sarah in nyc

Saturday night right after Shabbat ended I made two pies. Both were pumpkin pies. Because I don't want to kill my nut-allergic son, I made a plain pumpkin pie.  That pie is now cut up and in our freezer. My son in law's late mother used to bake pumpkin pie topped with lots of pecans. Her family called it a pecan pumpkin pie. My son in laws' mother is no longer alive but perhaps eating something that reminds him of home will be a comfort to him. besides, pecans make pumpkin pie extra delicious. As I laid out all of the pecans I kept thinking about S, one of our virtual guests who is a really spectacular baker. I kept thinking that she would have figured out a prettier way to arrange all of the pecans.  Both pies are now all cut up and wrapped and in our freezer. Each year as I make pumpkin pie I think about my late inlaws. Every year before Thanksgiving they would declare "We don't like pumpkin. We don't like pumpkin pie." Every year they would take a slice...

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I had hoped to do all of my food shopping at one store to just simplify my life. I soon realized that while the local kosher supermarket was a good source for the turkey, it was not a good place to buy anything else for the meal. Thinking through the rest of my shopping list I thought that perhaps with the newly lowered prices at Whole Foods I could get the rest of the supplies for the meal there. Amazon.com Widgets Alas, I was wrong. The prices were so high that I walked out not with a giant filled grocery cart but three items.  I had to end up doing what I didn't want to do and do my shopping at several different vendors. Finally, everything is in my house and is ready to cook. Since I grew up not too far from the cranberry bogs. I adore cranberry and it appears in several forms during the meal.There is a can of jellied sauce to please my husband and future son-in-law. As a nod to my favorite from childhood, I made cranberry relish. ...