your thanksgiving breakfast and a giveaway winner

The older I get the more I love and long for the holidays. Any excuse I can get to have my whole family in one place eating together, I’ll take it. But I have never been a huge lover of Thanksgiving {something about stuffing yourself silly on foods that are only ‘good’ because you have them once a year – if they were truly that good wouldn’t you eat them more than just once? – has never been that appealing to me}. For some reason I can’t wait for it this year! And this is what I hope to be eating for breakfast, pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes with vanilla whip cream.

This recipe is barely even a recipe its so simple {thank you Trader Joes} so its the perfect thing to make the morning of a marathon day of cooking. You should probably put it on your Thanksgiving menu too, you will not be sad you did.

Warning: this recipe is anything but exact so if you have a phobia of recipes that tell you to use your best judgement, its time to be brave, you can do it.

Ingredients

Pancakes
Trader Joes Multigrain Pancake Mix {or any pancake mix but this is THE BEST}
Eggs, Oil, Milk {amount varies depending on how many pancakes you are making}
1-2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
~1/3 of a 15 oz can of pumpkin {for 6-8 pancakes}
chocolate chips for sprinkling

Whip Cream
Heavy Whipping Cream
Vanilla
Powdered Sugar

Directions

Prepare pancake mix according to the directions on the box, whisk in pumpkin until smooth. If you need to add a little extra milk to bring it back to batter consistency {you want it to be easily pourable but not too runny}. Heat a pan over medium heat, use a little butter or non-stick spray so pancakes don’t stick. Pour pancake batter into pan and sprinkle {generously} with chocolate chips. Flip pancakes when the underside is golden brown and the top begins to bubble. Let pancakes finish cooking and serve hot with a giant scoop of vanilla whip cream.

For the whip cream, pour whip cream, vanilla and powdered sugar into bowl use a mixer to whip the cream until it looks like something you would want to put on pancakes. {The specific amount of vanilla and powdered sugar is up to you, I like mine super vanilla-y  and slightly sweet.}

Happy Thanksgiving Morning!

And now for the giveaway winner!

Congratulations! You will be contacted by me via email with details on how to pick your prize!

Thank you all for entering and spreading the word about my shop. I’ve already had to re-stock and will continue to do so over the next couple of weeks!

I am giving myself a little Thanksgiving Vacation so have a happy holiday and I’ll be back next week!

fabric feathers

I had great plans to leave you with a tutorial for the weekend, a little project to add to your Thanksgiving decor, but the shop has been more successful than I expected {thanks to all of you who have entered the giveaway and passed the word along!} So today is a ‘re-stock the shop’ day to make sure there will be plenty of collections to choose from for whoever wins the giveaway!

What I will do is direct you to the tutorial that inspired my fabric feather creations.

So check out the fabric feather tutorial at 100 Layer Cake.

When I made mine I used iron-on fabric fusing instead of a glue stick to bind the two sides together. It’s what I had laying around and it seemed less messy, I would definitely do it this way again. Feathers are everywhere right now and I think these would be the perfect touch to add to your Thanksgiving place cards or to add a special touch to hostess gifts.

Have a great weekend! There are still a few days left to enter the giveaway and there will be more products back up in the shop in a couple of days!

baked potato soup

The fall just makes me want soup. I don’t know if its the crispness of the air, the shorter days or the sweaters and scarfs but soup just feels right. This is one of my favorite fall soups because it is so easy and so budget friendly. It’s possible that one of the reasons I love it most is because of all the indulgent toppings – some times I’m not sure if I eat soup for the soup or for the deliciousness that comes on top, true confession.

Baked Potato Soup:
slightly modified from cooking light

Ingredients

4 baking potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds)
6 cups 2% reduced-fat milk
1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup reduced-fat sour cream
optional – a couple of teaspoons of hot sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pierce potatoes with a fork and bake for 1 hour or until tender. Once potatoes are cool enough to handle peel away and discard skins. Roughly mash potatoes and set aside. I usually do this part earlier in the day so dinner comes together quickly later. Pour milk into a large pot over medium heat. Heat until just before boiling stirring frequently to keep from scalding. Once milk is heated through add potatoes and continue to mash until soup thickens. Add cheese and stir until melted. Add salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste.

Serve topped with a sprinkle of cheese, bacon, green onions or chives and a scoop of sour cream.

*I haven’t tried this yet so I didn’t want to put it in the actual recipe but I think the next time I make this soup I’ll saute some finely chopped onions and minced garlic before adding the milk because a garlic makes everything better!Don’t forget to enter my fall giveaway!