I'm surrounded by turkeys,,,

Starting Out

Since winter weather cancelled our plans to drive over the river and through Wyoming to get to Grandma's house in Utah, Christina and I decided to take advantage of our long Thanksgiving afternoon and make a new culinary creation--CAKE POPS.    Armed with a book giving us step-by-step instructions and showing  fabulous pictures of what we could expect to create, we were ready to make our Thanksgiving Turkey pops.

Shoulda been easy, right???  Not so fast.

Not As Easy As It Looks

Okay, so you've got to get the chocolate to thoroughly coat the ball in a smooth manner and then poke broken pretzel sticks in the bottom for legs without popping the cake ball off the stick or touching the surface which will now become the not-so-smooth-anymore surface. Argh.

Disaster Strikes

There is a steep learning curve to this process.  The first few we made were less than stellar and I wanted to cry "FOWL."  These were supposed to be fun and easy.  Definitely not the greatest culinary project to choose if you are a perfectionist.  Luckily, I guess you could say, I had invested too much money to quit now so I forced myself to keep trying.  Christina and I decided that our turkeys might be "special looking" but hopefully  they would still taste yummy.

Feathers Are A Go

 With a few bodies now hardened, it was time to begin the embellishments.  The instructions stated to attach the candy corns on one at a time by holding each one until the chocolate you carefully put on each one became solid--kinda like chocolate glue.  Great, I could see 12 shopping days left before Christmas before this step was finished.  Thankfully, Rheid and Christina came up with a brilliant, alternate plan that was much faster but still effective.  Maybe we would get them done before our 6 pm. dinner after all.

In Full Production Mode

With me specializing in bodies and Christina focusing on candy corn feathers and whopper heads, we started to make good progress towards our goal of 42 turkey treats.  Since I am such a shaker, she was a much better choice for the detail work and she did a terrific job.

Our Flock Is Growing

A couple hours into our project, we can start to see the ending draw near.  Hallelujah!  Plus our turkeys are getting better looking with our developing skills.  I am ready to be done already.

Turkey Princess

Christina models one of her creations to put on her facebook page.  Hard to decide who is cutest, huh.

Champion Turkey Makers

Woot woot!  We are the Turkey Cake Pop champions.  I am sooo thankful they are done.  Now it's time to go celebrate with friends and eat the real thing!

I have so much to be thankful for and I'm grateful we set aside a day to reflect on those blessings.  Here are a few I've been thinking about lately.

• Several families offered to let us celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with them.  I am thankful for good friends.
• A new little boy joined our extended family.  I am thankful for birth moms who make courageous choices.
• My health stabilized this year.  I am thankful for good doctors and nurses who take care of me and for researchers whose talents bring new life-saving medications and treatments--and hopefully a cure someday.
• We have a job during these tough economic times with benefits that bless our family.  I am thankful for a husband who works so hard provide for us, especially with the added financial burden that CF has become--he doesn't complain.
• I am also thankful for:  my children, extended family, good books, clean water, freedom, my dog, Ancestry.com, oxygen, blue skies, my sewing machine, chocolate-covered orange sticks sold in bulk, fast internet, hugs, my ability to see and hear, Wii Fit, laughter, forgiveness, prairie dogs, smoothies, a soft bed, a good back/foot/head rub, reliable transportation, kind words, and my testimony of Jesus Christ.  Yes, I have a lot to be thankful for.