Wish you were here....

Well, we did the big Thanksgiving hoopla yesterday, and (almost) everything turned out fine. My strawberry and lemon mousse pie was kind of a mess (don't ever use puff pastry as a base for a pie no matter what their website says), but the rest turned out fine. So much thanks should be given to Tia and Ari who worked hard all morning, and Annie, who pitched in just when things were getting frantic (I forgot I was DOING potatoes -completely forgot- until an hour before T-time). My mom's turkey and stuffing were perfect, like always, and they brought the peas and pearl onions side dish like we've had for years at my Gramma Donna's.

You can see the rolls turned out a really pretty color, and they tasted good, although the bottom rack of rolls got a little too brown on the bottom. We still ate 'em up. The cranberry sauce WAS really good. Here's the recipe. Also the mulled cranberry apple cider was pretty. I love those star anise as a garnish. Jeff hated it, but pretty much everyone else liked it. Here's the recipe. I did "mull" the amount they called for and then added a lot more juice, so the spices weren't as strong.

Here's my beautiful little nieces. They lasted a good ten minutes in the high chairs, I think that's worth celebrating.

Also, the cayenne was good in the sweet potatoes. I added a good 2 teaspoons worth, and it still just added a pleasant heat, without any of the kids complaining that "the potatoes are too hot". Here's that recipe minus the pepper. Boy, I do use Cooking Light a lot huh?

Aren't the flowers pretty? Annie brought those, and they were perfect for the center of my serving table. Thanks again Annie. I'm trying to think if there was anything else. I think the mushroom sauce was a winner. Pretty sure I'm going to use it for the catering job on the third. I'm sorry i can't link to the BHG recipes, you need to register on their site to get the recent ones, and I don't want to bother. Most of them are in the November 2008 issue if you've got it lying around. Oh, one other thing, the brown sugar meringue on the ginger pumpkin pie, kind of deflated as it cooled. I've never been able to get that right. Any tips from experienced meringue makers? I'm thinking because I applied it with the oven open, the oven cooled off too much at the start of cooking time? Is that it? Do you need a hot, quick bake? Or did I just not cook it long enough? Still tasted OK, but I'd sure like to get that right.

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