Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I LOVE thanksgiving! And this year I was especially excited for the food after being in Korea for so long. 

My Turkey Veggie platter 

I made a cornucopia based on this link from Pinterest. 

My cornucopia turned out to be smaller than I thought so I had leftover pizza dough and I made cheesy bread too. 

This is the cornucopia prebake.

Cornucopia & rolls: my brothers said I should have had more color contrast but I didn't feel like preparing something to put in the cornucopia 

I was also inspired to make more mini pies. This time I made pumpkin pie (for the first time! Thanks Maria for looking up the recipe for me when I shopped for ingredients!)

My mini pumpkin pies prebake, midbake and post.

My brothers deep fried a turkey for the second year in a row- tasted even better than last year 

Pre and post pics

The finished products (fried turkey and baked turkey- both were delish!) Koala approved of the turkey. She didn't really eat much but she ate a lot of turkey!

And the sides! Ah my favorite! I was sooo stuffed & satisfied after eating. (Garlicky Butternut squash, green beans & green bean casserole, mac n cheese, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, chap chae)

Carbs, carbs, carbs! Yesterday at my doctor's appointment, I was given my slip for my glucose test for my pregnancy. Thankfully, they said I could do it next week which meant I could enjoy all the carbs I wanted for thanksgiving! 

Decorations were simple this year: gold chargers and pumpkins!

Aside from being thankful for the food, I have many things to be thankful for- so many things but I'll list just 5.

1) I'm thankful for my Hubby. This year he went on a business trip- I think the first trip since we had Koala. I realized how much I need him and how much he helps out around the house. I'm thankful for him because we make a good team together. He's a good husband and dad. 

2.) I'm thankful for Koala- she is such a gift from God. She brings so much joy to our lives and makes me laugh even when she's dramatically crying. 

3) I'm thankful for Baby Boy and that he is healthy and the pregnancy is going well. I can't wait to meet him and see how he grows.

4) I'm thankful for my parents. They are so sacrificial and loving and I'm thankful that I live close to them so that we can spend time together. It was great being able to travel with them recently. I love that they adore Koala and love to spend time with her. I'm so thankful for my mom who watches Koala all the time and offers to help me out when she knows I'm tired, even though she's probably tired herself. She says that she is amazed at the mom I am and I say that I'm only the mom I am because I'm trying to be half the mom that she is. 

5.) I'm thankful for my siblings and the friendship that we have. I hope that Koala and Baby Boy can share that type of friendship when they grow up. 

Oops that's 5- I'll just list 2 more:

6.) I'm thankful for my friends who go the extra mile! Too many examples to list and I don't wanna forget anyone- I should thank them personally! 

7.) I'm thankful for my new job. Hubby told me that I don't complain about work anymore and I told him it's cause there's nothing to complain about. I'm thankful that God opened up this job at just the right time. 

I'm thankful for this time of year that I can remember all the blessings God gives me! I know I should be thankful everyday! 

Give Thanks!

Gender reveal & Koala's birthday party

October was a busy month so I decided to have a joint birthday party for Koala and a gender reveal since I could only find one day that I could have it. 

Initially, I planned on having separate parties so I already had planned the themes- Pororo for Koala's party and a fall pumpkin theme for the gender reveal. I decided to keep the themes separate so that later Koala wouldn't feel like she was being pushed out by her new sibling.   It worked out because I only had to bake one dessert and split them between the tables!

The dessert table for Koala's party. For some reason, it looks pretty bare compared to the gender reveal side. 

For Koala's party, I used the fondant toppers that I had from our immediate family celebration and added some new cupcake toppers. 

I decided to have oreo truffles and use them as the bodies of the characters and just print out the heads for them. My friend Maria came and helped me with the desserts! 

Maria made the oreo truffles and matched the colors  to the bodies perfectly! 

More oreo truffles 

Maria is an awesome baker so she convinced me we needed (and had time) to make sugar cookies too. 

I later took all the leftover desserts to work & got the most compliments on how great the cookies tasted!

The cake was similar to the small party I had except I ordered this one instead of making it. It was chocolate chocolate chip with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting. 

Gender reveal

The gender reveal dessert table 

I wanted to do a fall theme and came across some ideas on Pinterest. I decided for the menu to do a Chili bar. We had regular chili and white chicken chili, baked potatoes with onions, chives, cheese, sour cream and fritos for the toppings. 

Sides included bread, corn bread, and a veggie tray. We had cold and hot apple cider for drinks.

I also made a fruit arrangement with the #2 for Koala's birthday but I guess it also works for baby #2. 

(My feeble attempt at chalkboard art 10 mins before the party started) 

Plates, bowls, cups and utensil station

For the desserts, I wanted to go with fall type desserts. 

We made mini caramel apples. I used a melon baller to make the mini apples.  Initially I made them with pretzels as the stick but I later realized that was a bad idea because the pretzels got soggy. In the end we decided to use lollipop sticks and straws.

Mini caramel apples attempt #1

The caramel apples were a lot harder to make than I thought. I thought I could just dip them in caramel but the caramel is very finicky. It would either not stick or would stick but then would run off the apples. They tasted ok but I don't think I'll ever make them again!

We also made mini apple pies and mini blueberry pies. 

Prebake

Finished product in the background

The mini pies were so yummy! I wish I was eating one right now! 

The cupcakes were actually pumpkin muffins that I put cheesecake in the middle. 

We topped the muffins with buttercream frosting and either a Pororo fondant topper or pumpkin topper. Koala approved of them- she ate one (without frosting) and was walking around the house saying 'mmmmmm' as she ate it.

 

Cupcakes with the pumpkin toppers

I had leftover cheesecake mix to make a cheesecake as well. 

The gender reveal table also had fresh homemade (not by me but by the apple farm) doughnuts. 

For the actual reveal, I took a pumpkin and carved it from the bottom. At the ultrasound, I had taken two brown paper bags- one with Pororo in it and one with Petty. 

I asked the ultrasound tech to write yes on the bag that has the correct gender and no on the other bag. Then when I carved the pumpkin, I put the bag in and dumped in the toy. 

The pumpkin was the centerpiece of the gender reveal dessert table. At the party, we carved off the top and Koala pulled out the toy to reveal....

... It's a boy! 

(Sorry, not the best pic) 

All in all, it was a fun birthday/gender reveal party. 

Playing with fondant

I've always wanted to work with fondant. I have friends who are awesome at cake decorating & I always thought it would be great to learn because ordering a fondant decorated cake is expensive. I even looked into the classes at Michael's & Joann's but I didn't want to have to take the 2 intro classes  they required before you can take the fondant class. So it took me a while to try it. I started out with simple whale fondant toppers for a friend's baby shower.

Fondant cupcake toppers made with a homemade fondant cutter

I also made the fondant whale toppers for the cake.

My nephew- Chunky Monkey's first birthday is coming up and I volunteered to help with desserts & even told my sister I would make fondant toppers if she wanted. I must've mentioned fondant a lot because for my birthday she got me this awesome Wilton starter set that has all the tools you need to start off with.

I decided to make something with fondant for Koala's birthday. We had a small immediate family birthday celebration on her birthday and I thought that would be great practice for her real birthday. 

This was my first real attempt at fondant decorating- Pororo cake toppers.

I bought blue fondant and white, which I dyed to make the other colors. I also looked  up tutorials on Pinterest & came across this awesome step by step tutorial. It's not in English but the pictures were helpful.  Mine didn't come out as cute as the tutorial but not bad for my first try.

I also made these cupcake toppers.

Finally, I made a 4 inch two layer cake that I covered in fondant. The edge on the bottom was very bumpy so I added the ribbon. (After I made the cake I watched a YouTube video on how to do it- should have watched that before!)

I had printed out these Pororo cutouts to use as decoration but didn't have anywhere to put them so I stuck them in the cake too.


Working with the fondant was actually a lot of fun! I can't wait to use it again!