Happy Thanksgiving!

On By Carole @ From My Carolina HomeIn Holiday

It’s my favorite day of the year! From the aroma of delicious food cooking all day, parades and football on TV, to connecting with friends and spending the day with My Sweet Babboo, it is the best day of the year. Often, my birthday falls during the holiday weekend, so sometimes there is cake, too. In the quiet of the morning, I like to remember all the things I am grateful for – health and family, friends and faithful readers like you, our home in the mountains, food on the table, and time to enjoy it all in safety and security in a free country.

Yesterday was a prep-cooking day, and I spent several happy hours just piddling around, listening to some quiet music on cds from several new age artists, one called Thanksgiving from several Windham Hill artists. I started by mixing the dough for my Rustic Egg Bread, a recipe I adapted from a Bon Appetit recipe. This recipe is pretty easy, uses ingredients everyone has in their cabinet, and can be baking in just a few hours. So you can set the dough to do its first rise this morning, and have fresh baked bread for your holiday meal later today. I mixed mine with my stand mixer and a dough hook. It is easy to see when a little more flour is needed to make the soft, sticky dough.

Into an oiled bowl for the first rise, while I did some other chores. About 90 minutes later, I had this. Punch down and let it rise again.

I got to work on the dressing, toasting my bread cubes, cooking some sausage and onions, then mixing it with herbs and broth. It went into a baking dish, then the refrigerator. It will be baked this afternoon.

After that, the bread was punched down for the second time. Instead of making braids this time, I formed it into a long loaf, thinking it would come out like a baguette.

While the bread did its final rise, I mixed up some mixed berries with a bit of sugar, flour and corn syrup for the little pies My Sweet Babboo likes. I baked them about 20 minutes. The crusts are premade Dutch Ann tart shells.

Then the loaf was ready to bake, while the oven was still hot. The loaf spread out a lot more than I thought it would. Next time I’ll do it in a loaf pan, LOL! But it made the whole house smell like baking bread, wonderful. Although it might be a little flat for sandwiches like I had planned, it will be great served warm with butter. If you’d like the recipe, here’s a pdf – Rustic Egg Bread.

This morning, while a Breakfast Casserole bakes in the oven filling the air with a savory aroma of sausage, cheese, onions and eggs, I’ll be watching parades in my jammies. We’ll have breakfast on the turkey plates.

I did a post on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and some of its history HERE, if you’d like to see that. I’ve included some photos from their press packets of bygone years, and some details about the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street which began filming at the parade in 1946. We know the holidays are beginning when Tom Turkey makes his appearance!

I do wish that the CBS would go back to showing their Thanksgiving across America parade show that would cover the Chicago parade, the Disney parade, and the one in Hawaii. I liked seeing all the variety. I watched a few of the parades from the 1980s on you tube on Wednesday, oh the hair styles!

Then later, we’ll watch the football games and cook a Slow Roasted Turkey.

The day will be even better as I chat with friends both online and on the phone, catching up and enjoying Thanksgiving. To my readers outside the USA, have a great week, and a fun holiday season coming up.

Share your Thanksgiving and Holiday stories in the comments today.

Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday, with lots of love and laughter.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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30 thoughts on “Happy Thanksgiving!”

  1. Rhonda

    Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for all you do, I always look forward to seeing what you are up to and finding inspiration in your busy busy life! Enjoy your day and Happy Birthday too!

  2. Mary Stori

    Gobble, gobble to you and your husband……enjoy your day. BTW – I always use french bread steel pans greased and coated with gritty corn meal to keep the bread shaped. Lots of combos to choose from……

  3. Rheanna

    Happy Thanksgiving to you! My hope is that you have a wonderful, relaxing day. Watching football may be on my to do list today too after a busy week of running around. We are hosting my parents, my in laws and my husband’s grandparents. Trying to treasure these holidays with Grandpa Bob as he is 91 and has Alzheimer’s. He sure does remember that he loves dessert. And I think he conveniently forgets that he has already had it and has more. 😉 I feel at his age he deserves all the desserts he wants.

  4. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your husband, Carole! My husband Denis and I will spend a quiet day here at home, just the two of us. I’m going to do a little sewing, he’s going to do a little decorating outside. We will have a yummy marinated pork tenderloin for supper. Our big family day will be on Saturday, when our daughters and families will be here. Food, Family and Fun. Happy Times!

  5. Happy Thanksgiving, Carole! I love seeing all your preparations — I think I need to find some of those Dutch Ann tart shells! That’s a great idea. And the bread looks wonderful. It’s just us today, kids tomorrow. Enjoy every minute of your favorite holiday!

  9. Mary Ed Williams

    And there is BASKETBALL, lots and lots of BASKETBALL!
    Have a wonderful day, Carole, and thank you for your inspiration- not that I do anything, but I am inspired to maybe think about it.
    Mary Ed

    1. Gayle

      Happy Thanksgiving, Carole. Your day sounds delightful and bountiful with blessings. We will gather tomorrow with our children and grands, with everyone bringing their specialty dishes. Family, food, fun and laughter—and thankful for so many blessings. Have a wonderful day!

  11. Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting

    Happy Thanksgiving, Carole! I’m cooking my brined turkey now, using your notes from 2015! Thanks!!!

  12. Happy Thanksgiving! Love hearing about all your prep and process for a wonderful meal and holiday. We are with family this year for a big change in the routine and it is great! So much fun. So great to have someone else be the host! Haha. And Happy Birthday, too! Mine is in late November, too. As a kid, I hated it when it was right on TG day, but now that I am older, I am thankful for any new birthday I can celebrate! Enjoy!

  13. Sue Hoover

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and Sweet Baboo! This year Thanksgiving falls on the day before our 44th wedding anniversary. Sometimes it lands right smack on it and, yes, I cook our turkey dinner on my anniversary. Thanksgiving is all about the turkey in the house! Thanks for the recipes. The ones of yours I’ve tried have been very tasty. Enjoy the parades (I’m with you on missing the Thanksgiving around America Parade), food, and football! I’m thankful for many things and meeting you through the blogs is one of them.

  15. Happy Thanksgiving! I, too, love he smells as well as he flurry of activity of the day. We are under a wind warning with threats of them turning our power off. There will be no football, parades or baking if they do….like they did last year!! 😣

  17. Rita C.

    Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Birthday weekend, Carole. Windham Hill Thanksgiving is not one I have – thanks for the recommendation. Listening to George Winston Autumn….
    Your foods all look delicious. Nothing better than homemade stuffing/dressing.
    I made Ina Garten’s cranberry sauce, but have a little trepidation in taking it to my husband’s family today (the few who eat it prefer canned, the others aren’t willing to try something new) . I’ll serve it over cream cheese through the holidays for my family to taste test (it seemed a bit tart to me). Enjoy your day.

  20. Sounds like a perfect day of prep and cooking. I love the smell of bread baking. I hope you and your husband have a lovely day together, and when your birthday comes, I wish you a very happy day with a wonderful year to come. My day started with more photo editing and writing tomorrows blog post! Now, time to get busy cooking the hubby’s breakfast and prepping what I am to bring to my daughter’s house. I’ve got it “easy” this year….cheese plate! Happy Thanksgiving.

  23. Loris Mills

    What a fun meal you have prepped! The rustic egg bread looks tasty. I think I will have to try that. I enjoy making the no knead recipes but don’t really like the end product. HA!
    I hope your day is fun and full with a happy, grateful heart. Happy Thanksgiving and a Happy Birthday too!

  26. Mary

    I hope you both have had a lovely Thanksgiving Day and gobbled up lots of the lovely food you prepared.
    My daughter in South Dakota sent me photos of her lovely dinner which made me wish we celebrated Thanksgiving here. :))

  27. Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Birthday too! We had our neighbor over, which was fun. I made pies on Tuesday, and ended up with a full day of make up lessons and rehearsals yesterday, but tomorrow is SEWING! Bandit thoroughly enjoyed his first Thanksgiving. He was quite enthralled with the packets of goodies I fried up for him from inside the turkey, and he LOVES turkey stock on his kibble.

  28. Happy Thanksgiving and weekend, Carole! Your bread may be flat, but I can smell it baking and I bet it was awesome! Our kids took us out for lunch yesterday and we had a great time! We always cook a huge Christmas meal and they are usually with my SILs mom on Thanksgiving but their plans changed this year so we got to spend part of the day together! We’re not pro-ball fans but caught up on some programs we had taped. We have so much to be thankful for…not just on Thanksgiving, but always!

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