Thanksgiving and And All That Good Stuff

The month of November has been a great month of gratitude and “thanksgiving.”  I’m really looking forward to culminating the month next week with a delicious Thanksgiving Feast.  We all have our traditions.  In my family it consists of a day of traditional food and football.  How about you?

I thought over the next few days I would share some of my Thanksgiving tips and recipes.  We’ve been hosting Thankgiving for nearly 12 years and have had some good times!

My favorite Thanksgiving tip I learned from a friend many years ago.  I take a pound of bacon and drape it over the top of my turkey.  It creates a natural basting and is quite delicious when cooked.  The drippings really add to the flavor for the gravy, too. 

One year we actually got so carried away preparing for the day that we forgot to baste the turkey!  The bacon took care of that and the turkey was still moist and delicious (thank goodness!)  Although I certainly don’t recommend not basting-it was still good!

Here’s a recipe for muffins that I have been making lately–they are delicious!

MUFFINS

My neighbor recently mentioned this recipe to me and I just love it.  The muffins are delicious and healthy (2 points if you are counting Weight Watcher’s points!)

1 box of any cake mix (spice cake, any chocolate or vanilla variety or carrott cake)

1 regular size can of solid pack pumpkin

Mix cake mix and can of pumpkin together.  The batter will be thick.  Spoon into greased muffin tins.  Bake according to box directions for cupcakes.  Yields 20-24 muffins.

Ironically, mixed with chocolate, you don’t even know that there is pumpkin in these muffins!  I actually made these for my daughter’s birthday and put frosting on them.  The kids didn’t know the difference and it was a much healthier treat!

As a variation, I used carrott cake box mix, added some crushed pineapple and some raisins with the pumpkin.  They were moist and delicious–quite a hit at my house!
 
Enjoy!