A Sleepover with Cousins

The night before Thanksgiving Red Shoes, Happy Feet & Swoosh's cousins spent the night with us.  We had so much fun with them!  Here's a look at what we did...

We ate meatballs and macaroni and corn casserole for supper.  The kids loved it!

After supper we got the table cleared off and we started making turkeys...not the kind you eat, the kind you look at. Got the idea from here.

These two really had fun making their turkeys.

Such intensity! Red Shoes is so lucky to have such a wonderful cousin.  Seriously, she has one of the kindest hearts. They are good buddies.

We lost the two younger ones...

After the turkeys were finished someone suggested that we play Candy Land.  Seemed like a good idea...

My niece is a much better teacher than I am. She was so patient in teaching the younger kids how to play. 

 They (Happy Feet) need a few more lessons.  She just wanted to slide her player all over the board.

 The part that I feared most was the sleeping (or not sleeping). It went really well. The kids went to sleep without much fuss (they were very tired) and stayed that way for the entire night. Yay!

We can't wait to do it again guys. We love you!



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Mini Pumpkin Tarts

I'm in charge of dessert for Thanksgiving this year.  I thought it would be fun to make mini pumpkin tarts. Since I've never made a tart before, I thought I better do a practice run.

As a young girl I always loved it when there was a little extra dough left over. When that happened (which was almost always) grandma would help me make my very own pie.  That's a very special memory to me.

Crust Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups flour
2 T. sugar
1/8 t. salt
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 large egg
2 T. water

Filling Ingredients:
1/2 of a 15 oz. can of pumpkin
1/2 of a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/8 t. cloves
pinch of salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Place flour, sugar, salt, butter, egg and water in mixer.  Mix until it becomes one large ball of dough
• Roll dough out of floured surface into little circles (my mini tart set has 6 pans)

• Press dough into the pan so it fits into all the edges
• Refrigerate dough for 10 minutes

• Remove dough from refrigerator and line the tarts with aluminum foil. Place dry rice in each lined tart pan to keep the crust from bubbling up during the baking process.

• Bake for 17-18 minutes
• Remove the tart from the oven and remove the foil and rice. Return to the oven until for another 3-5 minutes or until the tarts edges are golden.
• Cool tarts
• Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees.
• In a saucepan, on low heat stir together the pumpkin, salt and spices for 2-3 minutes.
• Add sweetened condensed milk and heat until their are bubbles around the edges (not boiling).
• Remove from heat and whisk in an egg until combined
• Pour the filling into the cooled shell and bake for 15 minutes, or until the filling is set but still wobbly.

   Be sure to use lots of whipping cream and sprinkle with some pumpkin pie spice.

They turned out pretty cute. Red Shoes and Happy Feet were begging for more. My husband asked if he could take one for lunch tomorrow. I think they're all glad that I need a little more practice.

These would make nice gifts for friends or maybe someone who is living alone or might not be celebrating the holidays with their family. Just wrap it up and print off a pretty little Thanksgiving tag.  You can find the tags HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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