The smell of fresh baked bread, spiced cider and turkey wafting through the house, now that's what I call a holiday. There's something about the culinary smells that send my senses on a magical journey this time of year and I have to say I love it. I wait all year for Thanksgiving, you can have your Christmas with the stress of presents and decorating, I'll keep Turkey Day and the joy of the food and family that come with it.
As long as I can remember, Thanksgiving meant traveling to my grandparents house through the fog to spend the day with my father's side of the family. My grandmother was never the "best" in the kitchen, but her stuffing, known as "snotty dressing"to us kids, was always the highlight of the meal. Now that we have kids, my husband and I have taken on the responsibility for the Thanksgiving meal. There is no more driving through the fog to get to grandmother's house, but it's still foogy out and I still serve her stuffing.
This year we had a friend visiting from England and celebrating his first American Thanksgiving. For 2 days Les had to sit and watch as I baked and prepped. I'm sure he would have much rather have been out sight seeing, but he sat in the kitchen a bit and it was nice to have the company. I think he enjoyed the meal and the company that came with it. It was definitely an international affair as we also had a Canadian with us. Each year we invite our adopted players from the Stockton Thunder Hockey Team to join us. While my parents' player (Jim McKenzie) was from Minnesota, our player (Bretton Cameron) was from the Calgary area of Canada. It was interesting to learn how Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving in October and it seems it is much like ours.
I have to say, Jim made my whole holiday. He ate 2-3 servings and for dessert he had a sample of EVERYTHING! Apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, cinnamon gelato, and vanilla gelato, he had it all. He loaded me up with the compliments on all of them, too.What good sports they were and they brought some nice bottles of wine with them, as well.
SO... now on to Christmas. I'm not really looking forward to the season. There's so much to do at work and all I really want to do is stay home and bake and cook and bake and try new recipes. I guess I really need to get going on my cookbook and see where it leads. I would love to find a job working with food and creating....not reading essays and half-hearted attempts at reports and assignments. I guess this is what will follow my Christmas blog-- my new year's resolution. Soon....trust me, I'm not a skinny cook!
Here is the recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake I used. It came out creamy and smooth. I added a bit more pumpkin to the mix, about 1/4 cup, and it didn't affect it at all, just gave it a more pumpkiny flavor. It comes from the Joy of Baking web site:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinCheesecake.html
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