiting for us, cool and crimson, and sweetly tart (I love these cranberries!).

 

I know food tastes better to us because of the tradition imbuing it, but these sandwiches are pretty good in their own right! So I thought I'd share how my husband's family makes a leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwich.

 

You'll need:

• Jewish Rye bread sliced thin and lightly toasted
• Russian Dressing (recipe follows)
• Roasted turkey breast sliced thin
• Crisp bacon
• Romaine lettuce
• Avocado (optional)
• Fresh tomato slices (optional)

For the Russian Dressing combine equal parts ketchup and mayonnaise and add some fresh lemon juice and a bit of ground pepper. I used 1/3 cup ketchup and 1/3 cup mayo and the juice from 1/4 of a large lemon. Mix well.

 

To make the sandwich, spread the Russian Dressing generously on one side of each of your bread slices. Pile some turkey on one side (it's best if it's a messy pile rather than laid out flat) and put your lettuce and bacon on the other half.

 

Sometimes I add avocado, and less often tomato, but this sandwich is good in all those combinations. You could also skip those and the bacon and spread on some cranberry sauce.

 

The bottom line is that this is one of the best sandwiches I've tasted! It's especially nice nestled among some fresh cranberries, stuffing and candied sweet potatoes. You've got starchy, sweet, tart, salty and tangy all on one plate. See what I mean? It may be the best part of Thanksgiving. Except for part about being surrounded by family. I missed them as I sat down to eat our traditional Thanksgiving leftovers.

 

If you still have some leftover turkey in the fridge, go get some rye bread and try this sandwich. You just may end up with another happy tradition.

Design: Faux Bois Thanksgiving Printables (Free Download)

I can't wait to pause next week and spend a day surrounded by family expressing gratitude for all of our many blessings. This year has not been without some significant challenges, but it has also been filled with grace and mercies, and we are thankful. There is always much to be thankful for, if we can be still for a few minutes to let the realization sink in, right?

I am not hosting the dinner this year, but if I were, I would have the table set in a monochromatic spread of bleached pine cones and twigs and acorns, and white linens, and china with touches of gold. I would also use some faux bois placecards and place a printed copy of one of my favorite Thanksgiving Hymns at each place. There are so many beautiful words to help us observe this holiday. I love the words of Henry Alford, and Martin Rinkart, and the 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln.

I also love an idea I saw somewhere, of creating a Thanksgiving tree. A branch from outside would be perfect for hanging little cards with inscriptions or drawings from all of our guests. I am thankful for health, and a beautiful landscape around me that changes with each season, and the opportunity to be a mother and wife, and my eyesigh,t and the ability to use my hands to make gifts for those I love, and my faith, and so much more...

Though Thanksgiving invitations are usually offered over the phone or via email, I love the idea of sending a more formal one with a RSVP to help me plan.

I made these faux bois Thanksgiving printables last year after Scarlett's Woodland Picnic birthday party. Judging by Etsy and Pinterest the birthday printables were well-liked and I thought they would lend themselves to Thanksgiving, with a few tweaks. So I made them and I'd like to share them with you.

The set includes invitations and envelopes, place cards (or food labels, or whatever), "Thankful" cards, hang tags and circle tags to use as placecards or gift tags or something else you may come up with, and bottle wrappers (napkin rings?), and even a little bunting. The PDF file can be customized because it includes form fields for you to type in. I've also included some versions "as is" of sayings that should work well for most gatherings but the rest have placeholder text you can type over.

These printables come in a bleached, or Flemish Oak and in a darker Mahogany brown, both with touches of a golden yellow. There are coordinating printed papers in faux bois and gingham for lining trays or cutting cupcake wrapers or anything else you can think of!

To use these printables you simply need Adobe Reader, which is a free download here. You can select the pages you wish to print, and even print some double-sided. The invitation and envelopes are designed to be double sided and look so fun that way with the gingham peeking out. If you use hanging tags they would look great double-sided too. (Note that Adobe Acrobat provides more flexibility such as re-ordering pages and deleting pages.)

For best results I take my files on a USB drive to a local print shop because the color is always more vibrant compared to my home printer. Be sure to use bright white 90 lb (or heavier) card stock when you print yours.

I know time is short already but maybe you can still use these, or if not this year, you can get a jump on next year! You can download my Faux Bois Thanksgiving printables in two parts here and here. 

Room Design: Bleached Tablescape for Thanksgiving (Tutorial)

 

Last year I decided on a "bleached" tablescape for Thanksgiving: I gathered fallen branches, pinecones and acorns from my backyard, dusted them with white paint, and arranged them in different glass containers for a monochrome effect.

 

 

I varied the scale by mixing in some similarly whitewashed pumkins and gourds and grounded it all on a crisp white tablecloth. What I love about this look is that everything else pops--the bit of gold on the china, and especially whatever food will be served on those plates.

 

 

I shared the steps for this DIY in a Kirtsy slideshow last year and now I'm bringing the tutorial home. Click to read about bleaching your own tablescape.

 

FYI: Why I Love Thanksgiving

Next to Christmas, which I love for many reasons, most significantly the birth it celebrates, I love Thanksgiving. What could be better than gathering loved ones around your table for a meal and a prayer? I love the fact that the whole country pauses for one day, stops work of the productive and not-so-productive kind, and thinks about all we have to be grateful for. There is always something to appreciate...just look at nature around you.

I love what Abraham Lincoln said when he proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving during a difficult time in our nation's history:
"It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." October 3, 1863

Our table today is certainly full. I am so thankful for my family, immediate and extended, for our health, and that our basic needs are being met, love being the most basic of all. I know we are fortunate, so fortunate in fact that we have the ability to create a little beauty in our lives above those basic needs.

It's fitting that Thanksgiving ushers in the Christmas holiday. We have a chance to act on our gratitude by doing what we can to help those who might not have as much. There are so many opportunities great and small to make a difference.

Happy Thanksgiving! My "FYI" posts share news or a perspective about something that's been on my mind. You can read them all here.

Cooking: Fresh Cranberry Relish for Thanksgiving

 

Oh how I love Thanksgiving! I love everything about it this sincerest of holidays. Including the food! I am thankful to have spent many Thanksgivings with my in-laws, which are steeped in some well-loved traditions such as gathering as an extended family, eating the Thanksgiving feast early afternoon on a long covered patio (it's warm enough where they are), and preparing mostly the same menu. My favorite thing on this menu is my mothers-in-law's fresh cranberry relish, which she refers to simply as "The Cranberries." It's now Audrey's favorite thing too. So fun!

I learned to make it a few years ago and this year it is my assignment so I decided to document the process and share it with you!

One note: this fresh cranberry sauce needs to sit at least 24 hours to macerate--blending the flavors and absorbing the sugar (so if you were to make it right now you'd have just enough time!). 48 is better and you could certainly make it three or four days ahead. It's great for leftovers too, perfect for spreading on turkey sandwiches, and a thoughtful send off for your guests. Would be beautiful in little mason jars to take home.

Click through to read the recipe and see the how-to.

Design: Thankful Notes

I have been meaning to send out thank you notes (these are part of my Woodland Picnic printables) to the family who came to Scarlett's birthday party and my intentions have just been intentions for long enough that it is now the week of Thanksgiving. And then I thought, why not send thankful notes instead, and rather than simply thanking them for celebrating and gift-giving, thank them for being in our family?

My mother once sent out cards at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas and included a beautiful letter about gratitude. This gesture isn't quite as large, but I'm sending a simple note this week to thank my family for surrounding us with their love and support every day of the year. We are especially thankful for that.

Room Design: Bleached Tablescape (Kirtsy Slideshow)

I have always loved the monochrome. Pick your hue and layer it with different depths of saturation and that's my kind of ensemble or room or tablescape! I think it's both modern and timeless, and I think it's a great approach to holiday entertaining.

This year I'm bleaching it. I'm going with white-on-white. I love the way it forces you to look at ordinary, natural objects, such as a pinecone, differently.

Somehow it accentuates the subtleties of texture and shape. The white isn't totally opaque so the warm wood tones come through, which I find captivating. This bleached tablescape could lend itself to a frosted wintertime look, especially if you mixed it with mercury glass and silver, or it could be warmer, say with touches of gold on plates or serving platters. And this restrained palette allows the food--which is really the focus of holiday entertaining--to be standout.

This Bleached Tablescape and a photo DIY is part of a Kirtsy slideshow, called 10 Perfectly Pretty Party Projects (now that's my kind of alliteration!). It's curated by Sarah Bryden-Brown of BlogStar, and features 10 lifestyle bloggers, many of whom I know are familiar to you. Check out all the great ideas for styling a party during the holidays and beyond.

Room Design: Thanksgiving TableTop

Though I have wanted a large traditional Thanksgiving transferware platter for years, I also have wondered about a more contemporary take on Thanksgiving decorating. Most of what I see around feels a bit incongruous when I think of it in my dining room. I thought, why not ask Design Mom? She always seems to find such great modern things for home and kids. Gabrielle steered me towards some metallic painted pumpkins and that gave me this idea.

I found fake pumpkins and gourds on clearance from Halloween and spray painted them white. I love it! Looks very sculptural to me. Now if I used mostly white serving dishes the food would really be the color and the center of table.

These photos look black and white but they are in fact in color. Very dark due to the grey morning of our first big snow day and the interior location of the dining room.  The drama (of the snow and the tabletop) is kind of fun.