Thanksgiving centerpiece

Hey everyone,

I thought I would share a quick and easy centerpiece idea with you. This project was about $15.00 and only took me about 15 minutes.


You will need:

Spade bits as seen here.

Assorted small pumpkins and squash

Candles

An electric drill


Directions:

1) Prepare your work area. Lay down a towel or newspaper wo catch the flying pumpkin and squash.

2) Measure the base of your candle and choose your spade bit size. I used a 3/4 inch for the taper candles and a 1.5 inch for the tea lights.

3) Find a way to secure your pumpkin while you drill into it. I do not recommend holding it with your hand. We used two pieces of wood and out feet. Another option is a clamp if you have one.

4) Drill away!

Retro Recipe #2 Chocolate Cherry Cream Pie

This recipe was incredibly easy and equally delicious.  I actually made two versions of this pie so at the end I will tell you what NOT to do. 

We have had a rather warm fall here in California and my fiance and I were looking to spend some time in the kitchen. However we did not want to turn the oven on, this was the perfect solution. 

We ran to the local grocery store and picked up the few items we needed and got to work. 

We also totally cheated and bought an already made graham cracker pie crust and made a few changes to the recipe based on preference. So lets skip ahead to my slightly altered recipe. 

Crust:

1 package SUNSHINE Honey Grahams (obviously and graham cracker brand will do)

2 TBSP Sugar

6 TBSP butter melted

Crush graham crackers with a rolling pin. Combine with remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Press firmly into a 9inch pie pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool before filling.

Filling:

1package (the small 4 serving package) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling

1 envelope whipped topping mix

1 can cherry pie filling

Prepare the pudding as a pie filling according to the box’s directions. Pour into prepared piecrust and chill for 30minutes. Prepare topping mix as directed on package, carefully spread over chilled chocolate filling. Spoon cherry pie filling on top. Chill for 2 hours. 

 

In the above picture there are 2 things that are very very wrong. Do not just go buy what you see in this picture. 

Where we went all wrong. We could not find "whipped topping mix" which my research revealed to be a cool whip like mixture. I personally do not care for cool whip so I decided to substitute whip cream. Being lazy we decided to use a can instead of making my own. BAD idea. whip cream from a can does not set up very well. We also thought that we could use a 6 serving package of pudding for the pie filling. Again this was not the case, the filling never properly set up. Our first pie ended up looking something like this. 

So on my own I tried to make the pie again. this time I made my own whip cream and used a 4 serving package of pudding. 

Doesn't that look much better? It was absolutely delicious and I will for sure be making this again. 

Don't be afraid to try new things in the kitchen, if you fail try again. 

-Courtney