Thanksgiving Archives - Just Us Four

Gobble, Gobble Goes the Embroidery Hoop

November 19, 2012 By Shannah 3 Comments

It’s Thanksgiving so you know what that means…all embroidery hoops better watch out. It is too easy to turn two embroidery hoops into this cute little guy

I made of these last year but decided to make another one as a kid friendly craft to do with H. We grabbed two embroidery hoops and got to work.

We placed the burlap in between each of the hoops and screwed them tight.

Then, we trimmed the excess from around the edges.

Is he beginning to look like a turkey?

I traced feathers onto scrapbook paper and had H cut them out.

As we started putting the bird together, I noticed that the burlap had really wide stitching so you could see the feathers behind the hoops. So, I cut out a circle and glued it to the back of the larger hoop.

We attached our feathers to the paper circle with some super high tech crafting tools: tape.

Add on a nose and waddle

Then, some little cut out feet.

One last addition of the eyes and this turkey is done!

Gobble, Gobble.

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Filed Under: crafts, holidays Tagged With: Burlap, Burlap turkey, Crafting with kids, Crafts, Embroidery Hoop Turkey, Holiday Decorating, Thanksgiving

Spaghetti Turned Decoration

November 19, 2012 By Shannah 5 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving week! Can you believe that, in a few short days, we’ll be sitting down to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner?! Time is certainly flying by this year.

I mentioned last week that, this year, I would be hosting Thanksgiving for the first time ever. It is a small crowd {just us and my parents} so I haven’t really done much decoration wise. I was sitting in the dining room though and decided it needed just a little something extra besides our table decorations.

I started with some pasta sauce jars…Barilla to be exact.

After removing the labels and sending them through the dishwasher, I measured my scrapbook paper to fit around them.

I cut all the strips of scrapbook paper and taped them around the jars.

Then, I filled each jar with this gorgeous natural material I found at a little store during our anniversary weekend away.

Nothing like a quick and super cheap project to start off the week

Filed Under: crafts, decorating, holidays Tagged With: Decorating, easy projects, Fall decorating, Thanksgiving

Leftovers Solved: Turkey and Spinach Lasagna

November 14, 2012 By Shannah 12 Comments

Need a way to use up that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving? I’m here to help you out with a great recipe for Turkey and Spinach Lasagna!

What you’ll Need:
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
4 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cups shredded Jarlsberg {or similar} cheese
1 box of lasagna noodles (I usually go with the no bake ones!)
1 (10 oz) box of frozen, chopped spinach; thawed and squeezed of excess water
1 1/2 cup leftover turkey, chopped or roughly shredded
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Let’s Make It:
1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2) In a heavy pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the flour and cook for an additional minute.

Whisk in the milk, stock and mustard.
Allow the mixture to bubble {not boil though} and then reduce to a simmer. Add salt and pepper and simmer until thickened, whisking frequently {about 3-4 minutes}. Turn heat to low and stir in Jarlsberg cheese until melted. Remove from heat.

3) Coat a 9×13 cooking dish with cooking spray. Pour a small amount of your sauce into the bottom so that it coats {this is probably just under 1/2 cup}.

Lay lasagna noodles over the sauce. Top with 1/3 of the turkey.

Add 1/3 of spinach and 1/3 of the swiss cheese.

Pour a cup of sauce over the layer. Repeat two more times by adding another 1/3 of turkey, spinach and sauce.

Make the top layer with noodles, the remaining sauce and top with the remaining shredded Swiss cheese.

4) Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Looking for another option to use up leftover turkey? Check out Turkey Picante Pie which has the added benefit of freezing really well for a much later use!