I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. Our table was set simply with just a smidgen of holiday elegance. So blessed to have 14 family members for Thanksgiving this year. The leaf settings I made for the table at the end of September at my camp held their color and dried nicely. All I did was sew a few leaves together with embroidery floss by making an "X", and kept them between the pages of a book until Thanksgiving. It was a fun project on a warm September morning! Everyone enjoyed them.
We decided to get into the holiday spirit a little early this year. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we attended a Cayuga Lake Wine Trail event. We were given our "kit" for the day. Two souvenir wine glasses, recipe card set, and a grapevine wreath so we could collect "sweater" ornaments from the participating wineries. The wreaths below are from previous years and each year it is a different theme. Each winery gave a wine and food pairing, and
Had "Friendsgiving" with the Scoots on the Monday before Thanksgiving. What a spread! These gals are great cooks! I made a Cider-Gingerbread bundt cake from the King Arthur Flour magazine. I learned something new...the recipe called for Boiled Cider. You can buy it from KA, but I googled and found out they buy it from a farm in Vermont. All you do is boil cider until it makes a thick syrup. I boiled two quarts and ended up with about 1.5 cups of boiled cider. I also used the boiled cider in my apple pie filling that I made ahead for Thanksgiving. Yummy stuff!
*Thank you to author Jill O'Connor and Chronicle Books for providing a copy of CAKE, I LOVE YOU for this review.
Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo
Debbie
Collecting the winery ornaments looks like a really fun way to spend the day! Your leaves for the place settings turned out great, what a pretty idea. Happy Holiday Season Debbie-enjoy:@)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynn! Happy Holiday Season to you too!
DeleteThe wreaths:) What memories! So cute and a huge congrats to Susan:)
ReplyDeleteSusan will love the cake photos in the book. I could have made every single cake :-)
DeleteThe winery ornaments are so much fun. I see you have a Treleaven one! We've been there, and the original owner of the farm was related to Trip. Congrats to Susan!
ReplyDeletexo,
RJ
RJ, I thought of you when we were at Treleaven :-) It's close to MacKenzie-Childs too! LOL It actually was one of my favorites on the trip. xo
DeleteThe sweater ornaments were cute! Cake looks delish! Table was vey=ry festive and inviting,I am sure everyone enjoyed the day!
ReplyDeleteWe've had a fun November! The sweater ornaments are adorable, and a nice way to remember the event.
DeleteDebbie, I love the leaves on your table. The wreaths over the years have some really cute themes. Who knew about boiled cider?! Talk about rich, I bet it was delicious. Congrats to Susan.
ReplyDeleteHello sweet girl, Love your gorgeous Thanksgiving table with the leaf setting, so special! I love your collection of grapevine wreaths and ornaments. What a fabulous collection to be enjoyed each autumn and the memories. The cake is so pretty and so is the presentation! I'm sure it was a wonderful time for you and your family.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, I'm THRILLED to be the winner of this amazing cake cookbook, Debbie! I should have been here sooner but was so occupied with Black Friday, a grandson sleepover, Christmas decorating and then Cyber Monday :) All good fun! I love your wreaths from the wineries. What a cute idea to do themed wreaths. I think the sweater one is adorable. Speaking of grandsons, I spy a framed photo of yours inside the house through the wreath ♥ Thanks again, Debbie. Woo-hoo!
ReplyDeleteThe leaves on the napkins turned out beautifully, Debbie! Collecting ornaments from the wineries must've been fun, and they look so cute on the wreaths. Your gingerbread bundt cake looks fabulous. Thanks for the tip on the boiled cider, too. Congratulations to Susan! I'm sure she'll be baking some wonderful recipes from the cookbook.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, that ginger cake has been on my mind since you first shared that you were making it. I need to try the recipe. The sweater ornaments are the cutest of all the years with their different motifs on the sweaters. Clever idea!
ReplyDeleteSarah, the cake has a great flavor and actually makes a small bundt cake. I'm glad I read the directions before selecting which bundt pan to use.
DeleteYour table looks so festive and perfect for Thanksgiving, what wonderful fun to gather with so many...the wine trail festival sounds really fun too, and collecting the ornaments for the wreaths is so clever, the sweater ones are adorable!
ReplyDeleteJenna