Happy Thanksgiving!

A few weeks ago we drove over to Gosport, Indiana, to visit Nate's Candy Jar, which specializes in home-made candy.  Bill is quite smitten with their caramels, softer and larger than the little squares we buy at the grocery.  When we walked in, it smelled like Heaven.  Alyssa was just wrapping these fancy candied apples for Halloween!  Fresh cupcakes are under the dome.  The bottle of hand lotion is one of the things I took home that day.  She sells Watkins too, whose products I have always liked.  I have their lovely vanilla from her too.

Look how many old fashioned candies they have!

They have all kinds of candy!  And every bit tempting and luscious!  Worth the 22 mile trip, I assure you.

Today I have finished the pies for tomorrow, pumpkin, of course, then sweet potato and cheesecake with pineapple sauce. There are cookies too, Alexander Tortes (from my Russian cookbook) with an apple filling. The cranberry chutney is done.  The chicken breasts are marinating in orange juice, soy and garlic. Tomorrow morning I will start by frying the onion rings for the green bean casserole, cutting up bread for the dressing and setting some white yeast dough for hot rolls.  While the chicken and dressing and rolls are baking, we'll make the whipped potatoes and gravey.  My daughter is bringing things too, fruit salad and olives and celery and I don't know what else!  We will have a feast.
And about time, I've been getting ready and we've been eating frozen pizza, soup, and leftover salmon patties all week!

So here are the menus:
Thanks giving:  Baked marinated chicken breasts, sage dressing, green bean casserole with extra mushrooms and home-made fried onion rings, whipped potatoes with  gravy, hot rolls, relish tray, cranberry chutney, fruit salad and for dessert, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and pineapple sauced cheesecake.
Friday:Leftovers of the very best sort.
Saturday: Home-made vegetable soup and toasted cheese sandwiches
Sunday Italian spaghetti, tossed salad
Monday, Hoppin John with sausage, rice and black-eyed peas, tossed salad
Tuesday:  Baked Pasta with cheese, tossed salad
Wednesday:  Hoppin' John, tossed salad


I have made the sweet potato pie by a Southern recipe calling for butter, vanilla, white sugar, eggs, milk and nutmeg.  I had not made a distinction between pumpkin and sweet potato before but this recipe is delicious!  How do I know?  Well, I licked the bowl, of course!  The pumpkin pie was made with frozen Halloween pumpkin, the very one Eliyah decorated with a black marker.  There is an easy way to do this.  I did a pumpkin and a pie squash at the same time.  Split each one and scrape out the seeds.  Save to toast in the oven if you like.  Put the halves in baking pans with sides (to catch the juice) and bake at 350 for about an hour, or until soft.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  Then just scoop out the soft flesh with a spoon and put it into plastic sandwich bags, 2 cups to each, lay flat on a cookie sheet and freeze.  2 cups will make a regular sized pie.  If you like it smoother, mix up the filling in your blender!  There is almost no waste in doing this.

Ready for freezing.  The squash is a darker color than the pumpkin.   Notice my thick stemmed geraniums, just starting to bloom again  now that they have come inside!

Just the empty skins left.

Here's hoping you have many things to be thankful for this year,  I know I do.  And many happy returns!