Hands Off Baking & Gearing Up For Thanksgiving

Brace yourself for a long, somewhat random, post. You have been warned.

I love when I can get credit for making something, but in reality a machine does all the work. We tested out a new recipe in the bread machine this weekend, Cinnamon Sugar Swirl Raisin Bread. Yum! This bread did take more manual labor than the others I've tried. Just like the others you throw all the ingredients in the machine and let it mix, rise, knead again and such. Then when it beeps you have to be available and ready to roll it out, dust the cinnamon, sugar and raisins on and then roll it up. You can tell this was our first attempt and the bread is a little lopsided. You live and you learn. We made a second batch for a co-worker of Joe's and that one was almost perfection.

Well I guess we tried out two new recipes. We've been toying with the idea of Strawberry Rhubarb Jam for a while, but the grocery store didn't have any rhubarb. I should have known the last time I saw it in the store it wouldn't be there a couple weeks later. Oh well, we improvised by adding extra strawberries and just calling it good ol' strawberry jam. It only made two small mason jars that weren't even completely full. Next time we'll learn and double the batch because this stuff will be gone quick.

We also were productive this weekend by picking out a large enough table to seat eight this Thanksgiving. We have been torn between buying a nice dining room table or something more temporary. After searching for deals at furniture stores we couldn't believe how expensive large tables run for! With Thanksgiving creeping closer we decided it was time to buy this folding table with folding chairs. I will point out the chairs are very plush and nice. Plus we'll add a table cloth and nice place settings to make it look nice.

Here's another angle, but the lighting is bad. Now all we need is the table to be set and lots of happy people around it!

Speaking of furniture stores, I bought a Groupon for Ashley Furniture Homestore a loooong time ago. Basically I spent $50 for the Groupon that was a coupon for $150 at the store. Yes, I'd like $100 for free since we knew we'd need to start buying furniture for the house (such as a dining room table?) Well, we held on to the Groupon for a while, browsed the store and still couldn't come up with something worth spending the money on. We were forced to take a trip to the store this last weekend since the Groupon expires today. Here's a look into what we came up with.

We bought these fun pillows to match our brown couch. When we bought this couch it came with two pillows and we were given the option to pick out the fabric for them. Figuring we'd just buy some later on once we settled on some we liked, we just got two pillows in the same fabric as the couch. Now these new pillows are much more comfortable and add a little pattern to the room.

We picked up this woven tray that will be nice to use as decoration or function around the house. Here I have it sitting on the table in our entryway with a candle and small pumpkin. I bought a bundle of the small pumpkins and have them scattered throughout the house. I love fall!

We also bought a large basket that matches the tray above. This will be great to store blankets or yarn (for when I crochet of course... more on my latest project next week). Here the basket is sitting next to the chair and fire place. Please cut me some slack on these pictures, it was dark already by the time I got around to taking them so they're a bit grainy. Oh and look, there's the two brown pillows we got when the couch!

And last but not least, this guy. I'm not quite sure what to call him. A clear glass vase with lid? That doesn't much matter, what matters is how cool he is. Can you just picture this filled with Christmas ornaments come December? I can't wait to start changing up the items I put inside.