It’s turkey time! This Thanksgiving, give your family and friends a turkey they will love and remember. Stuffed and basted with fresh herbs and essential oils, this turkey will not only be extremely flavorful and aromatic, but will also be the highlight of your Thanksgiving feast.
WARNING: You will most likely be asked to provide this turkey for all future Thanksgiving dinners after you serve this star. Serve at your own risk.
Ingredients: 1 (13-pound) turkey 1 onion, peeled and quartered
Divide These Ingredients in Half: 2 sprigs rosemary 2 drops dōTERRA rosemary essential oil 3 sprigs fresh thyme 1 drop dōTERRA thyme essential oil 2 cloves garlic, slivered
Cider Baste: 1/4 cup apple cider concentrate 2 drops dōTERRA wild orange essential oil 1 drop dōTERRA lemon essential oil 2 tsp. olive oil 1 toothpick dōTERRA thyme essential oil 1/4 tsp. salt Freshly ground black pepper
Directions: Remove giblets from turkey. Place turkey on a rack and stuff with the onion and half of the rosemary, thyme, and garlic mixture. Loosen the skin from the turkey breast and place the remaining half of the mixture under the skin.
To prepare the baste, stir together the cider concentrate, wild orange essential oil, lemon essential oil, olive oil, thyme, salt, and pepper.
Roast the turkey in a preheated 325-degree oven, basting every 30 minutes with the cider baste until an internal temperature reaches at least 165 degrees in the innermost part of the thigh, the wing, and the thickest part of the breast. (Some diners may want the turkey cooked to a higher temperature.) Carve and enjoy!
This recipe courtesy of www.doterrablog.com
Question for you:
Have you ever used Essential Oils to cook with? If so, please comment and let me know how! I would love to hear from you!
Can you believe it is already the middle of October?
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and I love to decorate my home for the holiday. This year it seemed to sneak up on me a bit or something because here it is mid October, and I still have my bins of decorations scattered around the house. I’ve been trying to a do little bit each night, but it seems to be taking forever. I think I need to pack up the bins, and call it good for the year 🙂
Just a few pics of some areas in my home that are decorated and ready for Halloween and trick or treaters. 🙂
Do you decorate for Halloween? Thanksgiving? Or just Christmas? Do you think it’s too excessive to decorate for every holiday? I’d love to hear what you think!
Enjoy your day! Tomorrow is Friday and then the weekend! Woo Hoo!
Back in February (yes, I'm still playing catch up!), my cute friend Traci and I hosted a Valentine's Day Cookie Exchange for all or our Zumba Friends!
We asked everyone to bring 2 dozen of their favorite Valentine's Day cookies, treats, candy or whatever! We made sure to specify that the items did NOT need to be homemade! We were absolutely fine with store bought treats! We didn't want anyone to feel overwhelmed to bake something!
Traci and I had so much fun planning the menu items and decorating for the night! She is one of the most creative people I know! Check out the flowers in the candy filled vase below. She had three different ones! So cute!
Some of the food items: Cheese with pretzel sticks, veggie cups, soft/warm pretzel bites, baked ravioli with marinara sauce and fruit salad! We also had meatballs and a few more yummy items.
We set up a large table in my family room for all of the treats:
Oh my goodness! Can you even believe all the deliciousness on that table? And this was just the beginning! By the end of the night the table was overflowing and we were out of room!
We had wedding cookies, mini cheesecake, mini cupcakes, several GIANT Mrs. Field's cookies, rootbeer cookies, YUMMY desserts from Kneaders, eclaires and so much more!
I picked up some plain white cake boxes at JoAnn's and lined them with tissue paper, giving everyone a box to fill with goodies to take home with them!
Are you drooling, yet?
It was really one of the funnest parties I have ever hosted! And hosting with Traci, was even better!
Traci and I.
Seriously, some of the most fabulous people I know! We work out hard, so we can eat yummy treats!
The whole group! (minus me, the photographer!)
I think it would be fun to make this an annual tradition!
And look what Traci even left for me after the party:
I am going back to December with this post, so you are going to have to humor me and my 5 month delay in posting about this!
I first heard about doing Random Acts of Kindness a few years ago, when I stumbled upon this blog post, and fell in love with the idea of doing something similar. I thought it would be fun to do 25 Random Acts of Kindness a week or so before Christmas, since that time of year can be so busy and chaotic, and surprising people with an Act of Kindness, would be fun for everyone!
Unfortunately, it took me a few years to get my act together and finally do it! On the last Saturday before Christmas, my family (Carl, Tyson, Madison & her boyfriend George) joined up with my brother and his family to spread some holiday cheer!
This was our list of 25 Random Acts of Kindness:
Leave a treat in your mailbox for mail carrier
Drop off a few random Notes of Kindness and Candy Canes in random mailboxes wishing people a Happy Holiday
Drop off coloring books, crayons, activity pads, and small games to the waiting room of Primary Children’s Medical Center Urgent Care Facility
Tape quarters to Vending Machines
Tape quarters to washers and dryers a the Laundromat
Return grocery carts and help people load their groceries at a local grocery store
Tape quarters to gumball machines
Leave notes/candy canes on cars wishing people Happy Holidays
Hand out a $50 Visa Gift Card to someone in the grocery store wishing them a Merry Christmas
Handy out balloons and candy canes to children coming out of the store
Empty all of our spare change (from coin jars, couch cushions, car seats) in to the red Salvation Army buckets
Drop off a Chili’s gift card to a family already eating at the restaurant, wishing them a Happy Holiday
Pay for the person behind us in the Starbucks drive thru line
Drop off donuts and hot chocolate to construction workers or anyone else working outside in the cold
Hand out car wash coupons to cars in line at the car wash
Take Donuts to the local fire station
Hand out McDonalds coupons to cars in the drive thru lane at McDonalds and wish them a Merry Christmas
Drop off a few $5 pizzas to the homeless at Pioneer Park
Drop off blankets to the homeless at Pioneer Park or the Homeless Shelter
Hand out Starbucks gift cards to shoppers at the outdoor Gateway Mall
Hand out $2 bills at the Dollar Store
Tape Candy Canes with Happy Holiday notes to ATM’s
Drop off coats and and warm clothes to The Road Home
Drop off pet food and pet toys to The Human Society of Utah
Put $2 bills in random children’s books at Barnes & Noble
We knew that we would have to be flexible with some of our acts, depending on logistics, etc.
Our first stop was Primary Children's Hospital. We dropped off big bags of coloring books, crayons, art supplies, activity set and a few stuffed animals. Photo fail! I didn't take a picture of all of this. Mostly because the waiting room was crazy, busy with kids and parents. Right off the urgent car waiting area was an alcove with a bunch of vending machines. We taped lots of quarters and notes to them!
To save this post from getting super long, I will just let the photos do most of the talking!
George, Tyson & Madison outside of Primary Children's Hospital
Quarters at the Laundromat
Madison ready to hand out balloons and candy canes to kids exiting the grocery store
The firemen doing rope drills, just before we dropped off donuts. They were so grateful!
Handing out $2 bills at the Dollar Store. We got a few tears from people here and many, many grateful THANK YOU's!
Tyson emptying a large bag of coins in the Salvation Army bucket. It took a long time!
Quarters on gumball/candy machines
Visa gift card and Chili's gift card (printable found HERE)
We really had such a FABULOUS time doing this! Just doing a Random Act of Kindness for someone who doesn't expect it, made our day so much brighter! Hopefully, we were able to make the holiday season brighter for some people that day, and inspired them to Pay it Forward.
Unfortunately, our day was cut a little bit short and we didn't quite finish on that day. More about the reason for that in my next post. We were able to finish a few weeks later, however.
Thanks for reading and letting my post about something my family did…WAY back in December!
Hello! Shocker, I know! My second week in a row posting! 😉
One of my favorite holiday traditions, is to get all of my Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, and try and get them all up that weekend. I rarely get all the decorations and tree(s) up in one day, but I usually make it in two. It truly is my favorite time of year. I think there is something magical about the twinkling lights, and I think my house never looks better than it does at Christmas. Do you want a quick holiday tour? Well, even if you don't want one…..you're gonna get one!
Welcome to our home!
The front porch in the daylight. At night the swag around the door and on the railing is full of twinkling white lights. A few years ago, I grabbed bunches (and bunches) of red and silver ornaments from various stores for cheap, cheap, cheap! You will see a very common theme in my decorating! The wreath on the front door was a plain silver jingle bell wreath that I won at Bonco many years ago. Last year I broke out the glue gun and added red and silver ornaments to glam it up a bit more. Love the way it turned out, and so simple to do!
As you walk in the front door, the formal (?) living room is directly on the left. This room has been many things over the years (including scrapbook/craft room), and we never really spend any time in it, and we've never had really nice living room furniture for the room. The only time the room really looks good, is at Christmas. And that’s not saying much! LOL!
This above photo is a view from the stairs looking down in to the formal living room. The white armoire used to be in Madison’s room. Even though it sits in the formal living room now, if you were to open the doors, you would find a ton of crafting and sewing supplies. Gotta use storage where you can, right?
You can see our fat, cat Jax in the bottom right of this photo. He’s rarely around for photos!
The photo above is a “Joy to the World” card that I ordered from Katie Daisy. Love it!
This is the view going from the front door towards the breakfast nook. The stairs going UP to the bedrooms are to the right, as well as the stairs going DOWN to the family room. The kitchen is to the right of the breakfast nook. One of my favorite Christmas decorations has to be my dollar store wreaths in my bay windows. I bought them probably 10 years ago, and they have held up great. I love the cottage feel they add to our home.
The shelf above is usually decorated for whichever season is coming up. I have Santa's on the shelf for Christmas, and I will switch them out for snowmen in January.
A close up of the Santa shelf.
More red and silver ornaments in a glass jar on the kitchen table. Those ornaments are everywhere!
My kitchen box window. The JOY letters are the ones I made at Craft Weekend and the “Merry & Bright” sign was party of the cool swag we got.
The above photo is of the stairs heading down to the recently renovated family room. This room recently got a new paint job, carpet, window framing and we also painted the fireplace mantle. Oh, and all the furniture is new….or new to me. Not sure if we are keeping it or if it will be going to California with Tyson, when he moves in to a permanent place. We will see.
Chloe’s favorite place is in front of the cozy fire!
Close up of the painted fireplace mantle. The mantle is pretty low key – just garland and silver reindeer stocking holders. I just wasn’t sure what to do this year. So much has changed with our house. It’s like a blank slate, and I’m not sure what to do with it. Notice the silver and red balls on the wreath……once again!
The tree behind the chairs is the “kids tree”. We give Tyson and Madison an ornament every year for Christmas (and sometimes during the year, if we have traveled somewhere special)……those ornaments go on this tree, and is decorated by them. Tyson was home for Thanksgiving this year, and he and Madi decorated the tree the night before he flew home to California.
Close up of the Kids Tree
Temporary TV/media cabinet. Not sure what is going to happen here. Rumor has it that Santa is finally going to bring the Moll family into the 21st century and bring a flat screen TV….but we will see. Can you imagine it? LOL! Something other than the monstrosity pictured above? *wink*
Trying to get a photo of both trees……
Well, that is it….so far anyway. I hope you enjoyed the tiny glimpse in to our Christmas home. It’s not much, but it’s comfy!
Happy Monday, friends! Have you decorated for Christmas? If so, do you go all out? Or do you keep it simple? Do you have more than one tree? I’d love to hear from you!
Yesterday was Pioneer Day (our official state holiday) or Pie and Beer Day! Depending on how you choose to celebrate the day! Luckily, I had the day off! Poor Carl had to work. Madi and Tyson, both had the day off too, and Madi even came over Monday night to stay the night. Love when she does that!
My day began with Madison and I going to a super fun Zumba class, and then heading over to Keva Juice for some post workout smoothies!
I ran home to relax for about 20 minutes, then headed out with Tyson for workout #2 of the day at our favorite gym GPP Fitness for this THIS crazy workout. I didn't do very many double-unders, but I am making progress! My max for front squats was 75lbs, but Tyson busted out 5 reps at 255 lbs. That boy is crazy strong!
I spent the rest of the afternoon putting together a picnic dinner to take to the park, when Carl finally got off work!
We went to the same park that we went to on Sunday, for Chloe's day out. It's a gorgeous park!
See how happy Chloe was to be back at the park?
Tyson stopped by for some food on his way out with friends. Chloe is wondering where the food is!
Kisses from Chloe! Such a cutie!
On the menu for the night: Shrimp Crostini, Fresh Fruit, yummy chips and salsa from Rico, and chicken caprese sandwhiches (recipe coming soon!). So good!
It was such a great night. Lot's of dogs wanting to play with Chloe (she's still not too brave) and good food and company! One more item off the Bucket List!
We skipped all the firework shows in town, since Chloe is skeeered of the loud booms, and we were home relaxing by 8:00 pm! We really know how to celebrate, right?
If you live in Utah and have the chance to visit Memory Grove Park, you really should! It is gorgeous! And it is also dog friendly!
Question for you: Have you ever had a picnic at the park? Where is your FAVORITE park?
This is was our first picnic at the park in YEARS! And my new favorite park is Memory Grove!
Hey all, I am taking part in Janetha'sThree Tip Thursday Series on her FABULOUS blog Meals and Moves Go on over and take a look at her blog. Super inspiring! Lots of great tips on fitness, food and fun! Love that girl!
So, it's Friday! TGIF! It's hard having a holiday in the middle of the week! Hard to get back to the grind!
I was able to cross another item off my Summer Bucket List 2012 on Tuesday night. One of our local golf courses always has a big fireworks display the night before the 4th. I think they do this so they don't have to compete with all the other firework shows in the city. It's always a hit and pretty much the whole community seems to be there! We usually do this every year, and the fireworks never disappoint!
We began the night having dinner with a few of my favorite University of Utah Gymnasts, their families, and other friends. Such a fun night. We had a great BBQ, and Tyson and some of his friends even made an appearance.
On our way down to the golf course – great sunset!
We really did have a great time!
Did you get a chance to see any fireworks over the holiday?
