Happy 4th of July!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving filled with family, friends and delicious food!!

HOLIDAY: Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's all about family, friends, food, and of course football! Oh, and giving thanks for all that we have. There is nothing better than stuffing your face with a great turkey dinner, devouring a couple pieces of pie, downing a few too many glasses of wine, and then taking a nice, long tryptophan-induced nap before watching the Seattle Seahawks defeat the San Francisco 49ers! That is what I call the perfect Thanksgiving Day!

Are you the lucky one hosting a Thanksgiving dinner this year? Or are you invited to your friend's or family's house for dinner? Either way, I scoured the internet to find some great recipes to help make this year's Thanksgiving dinner a delicious feast!

Turkey
Perfect Roast Turkey - By Ina Garten from Food Network
Roast Turkey with Cornbread Dressing - By LouElla Hill from Saveur
Dry-Brined Turkey - By Russ Parsons from FOOD52

Stuffing
Chorizo and Collard Green Dressing - By Patrick and Gina Neely from Food Network
Essential Thanksgiving Herbed Stuffing - By Kelsey Nixon from the Cooking Channel
Wild Mushroom Whole Wheat Stuffing with Tarragon - By Barbara Lynch from Food and Wine

Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole - By Southern Living from MyRecipes.com
Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes - By Martha Stewart from MarthaStewart.com
Yukon Gold Potato and Wild Mushroom Gratin - By Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier from Bon Appetit

Cranberry Sauce
Simple Cranberry Sauce - By Betty Crocker from BettyCrocker.com
Cranberry Apple Chutney - By Martha Stewart from MarthaStewart.com
Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce - By Aaron McCargo Jr. from Food Network

Pies
The Great Pumpkin Pie Recipe - By Sally from Sally'sBakingAddiction.com
Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie - By Andrea Albin from Epicurious.com
Dutch Apple Pie with Oatmeal Streusel - By Ginny from Allrecipes.com

I hope some of those recipes help! Have a great Thanksgiving! I hope it's filled with good company, delicious food, and a Seahawks win!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

HOLIDAY: Respect the Bird!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is all about being with your family and friends to enjoy a great dinner, and to give thanks for all the good things in your life. It's not about getting up at the crack of dawn to wait in line for Black Friday deals! Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is slowly being overrun by Christmas. Retail stores are putting up their Christmas displays earlier every year. Some stores have their Christmas items out before Halloween!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday". This name was given as it indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black". It is typically the busiest shopping day of the year. Retailers open their stores very early on Friday morning. Some open at 4am or 5am, and now this year some are opening at Midnight! That is ridiculous! Now the store employees you have to work that shift will miss out on most, if not all, of their Thanksgiving holiday, since they will need to get to bed very early to be well-rested for their work shift. This year some stores will even be open on Thansgiving to give their customers a head-start on the Black Friday deals. This story from Reuters highlights some of the retailers who are opening their doors on Thanksgiving Day to customers. Is it really worth it? The over-commercialization of Christmas is threatening Thanksgiving. Allrecipes.com started the campaign to Respect the Bird!

Below is a list of stores who are not opening on Thanksgiving Day, and are at least opening at a reasonalbe hour on Black Friday. So when you're thinking of places to shop after Thanksgiving, give some of these stores a try, as they are Respecting the Bird!

• Nordstrom
• Costco
• RadioShack
• Cabela's
• L.L. Bean
• REI

It's sad that the list is so short, but at least some of them are taking a stand and actually enjoying Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

HOLIDAY: Respect the Bird!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the fact that Thanksgiving is all about being with your family and friends to enjoy a great dinner, and to give thanks for all the good things in your life. It's not about going into debt buying a bunch of useless gifts. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is slowly being overrun by Christmas. Retail stores are putting up their Christmas displays earlier every year. Some stores have their Christmas items out before Halloween!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday". This name was given as it indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".  It is typically the busiest shopping day of the year. Retailers open their stores very early on Friday morning. Some open at 4am or 5am, and now this year some are opening at Midnight! That is ridiculous! Now the store employees you have to work that shift will miss out on most, if not all, of their Thanksgiving holiday, since they will need to get to bed very early to be well-rested for their work shift. Where will it stop? Will retailers be open on Thanksgiving Day next year? Is it really worth it? The over-commercialization of Christmas is threatening Thanksgiving.
I'm not the only one who feels this way. Below is a press release from Allrecipes.com.

Allrecipes.com Community Leads Movement to Protect Thanksgiving; Home Cooks Pledge to Savor Day of Food, Family and Thankfulness

SEATTLE, Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Is Thanksgiving as we know it an endangered species? With Halloween's ghosts barely banished, each year retailers push the Christmas season upon consumers earlier and earlier – and all at the expense of the Thanksgiving holiday. But the Allrecipes.com community is out to turn that around. Inspired by community member Doug Matthews' November 2010 blog post lamenting the commercialization of the holiday season, Allrecipes, a Reader's Digest Association (RDA) company and the world's #1 digital food brand, today announced its "Respect the Bird!" campaign: a grassroots movement to savor the true meaning of Thanksgiving and tune out the distractions of Black Friday that have intruded upon Thanksgiving week.

A national survey from Allrecipes found 82 percent of home cooks think Christmas is marketed too early and that the Thanksgiving holiday gets too little attention as a result. Moreover, 42 percent admit being frustrated by Christmas shopping sales that begin before Thanksgiving while 39 percent just try to ignore them.

Allrecipes has created a dedicated site, www.RespectTheBird.com, where Thanksgiving enthusiasts can rally support for the movement. Here, consumers can take the Respect the Bird Pledge, a promise to fully enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and not begin shopping for the December holidays until after November 24, and get recipes and tips for their Thanksgiving festivities. The site and complementary social media channels (Respect the Bird Facebook community and Respect the Bird on Twitter - @RespectTheBird) will make it easy to spread the movement among friends and family.

"Thanksgiving is an amazing holiday and I believe I was speaking for a lot of people when I wrote the blog post last year about Respect the Bird," said Matthews, leader of the Respect the Bird movement. "I am thrilled that Allrecipes is taking Respect the Bird to a new level with this campaign and I hope it sets a precedence that the holiday be celebrated by sharing thanks and good food with friends and family, not Black Friday shopping!"

With thousands of top-rated Thanksgiving recipes from classics such as Homestyle Turkey, the Michigander Way to exotic side dishes such as Holiday Cranberry Chutney, Allrecipes will be the go-to resource for Thanksgiving meal planning, expecting 28 million visits the week leading up to Thanksgiving day – a 35 percent increase over 2010.

"Allrecipes.com thrives on its vibrant user community of more than 25 million passionate home cooks like Doug Matthews," said Lisa Sharples, President of Allrecipes. "When we saw how our community responded to Doug's blog, we knew we had to help that community express its appreciation for what we all think is truly the best day of the year."

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Halloween!!!