Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Archive for the ‘Thanksgiving’ Category

New For 2009!  We’ve taken classic Oreo cookies and dipped them in milk, dark and white Belgian chocolate to create a one-of-a-kind treat for Thanksgiving.  A golden round box holds 16 of our chocolate dipped Oreos that are sprinkled with colorful autumn leaf confetti in oranges, yellows and reds. Then we add various hand-made royal icing decorations such as pilgrims, turkeys, and cobs of corn.  Each cookie is nestled in the round gift box to create our Thanksgiving Oreo Cookie Wheel.

We offer a wide range of Thanksgiving Gifts & Baskets that offer a perfect way to thank the host/hostess for entertaining you and your family during the Thanksgiving holiday.  Our gifts start at just $15 so be sure to check them out!

Although turkeys may want Americans to eat more ham, we all know that turkey will be eaten by about 90% of people on Thanksgiving Day.  If you’ve got family coming to your house for the big turkey day celebration, consider gathering some craft supplies so the kids can have some fun making their own gobblers to decorate the house.  Photo courtesy of Glitter Graphics.

Here are some of my favorite resources for turkey crafts:

http://familyfun.go.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-craft-decorations/thanksgiving-turkey-crafts/

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/turkey_crafts.html

http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/thanksgiving_crafts.htm

http://familycrafts.about.com/od/turkeycraft1/Turkey_Crafts.htm

http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/thanksgiving-turkeyscraftsideaskids.html

Be sure to check out our Turkey Box Cookie Gift Bouquet to use as an adorable centerpiece on your Thanksgiving table….it comes filled with 12 mini cookies inside a turkey shaped container for just $22.

The harvest festival of Thanksgiving – in Canada, the second Monday in October – has wandered around the calendar more than most holidays:

• The first North American celebration was in Canada’s eastern
  Arctic in 1578, by explorer Martin Frobisher.
• New England’s Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving in autumn 1621, ‘with turkey, squash, and pumpkin. This festival was brought to
  Canada as early as 1750. Abraham Lincoln made it an official
  U.S. holiday in 1863.
• From 1819 to 1921, Canada’s official Thanksgiving was November 6. In 1931, it reverted to the second or third Monday in October, except for 1935 when it was held on a Thursday. In 1957,
  Ottawa formalized the present date.

The laws and representative institutions of England were first introduced into the New World in the settlement of Virginia: some years later a principle as unknown to England as it was to the greater part of Europe found its home in another colony, which received its name of Maryland from Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles the First. Calvert, Lord Baltimore, one of the best of the Stuart counselors, was forced by his conversion to Catholicism to seek a shelter for himself and colonists of his new faith in the district across the Potomac, and round the head of the Chesapeake. As a purely Catholic settlement was impossible, he resolved to open the new colony to men of every faith. “No person within this province,” ran the earliest law of Maryland, “professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall be in any ways troubled, molested, or discountenanced for his or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof.”

Long however before Lord Baltimore’s settlement in Maryland, only a few years indeed after the settlement of Smith in Virginia, the church of Brownist or Independent refugees, whom we saw driven in the reign of James to Amsterdam, had resolved to quit Holland and find a home in the wilds of the New World. They were little disheartened by the tidings of suffering which came from the Virginian settlement. “Weare well weaned,” wrote their minister, John Robinson, “from the delicate milk of the mother-country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land: the people are industrious and frugal. We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other’s good and of the whole. It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage.”

Returning from Holland to Southampton, they started in two small vessels for the new land; but one of these soon put back, and only its companion, the Mayflower, a bark of a hundred and eighty tons, with forty-one emigrants and their families on board, persisted in prosecuting its voyage. The little company of the “Pilgrim Fathers,” as after-times loved to call them, landed on the barren coast of Massachusetts at a spot to which they gave the name of Plymouth, in memory of the last English port at which they touched. They had soon to face the long hard winter of the north, to bear sickness and famine: even when these years of toil and suffering had passed there was a time when “they knew not at night where to have a bit in the morning.” Resolute and industrious as they were, their progresses was very slow; and at the end of ten years they numbered only three hundred souls. But small as it was, the colony was now firmly established and the struggle for mere existence was over. “Let it not be grievous unto you,” some of their brethren had written from England to the poor emigrants in the midst of their sufferings, “that you have been instrumental to break the ice for others. The honor shall be yours to the world’s end.”

From the moment of their establishment the eyes of the English Puritans were fixed on the little Puritan settlement in North America. Through the early years of Charles projects were canvassed for a new settlement beside the little Plymouth; and the aid which the merchants of Boston in Lincolnshire gave to the realization of this project was acknowledged in the name of its capital. At the moment when he was dissolving his third Parliament, Charles granted the charter which established the colony of Massachusetts; and by the Puritans at large the grant was at once regarded as a providential call. Out of the failure of their great constitutional struggle, and the pressing danger to “godliness” in England, rose the dream of a land in the West where religion and liberty could find a safe and lasting home. The Parliament was hardly dissolved, when “conclusions” for the establishment of a great colony on the other side the Atlantic were circulating among gentry and traders, and descriptions of the new country of Massachusetts were talked over in every Puritan household.

The proposal was welcomed with the quiet, stern enthusiasm which marked the temper of the time; but the words of a well-known emigrant show how hard it was even for the sternest enthusiasts to tear themselves from their native land. “I shall call that my country,” said the younger Winthrop, in answer to feelings of this sort, “where I may most glorify God and enjoy the presence of my dearest friends.’ The answer was accepted, and the Puritan emigration began on a scale such as England had never before seen. The two hundred who first sailed for
Salem were soon followed by John Winthrop with eight hundred men; and seven hundred more followed ere the first year of the king’s personal rule had run its course. Nor were the emigrants, like the earlier colonists of the South, “broken men,” adventurers, bankrupts, criminals; or simply poor men and artisans, like the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower. They were in great part men of the professional and middle classes; some of them men of large landed estate some zealous clergymen like Cotton, Hooker, and Roger Williams, some shrewd London lawyers, or young scholars from Oxford.

The bulk of these were God-fearing farmers from Lincolnshire and the Eastern counties. They desired in fact “only the best” as sharers in their enterprise; men driven forth from their fatherland not by earthly want, or by the greed of gold, or by the lust of adventure, but by the fear of God, and the zeal for a godly worship. But strong as was their zeal, it was not without a wrench that they tore themselves from their English homes. “Farewell, dear England!” was the cry which burst from the first little company of emigrants as its shores faded from their sight. “Our hearts,” wrote Winthrop’s followers to the brethren whom they had left behind, “shall be fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages in the wilderness.”

During the next two years, as the sudden terror which had found so violent an outlet in Eliot’s warnings died for the moment away, there was a lull in the emigration. But the measures of Laud soon revived the panic of the Puritans. The shrewdness of James had read the very heart of the man when Buckingham pressed for his first advancement to the see of St. David’s. “He hath a restless spirit,” said the old King,” which cannot see when things are well, but loves to toss and change, and to bring matters to a pitch of reformation floating in his own brain. Take him with you, but by my soul you will repent it.” Cold, pedantic, superstitious as he was (he notes in his diary the entry of a robin-redbreast into his study as a matter of grave moment), William Laud rose out of the mass of court-prelates by his industry, his personal unselfishness, his remarkable capacity for administration.

We can hardly wonder that with such a world around them “godly people in England began to apprehend a special hand of Providence in raising this plantation” in Massachusetts; “and their hearts were generally stirred to come over.” It was in vain that weaker men returned to bring news of hardships and dangers, and told how two hundred of the new comers had perished with their first winter. A letter from Winthrop told how the rest toiled manfully on. “We now enjoy God and Jesus Christ,” he wrote to those at home, “and is not that enough?

I thank God I like so well to be here as I do not repent my coming. I would not have altered my course though I had foreseen all these afflictions. I never had more content of mine’.” With the strength and manliness of Puritanism, its bigotry and narrowness had crossed the
Atlantic too. Roger Williams, a young minister who held the doctrine of freedom of conscience, was driven from the new settlement, to become a preacher among the settlers of Rhode Island. The bitter resentment stirred in the emigrants by persecution at home was seen in their rejection of Episcopacy and their prohibition of the use of the Book of Common Prayer. The intensity of its religious sentiments turned the colony into a theocracy. “To the end that the body of the Commons may be preserved of honest and good men, it was ordered and agreed that for the time to come no man shall be admitted to the freedom of the body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within the bounds of the same.” As the contest grew hotter at home the number of Puritan emigrants rose fast. Three thousand new colonists arrived from
England in a single year. The growing stream of emigrants marks the terrible pressure of the time. Between the sailing of Winthrop’s expedition and the assembly of the Long Parliament, in the space, that is, of ten or eleven years, two hundred emigrant ships had crossed the
Atlantic, and twenty thousand Englishmen had found a refuge of hope for a better tomorrow.

Since that time, nearly four hundred years later, we continue to give renewing thanks at this time of year; that each and every tomorrow is better than all of our yester-years.

The principal feature of a Christmas dinner is usually the turkey. I have seen young housewives as ignorant about the preparation of a fowl for the table as if she had never eaten one. Hence we will give in detail the different processes through which the Christmas turkey goes before he finds himself under the carver’s knife.

To Prepare a Live Turkey

There is a right and wrong way to kill a turkey. The proper way is to tie the turkey up by the feet to a nail in the wall. Hang a weight, a small flat iron will do, around the head of the fowl, and just before the weight is let down, pierce the artery in the neck with a small sharp knife. This allows the fowl to bleed without getting the blood over the feathers and body. When the turkey is dressed and cleaned immediately for family use this, of course, is not so particular.

To Dress a
Turkey

Pluck the feathers. When the turkey is very young, the skin is often so tender that it is severely broken during the plucking process. This detracts from the appearance of the fowl, so it usually is better to scald the fowl in boiling water. Then the feathers can be easily plucked. The fowl must be merely dipped in the water and removed almost immediately.

The hair and down are removed by singeing. This is done by holding the turkey over a flame (burning paper does nicely), and constantly changing its position until all parts have been exposed to the flame. Cut off the head and pull out the pin feathers by means of a small pointed knife. Cut through the skin around the leg one and one-half inches below the leg joint, care being taken to not cut the tendons; place the leg at this cut over the edge of the table, press downward to snap the bone, then take foot in right hand, holding bird firmly in left hand and pull off the foot, and with it the tendons.

In old birds, the tendons must be drawn separately, which is best accomplished by using a steel skewer. This may not be very easy but the tendons are very tough and sinewy and make the drumstick not so pleasant eating as when they are removed.

Next make an incision through the skin below the breast bone at one side of the vent. Cut around the vent and if care has been taken, the hand can be inserted and the whole contents, entrails, gizzard, heart and liver, can be withdrawn without breaking the sack which contains them. The gizzard, heart and liver constitute the giblets.

The gall bladder lies under the liver and great care must be taken that it be not broken, as a small quantity of the bile which it contains would impart a bitter taste to the parts with which it comes in contact.

Enclosed by the ribs on either side of the backbone may be found the lungs of soft consistency and red color. Every part of them must be removed. The kidneys lie in the hollows near the end of the backbone, and must also be removed. Place two fingers under the skin at the neck and pull out the windpipe. Also, the crop (which should be empty) will be found adhering to the skin close to the breast.

Drawn down the skin and cut off the neck close to the body, leaving the skin much longer to turn back under the body. Remove the oil bag on the top of the tail, and wash the fowl but do not allow it to soak in water. Wipe inside and out, looking carefully to see that everything has been withdrawn.

Separate the gall bladder from the liver, cutting off all parts that have a greenish tinge. Remove the arteries, veins, and clotted blood from the heart. Cut the fat and membranes from the gizzard. Make a gash through the thickest part of the gizzard and cut as far as the inner lining, being careful not to pierce it. Remove and discard the inner sack. Wash giblets and cook until tender with the neck and tips of wings, putting them in cold water and bringing water to a boil that some of the flavor may be drawn out into the stock which is to be used for making gravy.

To Stuff a
Turkey

Put stuffing by spoonfuls in neck end, using enough to make the bird look plump when served. Allowance must be made for the swelling of crackers; otherwise the skin may burst during the cooking. Stuff the body and sew up the skin.

To Truss a
Turkey

Draw thighs close to body and hold by inserting a steel skewer under middle joint, running it through the body, coming out under middle joint on the other side. Fasten the legs together at the ends and tie securely with a long string to the tail. Place wings close to the body and hold them by inserting a second skewer through the wing, body and the wing on the other side. Draw the skin under the back and fasten with a small wood skewer.

This trussing makes a bird look plump and fat.

To Roast a Turkey

Place on its back on a rack in a dripping pan. Rub entire surface with salt, and spread breast and legs with three tablespoons of butter mixed with two tablespoons of flour. Dredge the bottom of the pan with flour. Place in a hot oven, and when the flour is browned reduce the heat, and baste. Add two cups hot water. Baste every ten minutes until the fowl is done, which will be about three hours.

During the cooking, turn the turkey often that it may brown evenly. Before serving, remove strings and skewers. Garnish with parsley or celery tips. Do not neglect this last as it greatly increases the appearance of the bird and appearance goes a long way toward enticing the appetite.

Giblet Gravy

Pour off the liquid in the roasting pan. Return six tablespoons of fat to the pan and brown with six tablespoons of flour. Pour on very gradually three cups of liquor in which the giblets, etc., were cooked. Cook five minutes, season with salt and pepper; strain and add the finely chopped giblets.

Stuffing

Remove the crust from a loaf of stale bread, crumb it thoroughly, add powdered sage or poultry dressing, salt and pepper. Pour over a half a cup of boiling water in which one half cup of butter has been melted.

To Carve a
Turkey

The bird should be placed on its back, with legs at right of platter for carving. Introduce carving fork across breastbone, hold firmly in left hand. With the carving knife, cut through skin between leg and body, close to body. With the knife pull back the leg and disjoint from the body. Then cut off the wings. Remove the leg and wing from the other side. Slice the meat from the breast in thin crosswise slices. Remove the fork and disjoint the legs and wings. Serve a slice of white meat with each piece of dark meat.

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday of October. Each year Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day with a bountiful feast but how many Canadians actually know the true history of Thanksgiving?After our most recent Thanksgiving celebration, I was asked by an individual in another country what was the reason why we celebrated the occasion and what the meaning was. Failing an answer and feeling like a complete idiot, I immediately looked to the Internet to look up why we celebrated this special occasion. How embarrassing it was that I could not answer such a simple question of the most celebrated holiday.

Thanksgiving traditions began hundreds of years ago, back when the explorers first came to our land and brought with them the tradition from Europe.

At harvest time, farmers in Europe celebrated and gave thanks for a bountiful harvest and would often fill a goat’s horn with fruit and grains. This was known as a cornucopia or horn of good plenty.

The first North American Thanksgiving is traced back to 1578. Martin Frobisher, an English Navigator, held a formal ceremony in what is now called Newfoundland. This ceremony was held to give thanks for surviving the long journey across the Atlantic.

After crossing the ocean and forty years later, French settlers led by Samuel de Champlain in Nova Scotia would hold huge feasts of thanks. They formed the “Order of Good Cheer.”

In 1621 the American pilgrims gave thanks for the bounty that ended a year of hardship and death. It was at this time when the “turkey” made its first appearance at the feast.

Canadian Thanksgiving was first celebrated as a national holiday on November 6, 1879. However, there was no set date for this celebration and many dates were used after that. Finally in 1957, Parliament proclaimed the second Monday of October as “a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed.”

Families and friends across Canada celebrate the special occasion with a feast that includes turkey, gravy, vegetables and pumpkin pie.

On this day we should not forget all that we have to be thankful for. Not only should we be thankful for the food we have, but for the wonderful friends and family we are blessed with. Take this special day and say “thank you” to these wonderful people for blessing your life with their love, support and joy. Thank you gift baskets are a fabulous way to show your appreciation.

Since the first Thanksgiving was celebrated, we have so much more to give thanks for. Take a look around and you will see how truly blessed you are!

The typical US household devours turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, bread rolls and of course pumpkin or cherry pie for the big Thanksgiving holiday. So here are some fun facts regarding these delights.  

The average American consumes over 13 pounds of turkey a year and it would be fairly safe to assume that a few pounds were consumed during the Thanksgiving week.  Likewise the average American consumes about 4.7 pounds of sweet potatoes in a one year time period. 

According to the USDA, over 265 million turkeys will be raised in the US this year with about 20% being raised in Minnesota (tops all states in turkey production). US farmers will earn over $2.7 billion from raising turkeys this year. And don’t forget the cranberries! The US produces over 650 million pounds of cranberries with over 50% being grown in the great state of Wisconsin. Whether topped with marshmallows or a brown sugar – pecan mix, sweet potatoes are a Thanksgiving staple. Nearly 1.6 billion pounds of sweet potatoes are grown in the US with the majority grown in North Carolina. With 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins and 256 million pounds of tart cherries being grown each year in the US, Mom should have plenty to bake a fantastic Thanksgiving pie. 

The US average price was $1.07 per pound for a full size frozen turkey in 2005.

Want to get yourself in the Thanksgiving spirit? Well how about a visit to one of the 3 towns named “Turkey” in the US.  So this year maybe you should consider celebrating Turkey Day in Turkey, Texas!