Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Thanksgiving is coming up so we’re going to give you some ideas today about how to decorate your table if you’re having a big dinner to celebrate.

We’re making a centrepiece today. Actually we’re making a two part centrepiece. First of all we are cutting out different shapes of leaves to make sort of a runner for the centre of the table. These leaves are used as a decoration but they are also used as a special keepsake. You can get all of your guests to write things that they are thankful for on the leaves and then you can read them all after your dinner and keep them or hand them out.

So for the leaves, we used a Silhouette to cut out shapes or you can find a variety of leaf shapes and trace them. Pick a range of Fall/leaf colours to use and make enough to cover the centre length of your table.

Next to make the second part of the centrepiece you will need a few more ingredients. You can go to the dollar store, craft store, or grocery store to find supplies.

You will need a couple of vases depending on the size of your table and how much you want to decorate. Size and shape are up to you. We chose three glass vases. One is taller and skinnier for the middle and the other two are shorter and a bit fatter. We decided to go with very simple straight up and down cylinder shaped vases.

You’ll also want to pick out some candles. Again the size and colours are up to you; you might want to stay away from the really tall and skinnier ones though. We tried out some tea lights along with some bigger short white candles.

Next buy some bulk or packaged dried items like beans, lentils, etc. We went with popcorn kernels, red lentils, green spilt peas, and kidney beans because their colours are very Fall like and complement each other.

Lastly make sure you have some twine or thick ribbon that you can tie into a nice bow.

To put these centerpieces together layer your dried food in your vases. You can do them all the same or different, up to you. We’ve done the two smaller ones the same and the middle one different.

You’ll probably want to have at least two different colours per vase.

Place your candles on top and then tie your ribbon or twine close to the top of the vase.

Arrange the leaves on your table and then place the vases in-between.

Now you have a table all ready for a big Thanksgiving dinner!

Pumpkin Patch

It’s getting to be Fall, my favourite time of the year, and it’s our final ice cream blog so what would be more perfect than a Fall dessert? This time of the year you start to think about leaves changing and Thanksgiving and also Halloween. One thing that you tend to see a lot of this time of the year and leading up to Halloween is pumpkins, specifically pumpkin flavoured things. Our final ice cream flavour is called “Pumpkin Patch” by Brusters. This flavour has pumpkin ice cream mixed with Graham Ribbons and crunchy pie pieces.

Something that we have never made before on our blog is pumpkin pies so I am going to share my go to pumpkin pie recipe with a twist, we’re gonna make little pumpkin pie tarts.

I know some people go all out and make their own filling from scratch by buying a pumpkin and grinding it all up and they make their own crusts too, but when you’re busy and working it can be hard so don’t feel guilty going out and buying canned pumpkin and premade pie shells.

With that said, you will need the following to make your mini pies.

A package of frozen tart shells (24 come in a pack)

1 can of pumpkin (15 ounces)

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

½ tsp. salt

Preheat you oven to 425 degrees.

While it’s preheating, mix the pumpkin, milk, eggs, spices, and salt together in your mixer.

Pour into the shells and bake for 15 minutes.

Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes or until a knife inserted about inch from the crust comes out clean. Now this is how it’s done when making it as a big pie, tarts may take less time, but keep an eye on them while they bake and take note for the next time when you make them.

Let the mini pies cool. While they cool, whip up some cream to serve on top.

Yum! It’s Fall!

Belgian Waffles

It’s time for breakfast. Today’s flavour is Baskin Robbins “Belgian Waffle.” This one sounds like it could be really yummy especially if it was inside a waffle cone or a waffle bowl.

Now craving waffles...we’re going to share with you a recipe for some delicious Belgian Waffles that you can whip up in no time. You can eat these waffles for breakfast or dessert even. Put a dollop of ice cream on top and you can make yourself a breakfast inspired dessert or make it hearty with bacon and sausages and eggs or fried chicken and have breakfast for dinner. No matter when you eat them, they’ll be a tasty treat to have.

Belgian Waffles:

You will need...

3 ½ cup flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

4 egg yolks

3 ½ cup of milk

1 cup oil

4 egg whites

In one bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.

In another bowl, mix the eggs yolks, oil, and milk. Whisk it up and then add it into the dry ingredients and stir.

Beat the egg whites and then fold into the batter. Do not over mix.

Prepare in your waffle maker.

Serve warm. You can keep things simple and just have butter and syrup on top or you can top with some of your favourite topping like berries, fried eggs, whipped cream, ice cream, fried chicken, fruit yogurt, or anything your heart desires!

Monkey Puppet

So this week’s flavour is a very modern and untraditional ice cream flavour, the flavour is “Monkey Madness” by Brusters. The main ice cream flavour is banana which makes sense because monkeys and bananas are often associated. Stirred into that banana ice cream base are marshmallows and a candy called Buckeyes (which are a peanut butter fudge ball partially dipped in chocolate). If you’re a peanut butter and banana fan than this flavour is for you!

We’re not going to make anything with those ingredients, instead, we are going to make a monkey inspired craft. We thought a fun little kid craft to make would be monkey puppets. They’re really simple and would be a perfect activity to do when your child has over some of their new friends from school (since school started up this week).

So gather up the following...regular brown paper bags, some cardstock for the monkey parts (light pink, dark brown, lighter brown/beige, cream, and black), glue, scissors, a pencil, and “monkey parts.”

First of all you want to figure out how you are going to make the parts of the monkey. We have found a template here and printed that off and then cut it out and traced it on our cardstock. You can freehand drawing a monkey or use a cutting device like a Silhouette if you have.

Trace the inside of the ears in pink, the head and ears dark brown, the body, nose, and mouth in the light brown, around the eyes in cream, and the pupils in black.

Once you have all of the parts, you can start gluing them on/together.

Glue the eyes onto the cream eye piece. Then glue the inside of the ears onto the ears and the big eye piece onto the face and then to complete the face, glue the ears onto the head.

Next you can glue the head onto the flap of the bag and then the body just underneath the head. Now glue the nose on the flap so it partially covers the eye piece (draw on the nostrils before gluing) and the mouth part just under it. Finally glue the tail on the back of the paper bag near the bottom.

We took a look at our finished product and noticed that something was missing...a tongue! When you open up your little monkey puppet’s mouth it just seemed too empty so we cut a tongue out of red cardstock and then added a line down the middle to make it look like a tongue.

Now it’s done!