Two Thanksgivings...so I went running again!

 My last sister in Utah moved to Washington this month. Sigh.  I've got my brother left here, and a great sister-in-law he's married to, but now, of my three sisters, one's in Boston, one's in California, and the last one's in Washington.  Pretty lame for family get-togethers from now on: only 30% of the family is left.  Anyway, we had our family Thanksgiving (before she left) at my house so I could be "the hostess with the mostest".  Really, I love to host(ess).  We had a great table set-up (which I didn't get very good pictures of),

 A great meal (which I didn't get very good pictures of), favor bags with Thanksgiving quotes and pumpkin pie spiced truffles (which I didn't get good pictures of), ....and pies which I DID get pictures of! (priorities friends. priorities.)

 French crumb apple pie.

 Two layer chocolate-orange cream cheese pie with Oreo crust, chocolate bark, and intense orange coulis.

 Sweet potato pie  ---per request from my Dad, who's birthday we were celebrating.

 Raisin-sour cream pie, which I'd heard about in old novels, and wanted to try.  The sour cream is cooked into a type of custard with egg yolks and sugar, and then there's a brown sugar meringue on top (which I almost mastered this time; one more pie should do it).  It pulled away from the edge, and I had to add a garnish of cream and raw sugar.

 On Thanksgiving-Thanksgiving, we went to my in-laws.  I have to tell you, my mother-in-law is famous for keeping you well fed and coddled.  However, the last few years have been kind of hard on her taking care of her mother --who lived in the house, was 100 years old, and was bedridden until she passed away last summer.  I came still expecting the worn-out mother-in-law, and was prepared to cook everything.  We got there, and she already had everything done and the table set.  She did let me mix up the sweet potatoes so my feelings wouldn't be hurt. :)  What a sweet, sweet lady. 

 

 I was stuffed over the course of two and a half days with thick cream, pie, Parker-house homemade rolls, hand dipped chocolates, homemade waffles.... anyway, I was dying for a good workout.

 My in-laws live in Redlands, a part of Grand Junction Colorado, and it is one of my favorite places to run.   So....after a hiatus of 5 (?)  months, I RAN again and it felt pretty dang good.  I purposefully left my Garmin at home so I wouldn't be tempted to pace fast, and just did an easy, maintainable pace --I'm guessing 9 1/2-10 minute miles, and and enjoyed myself so much I ended up going for about 70 minutes.  I was a little cold to start, but it warmed up a bit, and the scenery was breathtaking.

 

Right down the street from my in-laws' house is Rigg's hill, where a paleontologist discovered a brontosaurus (or something) a hundred years ago.  We took the kids out there for a hike late Friday evening.

 

 It got kinda dark and cold. OK, really really cold.

The reason I like that hill is because it's where Jeff and I did our engagement pictures.  Isn't he cute with his longish blond hair?  I always thought he looked like Brad Pitt in "A river runs through it" (although I never did like Brad Pitt's mouth).  Now my guy's even cuter --aged like a fine wine....not that I've tried a fine wine or any wine for that matter, and not that he's even aged that much.  You know what I mean.

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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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Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow! Love, Amara

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