Holiday Recipes

Happy day before Turkey Day, everyone! I hope all is well and that there is a lot of food, joy, family, friends, football, or whatever floats your boat.
Thanksgiving is upon is, and large meals are being prepared. I've never cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal by myself, but I have helped out with a lot of them. Last year I offered to bring dessert, but I wanted something different from the traditional pumpkin pie.

After searching and searching, I stumbled upon a great (and easy) recipe from the Food Network's very own Paula "more butter" Deen. The result was a huge hit that had everyone scrambling for more (good thing this recipe makes two pies)! Paula's original recipe doesn't include cinnamon or nutmeg, those were my additions that give the pie a little more spice, but you can omit them if you wish.

This recipe is so great that even Rachel Ray, the notorious bake-o-phobic, featured on her show. You can even see a video here.

PAULA DEEN'S PUMPKIN PECAN PIE

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie shells (if they're shallow, 1 if it's deep)
  
• whipped cream (for garnish)
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. With a hand beater, beat eggs well. Beat in corn syrup, sugar, butter, pumpkin, spices, and vanilla until well blended.
   
3. Arrange pecans in the bottom of the pie shells. Slowly pour egg mixture over them.
4. Bake for 1 hour or until knife inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean.
   
5. Let cool completely before serving to allow the filling to set up.
6. Garnish with whipped cream.

Thank you, Ms Paula Deen, this recipe is fantastic!


Feel free to share your holiday (or anytime) recipes in the comments section.

Grateful

Thanksgiving is fast approaching and I wanted to take a quick moment to post what I'm particularly grateful for this year, which is a furry bundle of 13 1/2 lbs. Our cat, Tom Bosley (yes, named after the Tom Bosley) came into our lives over four years ago. He's provided many scratches and maulings, but also a lot of purrs and a lot of love.



A few months ago he had a health scare that resulted in a diagnosis of chronic cystitis, which really doesn't have a cure, but is manageable and hopefully will go away after awhile. We were so grateful for this diagnosis, as the alternative would have been a bladder tumor, which is pretty much a death sentence. Although annoying and worrisome at times, at least this diagnosis isn't terminal.


We are grateful to the wonderful vets and vet techs who have worked with us for the past few months, providing the best care and medicine possible and answering all of our weird and probably redundant questions. Most of all, we're grateful to have our little furball running around! (I still have yet to figure out what his fascination is with garbage cans...)

What are you thankful for this season?