Tidbits #1

It's almost March! Yikes! Well, here are some tidbits from the past few months. We'll cover Thanksgiving now and then go from there. :)

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We spent it with Mikey's family and Mikey smoked his first turkey. Oh.my.gosh. Delish! It definitely became a fast tradition. And it was so much easier than we thought it would be. (Well, he did most of the work, so it was really easy for me!)

It looks a little burned on the outside, but underneath that . . . heaven!

Our little smoked turkey was more of a side-dish, so Colleen also roasted a larger turkey in the oven. TWO turkeys?! Doesn't get better than that! Hello, Leftovers!

Mikey and Grandma Pete. Love her.

Darling nephew Cole

Alain "sneaking" some smoked turkey before dinner

...and the Dinner Crew (going clockwise starting from the far left): Michelle, Cole, Colleen, Russ, Pat, Grandma Pete, Mikey, Karie, Alain, Riley, Sydney, and Luke

Successful dinner! Fun day!

The Results!

So after Thanksgiving I never did report on how my pies went. I was a little nervous doing the apple pie because it was the first "real pie" I've ever made, but it actually went very well! I'd make it again. The chocolate pie was the real winner, though. Once we got the pies out, it didn't last 10 minutes! I think the kids were pretty relieved to have a very kid-friendly pie--though all the pies were so delicious. The chocolate pie was so easy, too. If you're interested in either of the recipes, there are links in blog I wrote before.

Thanksgiving was just such a fun day. Isn't spending time with family the best?

My two pies.

The three pie makers!

Most of the adults with the beautiful Thanksgiving spread.

Thanksgiving Pies & A Favorite Website

As I was "researching" online trying to decide what two pies to make for my Thanksgiving dinner assignment, I decided to take this opportunity to share one of my favorite websites with you. The Pioneer Woman Cooks is a recipe website that makes me so happy! I've tried a couple recipes off of it and they've turned out really good. Plus, the humor of the woman who writes the blog is just great. All of her recipes are tried and true and she has pictures demonstrating each step. The recipe is then at the end of the demo so you can it print off. The recipe I'm trying she lovingly refers to as "Scrumptious—And I Do Mean Scrumptious—Apple Pie".
Someone else is bringing the cream pies and pumpkin pie, so I decided to do a chocolate pie for my second choice. I found my recipe the old fashioned way--googling! I googled "layered chocolate pie recipe." And this is what I found:
An "OREO Triple Layer Chocolate Pie." It was highly rated on food.yahoo.com, so we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!