Thanksgiving and cookie season

The 2025 jam stars in their first ever video.

So far I’ve made the jam stars and the lebkuchen. And I tried out a new recipe for the cranberry pistachio slice & bakes. I think I’ll go with it.

About 10 days ago, I made a pumpkin pie with a crumb crust using some chocolate graham crackers that were lurking in the pantry closet. It was pretty good at first, the crust got a little too brown on the edges, and it confirmed that I prefer graham cracker crust with a pumpkin pie – the chocolate and pumpkin did not marry well – and it got pretty soggy after a week. On Tuesday I scraped out most of the filling and put it in a ramekin, and had it for breakfast. That was good but made me miss the small cup of pumpkin mousse that was my traditional Thanksgiving morning breakfast for many years. I haven’t made the pumpkin mousse the last few years, because Al & Emma have been hosting and they prefer a traditional pumpkin pie, That I have
made sometimes, but Emma’s making it this year. I’m doing a cranberry Bakewell tart. Maybe there can be some type of cookie party dessert featuring pumpkin mousse …. maybe little mousse cups or a pumpkin mousse slab pie. Or a traditional pumpkin slab pie. That’d be easiest to serve.

It was cold the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so we played inside for awhile and then went to the Capitol to check out the tree. And just because it’s a nice warm indoor place to run around.

When we walked into the Capitol, Jasper this is where we look for geckos – echos – so we did. And we made echos. I wonder if his dad remembers going into the Capitol when he was a kid and lying on his back in the rotunda to make echos.

The week before, it wasn’t so cold and we went to the East side to pick up Mermaid Kitchen bagels, because they only deliver to the West side on Sundays. It was Jasper’s really birthday and I gave him a wagon. He was disappointed at first – I told him we were going to the garage to get a present and instead of a wrapped box, there was the wagon. I think he enjoyed riding in it, though, especially with a bagel.

John and Megan came for Thanksgiving but with a twist. John slipped on wet leaves getting out of an Uber last Saturday night and broke his ankle. Same ankle he broke 12 years ago, and had to have surgery and a few pins put in. At the ER they thought it was a small break lower down on the ankle, but more x-rays at the orthopedist revealed another break higher up. He’s in a huge cast, needs to keep his leg elevated and relatively immobile, and is scheduled for surgery December 9. Ugh.

John’s ankle post surgery in 2013

Al & Emma hosted Thanksgving, and it was potluck. I made Chex mix, the aforementioned cranberry bakewell tart, a layered squash & greens gratin with coconut milk instead of heavy cream, but still a bit of cheese on top, regular mashed potatoes & vegetarian gravy (this cider & caramelized onion gravy from Food52, that I’ve been passing off as veg gravy for the last few years, made with veggie stock, way less trouble than the one I used to make from Gourmet where you have to make a special rich veggie stock), and the spicy sweet potatoes, with buttered cornflakes on top. Since John and Megan did come for Thanksgiving despite John’s ankle, Megan made stuffed dates & Brussels sprouts. John watched the Packers from the couch while we cooked.

Two views of the Bakewell.

On Black Friday I finished shopping for cookie ingredients, at Costco not so local, but not Whole Foods/Amazon, Woodman’s, local, and Willy St. Co-op – very local.

Even though I wasn’t hosting I got a local turkey and Friday morning. carved it up, froze the back, legs, and wings, and roasted the breast. It was a bit of a hack job, but I felt quite proud of myself when it was butchered & packaged & cooked. I also roasted just a breast in 2020, tho I can only find the uncooked view. Pandemic.

I froze about 3 pounds of the turkey to make BBQ turkey for the cookie party. That left us a nice dish of breast slices for sandwiches last night, and the rest I’m trying to decide what else to do with.

Now it’s the first real snow of the season so I am attempting to bake the Biberli, fruit nut balls, and baby fruitcakes today. So far the Biberli are done. They’re the gingerbread wedges with marzipan inside. They need to age with an apple slice in the bucket to be really good.

And speaking of interesting patterns, here are some leaf salt patterns seen on my walk Thanksgiving morning.