Time. It’s been something I have been thinking about a lot lately. September was a BUSY month and we were grumbling about just “getting through it” but that’s not the way I want to live my life. What is time and what does it mean to be truly thankful?
It’s weird how we remember things. There were times in my life when I thought, this is never ending. For example, diapers! Everybody rushes to potty train because, diapers! But in the grand scheme of things…? I remember sitting outside of dance classes thinking, damn this is what my life has become. Waiting. But now I look back at those times with fondness. Those were quality times I got to have discussions with the Kids as we drove from activity to activity. I don’t drive as much anymore, Ninja does. It’s like we switched spots and Freaky Fridayed our lives lol.
How lucky are we though? We each got to spend quality time with our Kids separately but the same. Some Dads never have the opportunity to take their child to dance class or piano lessons. Some Moms aren’t able to make their Kids healthy lunches up until they graduate. But really it’s basically ONLY 13 years of your life. Nourishing them, chauffeuring them, teaching them the fundamentals of providing yourself with a good honest life, listening to incessant chatter about who likes who and who is dating which boy. It’s such a short amount of time instead of grumbling we should enjoy every second of it. I wonder if I feel this way because I feel like I got ripped off of a LOT of time with my Mom?
We celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend because my InLaws are off on an Oceania cruise this month. Again, how lucky are we to be able to have dinner with 11 family members? Yes, we are missing brothers, a sister, a niece, 2 nephews and my Mom, but to have SO many of my loved ones near enough to have this dinner together, that is pretty special. I don’t take it for granted.
I am grateful for so much but mostly I am grateful for the time I get with my family and friends.
Happy almost Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! Ninja loves Thanksgiving or to be more precise, Ninja loves turkey! We all take turns hosting the different holidays and Thanksgiving is our family dinner to host. We have a very hard time taking pictures and videos of our Thanksgiving meals while the whole family is here (obviously LOL). So this year, I am sharing some Thanksgiving treats for after the big day!
We eat mashed potatoes often, probably once a week in the colder months. Homemade mashed potatoes are one of the most simple things to make but we always make too much. These Leftover Air Fried Mashed Potato Balls with Garlic Aioli are the perfect way to use up leftover holiday or any day mashed potatoes.
OK, so here’s the thing lol my mother-in-law is a fantastic baker. So is my brother-in-law. When they host Christmas and Easter, we always get baskets of fresh breads, rolls, cakes, and bagels. So this year we tried to bake Brown Butter Sage Dinner Rolls, and they didn’t turn out quite as we had hoped lol. The flavour was freaking amazing! We followed the instructions to a T. Too bad I didn’t follow the ingredients to a T Lol. I mistakenly bought cake flour instead of bread flour and the rolls did NOT rise the way they should have. However, they tasted amazing!
Another way to use up your Thanksgiving leftovers is with this Turkey and Mashed Potatoes Casserole. You can add all your leftovers to this dish to clean out your refrigerator! Potatoes, leftover brussels sprouts or whatever veggies you made, plus the gravy, and the turkey! YES!!! This was a delicious casserole using up all those yummy leftovers.
As soon as fall hits, I drink my annual pumpkin spice latte and then I’m done. I can only handle one for the season lol. SBean very badly wants in on this pumpkin spice trend minus the coffee of course. So, we made her this Pumpkin Spice Milkshake instead and it was absolutely delicious! Next year I’m going to forgo the six dollar latte and make me one of these delicious milkshakes instead!
What do you get when you add gnocchi and turkey to a pot? Why, a Turkey Gnocchi Soup to die for of course! This soup was really good. I was unsure about using rice to thicken it up but it really made this soup rich and creamy and delicious. This is the perfect feel better turkey soup with a little twist.
Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations by Richard Wagamese Written in non-prose format and Memoir. I read this collection of poems, meditations and reflections while I was on a trip to Vancouver Island. The readings were very emotional for me. His wise words connected with me very much. I have trouble with silence and it has been something I am working on. This book is a like spiritual guide to sit in your thoughts, connect with nature and feel what you need. There are so many lessons to be learned from this book. Even though it doesn’t have a lot of pages and each page is not filled with a ton of words, the words that he does use are thoughtful, impactful, and full of weight. These are heavy thoughts meant to be intentional. I love this book. I am going to buy many copies of this book and hand them out because this book made me think, feel alive, feel hopeful, and brought me such a profound feeling of contentment, I just want to share Richard Wagamese‘s meditations with everyone.
Leftover Air Fried Mashed Potato Balls with Garlic Aioli
12-18
balls20
minutes10-15
minutesIngredients
2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, cold
1 cup marble cheddar cheese, shredded
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 green onions, finely chopped
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 egg, beaten
1 cup breadcrumbs
- Garlic Aioli
½ cup mayonnaise
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
pinch salt & pepper
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the cold leftover mashed potatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, grated Parmesan, green onions, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed.
Scoop about 2 tablespoons of potato mixture and roll it in your hands to form a compact ball, roughly golf-ball sized. Repeat with remaining mixture and set the balls aside.
Add beaten egg to a shallow bowl and breadcrumbs to another. Dip each potato ball into the egg, then roll to coat in breadcrumbs. Set aside.
Preheat your air fryer to 400°F for about 3 minutes. Lightly spray the air fryer basket/tray with oil spray to prevent sticking.
Arrange the breaded balls in a single layer, ensuring none are touching. Mist the tops lightly with oil spray for extra crispness. Air fry for 10–13 minutes, shaking the basket or turning the balls halfway for even browning, until golden and crisp all over.
While the potato balls cook, whisk together mayonnaise, garlic, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside or refrigerate briefly until serving.
Brown Butter Sage Dinner Rolls
14-16
buns3 1/2
hours25-27
minutesIngredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
3/4 cup buttermilk, warmed to about 110°F
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (1 standard packet)
3 tablespoons honey, divided
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons fresh sage leaves, chopped, plus more for topping
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
3 cups bread flour, plus more as needed
Garnish: flaky sea salt
Directions
Set out a medium heatproof bowl. Place the sliced butter in a light-coloured skillet or saucepan, so you can see when the butter begins to brown. Melt the butter over medium heat whisking constantly. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. After about 5–7 minutes, the butter will begin browning and you’ll notice lightly browned specks forming at the bottom of the pan. The butter will have a nutty aroma. Once it’s a light caramel-brown colour, remove from heat and pour everything including any brown bits into the heatproof bowl you set aside. Cool for 10 minutes.
Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and 1 tablespoon honey together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Loosely cover and allow to sit for 5–10 minutes until foamy and frothy on top.
Add the remaining honey, the egg, 6 Tablespoons of the slightly cooled brown butter (reserve the rest for brushing on top of rolls), the salt, sage, thyme, and 1 cup bread flour. With a dough hook, mix/beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then add the remaining bread flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet, beat in more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough. Dough should be soft and a little sticky, but still manageable to knead with lightly floured hands.
Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 5 full minutes. The dough should still feel a little soft. Poke it with your finger—if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise.
Lightly grease a large bowl with oil. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1.5–2 hours or until double in size.
Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.
When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Divide the dough into 14–16 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it—doesn’t need to be perfect) Shape each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange in prepared baking pan.
Cover buns with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise until puffy, about 45–60 minutes.
Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F.
Bake for 23–27 minutes or until golden brown on top, rotating the pan halfway through. If you notice the tops browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil.
Remove rolls from the oven. Reheat remaining browned butter and mix with a pinch of fresh chopped sage. Brush mixture all over warm rolls. If desired, sprinkle tops with coarse sea salt.
Turkey & Mashed Potatoes Casserole
4-6
servings5
minutes30
minutesIngredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
4 cups leftover turkey, shredded
1 cup leftover gravy
Salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream, if necessary
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
Directions
Preheat oven to 400F degrees.
In a large skillet, over medium high heat, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions and garlic until translucent, about 2 minutes.
Add the shredded turkey and sauté with the onions and garlic for a minute. (You could also add whatever leftover vegetables you have at this point). Add the gravy and the parsley and cook until incorporated. Season with salt and pepper, if necessary. Set aside.
If your mashed potatoes have thickened too much in the fridge, add 1/2 cup heavy cream to loosen it up a bit.
Spread 1/4 of the mashed potatoes to the bottom of a lightly greased 9X13-inch baking dish. Layer the turkey filling right on top of that and finish with the remaining mashed potatoes on top.
Sprinkle the parmesan on top and bring the casserole to the oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is bubbly and golden brown. Top with some more parmesan cheese, if desired.
Pumpkin Spice Milkshake
1
serving5
minutesIngredients
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1 tablespoon maple syrup
Garnish: Whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon
Directions
Combine the vanilla ice cream, milk, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and maple syrup in a blender.
Blend until smooth and creamy.
Pour into glass and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Turkey Gnocchi Soup
4
servings20
minutes45
minutesIngredients
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
8 cups turkey/chicken broth
½ cup basmati or jasmine rice, uncooked
2 teaspoons salt
3 carrots, peeled & chopped, divided
2 bay leaves
1 package gnocchi
2 cups leftover turkey, shredded
¾ cup Parmesan, grated
½ teaspoon pepper
Garnish: finely chopped thyme or parsley, grated Parmesan cheese and pepper
Directions
Heat a large Dutch oven or soup pot to medium heat. Add the oil and butter. Swirl the pan a few times until the butter is melted and bubbly.
Add the onion, celery and bell pepper and stir to combine.
Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the onions are translucent, stirring them occasionally. Add the garlic, stir well and cook for another 2 minutes.
Add the broth, rice, salt, bay leaves and 1 cup of carrots. Set the remaining carrots aside for now.
Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce to a steady simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes until the veggies are very tender and the rice is starting to disintegrate. Remove from the heat.
Using an immersion blender, puree the mixture until nice and smooth.
Add the reserved carrots and return the mixture to a simmer. Cook for 14-18 minutes or until the carrots are nice and tender, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Add the gnocchi to the soup and cook for another two minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the turkey, parmesan and black pepper. Stir to combine. Serve with extra grated parmesan, a scatter thyme or parsley and fresh ground pepper.
Check out How Was Your Week, Honey? Episode #449 Rage Baited. This week, we get together to discuss: parents, Social Media, fur coats, kid’s clothes, the Dollar Store, Grad meeting, SOW, & dealing with the world through music.
Thank you to Fiesta Friday for featuring my Steak Pasta Post at their Fiesta Friday Link Party last week.
Friday, September 26 my Mom would have turned 67. Last week we honoured Mommies by donating $67 to each of HBear and SBean’s Terry Fox runs. A wonderful birthday present for an amazing person to a fantastic cause. This week we enjoyed the last of the hot summer days and welcomed a new Sparky Blue to the team. HBear and her BF celebrated their 1 year anniversary, we participated in the Annual Family Hockey Pool and celebrated an early Thanksgiving with the family 💛.
15 thoughts on “Thanksgiving Treats”
Those mashed potato balls are popular I bet! #HappyNow
They sure were! My 12-year-old is in a potato phase and makes herself a baked potato every day after school lol these potatoes balls were a huge hit in our house!
Oh my, now I’m hungry 🙂 The turkey and mashed potato casserole, as well as the turkey gnocchi soup, are going on my menu plan. They look so good. Thank you for sharing!
Yay! I’m a big fan of soup and this one was a really good one but the casserole, Yum! It was like having Thanksgiving all over again lol and you can never go wrong with two Thanksgivings! Thanks for stopping by 😊
We make a very similar leftover turkey casserole and my husband actually looks more forward to the casserole the day after Thanksgiving than he does the actual meal now!
Ha! My husband also said that we should make this casserole a yearly tradition!
You’re right–we really are lucky to have these opportunities to have our kids with us and have family moments. I think the browned butter sage rolls look amazing! I’ll eat just about anything with browned butter. ha Visiting from the Funtastic Friday link party.
I have a big fan of brown butter too! The rolls were absolutely delicious and would have been even better if I would’ve used bread flour like the recipe called for instead of cake flour lol my MS brain strikes again lol thanks for stopping by!
Recipes look really good – nice nod to the traditional dishes. Embers looks like a satisfying read – I love the cover.
Thank you! It was an incredible read, I have bought multiple copies to give out as Christmas gifts this year. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
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What a great gathering for all of you. How special for everyone. These are great recipes and a few I’d like to try. I’m not a fan of pumpkin spice anything, but that milkshake sounds amazing.
Thanks so much for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend. I’m so happy you’re here.
My Kids loved the milkshake but I tend to agree with you, I like my pumpkin spice in pie and maybe a cocktail or 2 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
I usually don’t really read poems, but I really like the sound of Embers! Will be adding to my TBR list. :] Thanks for linking up with me at My Month Is Booked + I want to try out that gnocchi soup + milkshake!
It was a beautiful read, I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for having me, see you next time 🙂