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Giving thanks with a grateful heart…

A large plate with a turkey garnished with oranges, grapes and dill

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I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving day with your loved ones; full of fancy feasting and lively conversations. I spent the day with my family and everyone outdid themselves – as usual (see pictures below). I experimented with a couple tasty new recipes that I will share with you soon.

I am so thankful this year for God’s mercy, love and faithfulness; He provides abundantly! I am thankful for my family, my friends (this includes YOU!), my church and the fact that I am about 3/4 done with my nursing program – Yikes!!!

I am thankful to live in this wonderful, free country where we can live (and blog) peacefully. I’d love to know about your thanksgiving day and any traditions that you have.

If any of my recipes graced your families table this year, let me know how it went over. I hope these snaps bring you ideas for the upcoming Christmas holiday!
Green beans with almonds:

A plate with almond green beans

Svetlana’s Stuffed mushrooms (ooh la la!):

A plate of Svetlana\'s stuffed mushrooms

Aunt Anna’s Tortellini Salad:

A close up of a bowl Aunt Anna\'s Tortellini salad

Staples – (I hope you don’t ask what these next two pictures are, even though the second one is from an undesirable angle)

A close up of mashed potatoes

A close up of a turkey

I actually scooted these onto the edge of my plate and ate them last. Shrimp is my weakness.

A close up of shrimp in a bowl

Meat Nalesniki (on the to-do list):

A tray with meat nalesniki

The red cabbage “wreath salad” – I’ll be posting this one:

A plate with red cabbage wreath salad

“Wreath Salad” After mixing:

A close up of the red cabbage wreath salad mixed with the dressing

This jello will find it’s way onto the blog as well.

A piece of bird\'s milk jello on a plate

An experiment gone good (except for my horrendous decorating skills)! Stay tuned..

A cake on a plate with chocolate drizzle

The guys didn’t make it into this picture; sorry!

A group of women smiling at the camera

Ok, now on to Christmas (my favorite holiday for which I start counting down immediately after New Years). More than a little obsessed? Heck YES!!

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Natasha Kravchuk

Welcome to my kitchen! I am Natasha, the blogger behind Natasha's Kitchen (since 2009). My husband and I run this blog together and share only our best, family approved and tested recipes with YOU. Thanks for stopping by! We are so happy you're here.

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Read comments/reviewsAdd comment/review

  • Nadia
    November 18, 2018

    Hi Natasha
    any idea how to prepare duck?

    Reply

    • Natashas Kitchen
      November 18, 2018

      I have not made a duck before Nadia so I cannot give advice on that.

      Reply

  • Rimma
    July 28, 2012

    Thank you!

    Reply

  • Rimma
    July 22, 2012

    Hi, Natasha, you promised once give the recipe for Aunt Anna’s Tortellini Salad. I see there tomatoes and broccoli, may be cheese, I’m not sure. But what else?
    Summertime is a good time for such salad.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      July 22, 2012

      I haven’t forgotten! 🙂 I’m putting the ingredients on my grocery list for this week. I’ll try to post it as soon as I can. Thanks for the reminders 😉

      Reply

  • Marina
    January 20, 2012

    You have some amazing recipes, I’ve already tried quite a few of them, my husband loves potatoes so the whipped potatoes with mushrooms was a big hit 🙂 I wanted to ask how do u prepare your rice for the turkey stuffing if that’s what you stuff it with?

    May God Bless and your family!!!

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      January 21, 2012

      I’m glad you enjoyed the potatoes. Surprisingly, my mom has never made a turkey stuffing before. We never had that growing up.

      Reply

  • Rimma
    December 10, 2011

    Love your blog! Visit it frequently. Could you please post the recipe for Aunt Anna’s Tortellini Salad? It looks scrumptious!

    Reply

  • INNA
    December 7, 2011

    Hi Natasha you’re food is incrediable…Keep up the good work! Thank you so much for spending your time and posting all the recipes! Whats the shrimp recipe that you put up from thanksgiving dinner? It looks awesome…. thanks again =)

    Reply

    • Natasha
      natashaskitchen
      December 7, 2011

      The shrimp my sister made was just shrimp sauteed in lots of butter with garlic and a little salt and pepper. Try the garlic and herb recipe as well: my very favorite shrimp recipe ever!!

      Reply

  • Sveta
    December 3, 2011

    This blog is amazing. Thank you so much for posting these great recipes. Everything I tried from your website turned out great. Thank you again. Your aunt tortelini salad looks great, can’t wait to try making it. May God bless you Natasha and your family for doing this.

    Reply

  • Ilona
    November 30, 2011

    I cant wait to try that Wreath Salad.. what a beautiful presentation, love those vibrant colors. Ohh and that Jello, looks way good..

    Reply

  • Dina
    November 29, 2011

    Your food is incredible. I cant wait ti try more cuz i pretty much tried every recip of yours lol

    Reply

  • sveta khochay
    November 28, 2011

    good food is essential….so are pants, i will leave u with this thought…….i enjoyed ur company at thanksgiving, i am very thankful for a talented sister like u! keep up the good word…..i also blame u for my recent weight gain, the only reason im allowing u to live after doing this to me, is because i llove david and he needs a mommy

    Reply

    • Natasha
      November 28, 2011

      That’s the funniest comment I’ve ever received! Hahaha! Thanks for sparing my life.

      Reply

  • Tatyana Shishlo
    November 28, 2011

    Oh and the stuffed mushrooms look so yummy. I love mushrooms. Would love that recipe up ASAP also if you can 🙂 Thank you!!

    Reply

  • Tatyana Shishlo
    November 28, 2011

    Thank you for running this blog. It helps out a lot. And please post the wreath recipe as soon as you can. Because I’m having graduation party in 3 weeks so I would love to make that and amaze my guests. It looks beautiful especially for this time of year.

    Reply

  • Veronica
    November 26, 2011

    Happy Thanksgiving! Looks like you had a wonderful holiday with your family with abundant, delicious food. Ours was lovely too! I agree, we have so much to be thankful for!

    Reply

  • Irina
    November 26, 2011

    I LOVE your recipes … keep them coming!!!

    Reply

  • Margo
    November 26, 2011

    Mmmm! Looks like a few recipes in here I might like to add to our holiday table! The wreath salad- what a wonderful idea. Soon with the recipe, I hope? and Aunt Anna’s Tortellini Salad looks like a wonderful potluck dish. We are celebrating with our Thanksgiving dinner today, Saturday.

    Our Thanksgiving traditions: Our children go with their inlaws on Thursday, and usually we go and serve at a charity dinner on Thursday. This year I took a work shift for a young girl who wanted to spend the holiday with her family as my service. By celebrating on Saturday, we have the same feeling, but no conflicts with our large family’s schedule. For food, we always have sweet potato pone, wild rice dressing and a home-grown turkey, along with all the staples.

    Like you, Christmas is my favorite and we have already decorated- our family exchanges Christmas gifts today also because everyone will be spread around the country by the end of December, and also so that we can concentrate on service and remembering the “reason for the season” during the month of December. This year my husband and I celebrate our first empty-nest Christmas so perhaps some of our traditions may change. We will probably have a party with our Russian friends, and I think I will add some of your tasty recipes!

    Thanks for the beautiful post-
    Margo

    Reply

    • Natasha
      November 26, 2011

      Thank you for sharing Margo. I love that your traditions include giving to others. You remind me of the proverbs woman 🙂

      Reply

  • Irka (Erica)
    November 26, 2011

    This was such a nice post…….your food for Thanksgiving was amazing looking and very delicious.

    …yes, we should be thankful for the life we have here and freedom. I’ve never been to the Ukraine but my parents have told me lots of stories. I’m also very thankful and grateful to live here and appreciate everyday.

    You have a very beautiful family…..Irka.

    Reply

    • Natasha
      November 26, 2011

      Thank you! I hope to visit Ukraine one day so I can really understand and appreciate how truly blessed we are in the US.

      Reply

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