The Fourth Day of Thanksgiving {This the Day of Thanksgiving}

On the fourth day of Thanksgiving, this the day of Thanksgiving, make some delicious and fun appetizers.

The first appetizer I made was a Veggie Turkey, basically a vegetable tray designed in the shape of a turkey. This is simple and super cute to make. Pair it with ranch dressing or your favorite veggie dip.

Ingredients needed:
Lettuce
Baby carrots
Colored bell peppers: I used red, yellow and orange, you could also use green
Cucumbers
Celery
Cloves

Try to use a round tray to help with the shape. First spread the lettuce out on your tray. Then line up the carrots at the top in a half circle. Then slice the bell peppers and cut each one in half. Save the end of the orange or green one for the face and cut a tiny piece of the yellow and red one for the beak and gobbler thing. Spread out the scalloped pieces of pepper underneath the carrots. Then slice up the cucumber and pile the pieces in a circle under the peppers for the body. Take the orange or green pepper top for the head and place it on top of the cucumbers. Then take two cloves and stick them in for the eyes. Break the tip off of two toothpicks to attach the beak and gobbler. If you'd like, cut two pieces off a stalk of celery and cut the middle out of each piece to make feet for your turkey. Once you put it all together it makes an adorable veggie tray that looks like a turkey!

The other appetizer I decided to make was a cranberry dip. I wasn't sure how it would turn out but everyone in my family loved it! It's delicious and fairly easy to make.

Ingredients:
1 12 oz package of fresh cranberries
1/4 C green onion, chopped
1/4 C cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper (optional, I left this out)
1 1/4 C sugar
1/4 t cumin
2 T lemon juice
dash salt (I forgot to do this but it tasted fine without)
2 8 oz packages cream cheese

1. Put your cranberries in a food processor.
2. Chop up your green onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper into small pieces.
3. Add all ingredients (but the cream cheese) into a bowl. Mix them all together, cover and store in the fridge, the original recipe I read said for 4 hours but I did it for about 10 minutes and it was a fine.
4. When you are ready to serve, place your cream cheese bricks on a plate.
5. Spread the cream cheese out as evenly as you can.
6. Pour your cranberry mixture over the cream cheese.
7. Spread it all around.
8. Serve immediately with crackers.

I spread mine on a plate and it was a little runny so I'd recommend a shallow bowl or dish.

The Second Day of Thanksgiving

On the second day of Thanksgiving, make an affordable centerpiece for your turkey day table. You can get all the supplies you need at the dollar store for a $4 piece of art!

Supplies Needed:
Hurricane vase
Candlestick holder
Candle in a jar
Fall leaves (can get pretty real ones outdoors or buy fake ones)
Hot glue gun

You simply glue the hurricane vase to the candlestick holder. You then place the candle inside the vase. You can glue the candle in there but I prefer not to so you can easily replace the candle with a new one when it burns down.

Once you have your basic centerpiece, you can add colorful fall leaves to make it pretty. My original plan was to find some pretty leaves outside but it is raining and gross out today so I didn't get a chance. I had purchased some fall table confetti that was made of fall colored glittery foam leaves that I decided might work well.

I was pleased with the end result. I might add another bag of the little leaves just to make it look more full. I can also easily remove these leaves and add real ones or something else to change up the look. You can make this centerpiece themed for all occasions by changing up the decoration inside. Have fun and get creative!

The 5 Days of Thanksgiving

There are lots of different options for countdowns but for Thanksgiving, aside from starting on November 1, I wasn't sure what the best number to attempt would be. Ultimately I decided 5 made the most sense. You have 3 days to count up to Thanksgiving, turkey day itself and Black Friday or creative Thanksgiving leftover ideas for the day after. Stay tuned next week for some fun Thanksgiving themed blogs as I go through my version of the "5 days of Thanksgiving."