Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Happy Thanksgiving!



Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the States and I am thankful for many things, most of all my family and friends. This year I am also thankful for the friendship and sense of community that I have found among my fellow food bloggers. Checking my email for your thoughtful and supportive comments and visiting your blogs has become a part of my daily ritual and a source of great pleasure. So thank you all!

My family is going out to dinner tomorrow. It’s not something we normally do, though we have on occasion. Normally I’d rather eat our traditional meal of turkey, stuffing (either bread or pork and potato), butternut squash, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, rutabaga, celery sticks, pickles, pumpkin pie and mince meat pie at one of our homes. This year I’m welcoming the chance to relax a little bit and enjoy a meal at a restaurant that as kids we thought was THE place to go. They’ve got the best popovers! Actually, we’ll be celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday at my house tomorrow evening, so I’m still having to prepare a little for tomorrow. I’m keeping it simple since we’ll have eaten our big meal earlier in the day – I’m going to serve chicken soup and pecan pie (with candles in it!).

Here’s my mom’s recipe for pecan pie. Like the restaurant we’re going to tomorrow, this pie is something we thought was pretty special as kids – my mom didn’t make it very often, so when she did it was a real treat. It’s not nearly as sweet as other pecan pies I’ve had, but I’ve always preferred it to those others. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pecan Pie

¼ cup butter
½ cup sugar
1 cup dark brown corn syrup
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
1 cup pecans, broken

Cream butter. Add sugar and cream well together. Add corn syrup, eggs, vanilla, salt, and pecans. Pour into pastry-lined pie plate. Bake at 425 F for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 40 minutes. (You should probably shield the edge of the pastry with foil partway through cooking – I neglected to do that this time and you can see that the crust is quite dark.) Makes one eight-inch pie.

11 comments:

Reid said...

Hi Cathy,

Happy Thanksgiving to you too! Nice looking pecan pie you made there! =)

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving!
Alice

Cathy said...

Thank you Reid and Alice! Best wishes to you and yours for a very happy Thanksgiving as well!

santos. said...

happy thanksgiving! out of curiosity, how do you cook rutabagas?

Cathy said...

Hi Santos! Happy Thanksgiving to you also - are you celebrating in LA this year? I confess I'm not the one that generally prepares the rutabaga, since it's something I'm not crazy about. I eat it, but I wouldn't miss it if it weren't there. Anyway, the way my family prepares it is pretty basic - trim it, cut it up, simmer it in water, mash it, and then season with butter, salt and pepper. Come to think of it, that the way about quite a few of our sides are prepared!

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving Cathy and enjoy your holidays. I'm going to check out the Maida cookie book at the local library here. Shirley

santos. said...

hi cathy! yes, we're celebrating/falling comatose from overeating here in l.a. i've heard about rutabagas, but we don't have them on guam, and i just started seeing them here for the holidays. are they spicy? watery? turnipy? sorry for all the questions, just curious :-) did you have a nice meal?

Anonymous said...

hi Cathy,
happy belated thanksgiving!
the pecan pie (one of my favorite pies) looks gorgeous!

Renee
www.shiokadelicious.com

Cathy said...

Shirley - thanks! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too! I'm headed to work this morning, but at least it should be a quiet day! I'm glad you found the Maida cookie book - after a test drive you may want one of your own!

Santos - Hi! Sounds like you're having a lot of fun! Rutabaga isn't at all watery, it is turnipy (I think it's often called yellow turnip), and spicy might be a good way to describe it. It's not at all sweet, but I'm not sure bitter is quite the right word. Oh well, you'll just have to try it while you're in LA! We had a wonderful meal - thanks! Nobody wanted any soup though, we were all too full. My mom took some home and I've got some in the fridge, so I'll be enjoying it for the next few days!

Renee - Thanks and a very happy belated Thanksgiving to you as well!!!

debbie koenig said...

Happy belated Thanksgiving, Cathy! How were the popovers? I remember how excited you were a few weeks ago...

My mom's Mushroom-Barley Soup recipe uses rutabaga. They do get a little sweet with the simmering, and hold their texture very nicely.

Cathy said...

Hi Debbie - Thanks! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. The popovers were huge and delicious!