Strawberry Turkeys

This year, I'm thankful for simple food crafts that make me smile - like these sweet, strawberry turkey treats.

Just cover a strawberry in a caramel apple wrap, add some pretzel and Tootsie Roll legs, and you've got a miniature roasted turkey.

Then, gobble, gobble, gobble them up.

Here are my step-by-step instructions. Enjoy!

Strawberry Turkey Treats

This recipe will make 10 Strawberry Turkeys

Approximate time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

10 large strawberries

10 caramel apple wraps

10 dipping pretzel sticks

10 vanilla Tootsie Rolls

1. Gather your ingredients and supplies.

2. Cut a small piece off the upper side the strawberry so that it leaves a flat area for the strawberry to sit.

3. Place the strawberry in the center of a caramel wrap, with the cut side up.

4. Gently wrap the strawberry in caramel, trimming off any excess caramel with scissors, and shape it to look like a roasted turkey body.

5. To make the turkey legs, break the dipping pretzels in half. Tear off pieces of vanilla Tootsie Roll and shape them over the rounded end of the pretzels to make the bone. Use your scrap pieces of caramel from wrapping the strawberries, to make the meaty part of the turkey legs.

6. Attach the pretzel turkey legs to the sides of the strawberry turkey body. If they don’t stick immediately, use some softened pieces of caramel to help attach them.

Strawberry Turkey Treats are best if served immediately. Store in a cool room. Can be refrigerated for 24-hours, but will start to get sticky if left refrigerated too long.

Turkey Leg Treats

I created a dual-holiday treat that could work for either, Thanksgiving Day or April Fool's Day: Caramel Pear Turkey Legs!

It's just like a caramel apple, but instead of apples you use small pears. And instead of wooden sticks, you use pretzel rods. Add toasted coconut marshmallows to the tops of the pretzels, and they look just like turkey leg bones.

You can find my simple tutorial at SheKnows.com. Gobble, gobble.

Would you believe that I brainstorm a lot of my dessert ideas while I'm running? I guess it's kind of like the carrot dangling in front of me to keep me going. Except, my carrot is probably made of sugar and butter. Dipped in chocolate. And covered in caramel. :)

Brown Bag Turkey Legs

“What’s this? A piece of toast? A pretzel stick? Popcorn?
What blockhead cooked all this? 

What kind of a Thanksgiving dinner is this?
Where’s the turkey Chuck!
Don’t you know anything about Thanksgiving Dinner!
Where’s the mashed potatoes!? Where’s the cranberry sauce?
Where’s the pumpkin pie!?” - Peppermint Patty

The 3rd grade classes at Gus' school are having a Thanksgiving lunch and movie party, and the parents were asked to provide finger foods for the kids to munch on while they watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." I realize I could have sent a bag of pretzels and called it good. But that's just not gonna happen. We all know that. Instead, I decided to make 80 brown bag turkey legs filled with popcorn and plain M&Ms.

Way more fun than a bag of pretzels. But a little more time consuming. Seriously, I could have cooked 5 real turkeys in the same time it took me to assemble 80 of these crazy things. Oh well. The Fiskars website made these adorable turkey legs for Thanksgiving place cards at a kid's table. Genius. But they seemed so perfect for holding popcorn or candy or some kind of prize inside the bag, so that's what I did with them. I used white foam core board for the legs (found at Michael's, JoAnne's or Hobby Lobby), cut out white hearts from cardstock, and glued them to the ends. Then I just filled the bags with popcorn and M&Ms and stapled them to the "bones."

Hope the kids enjoy their movie treat, watching Woodstock accidentally toast & butter Snoopy's ear. God, I love that movie.