I slept thru our 1st snow Sunday night. It fell, melted, and then froze in a thick layer of bumpy ice on every outdoor surface. It was all I could do to get the pickup door open late Monday morning.

Despite dire warnings of continuing snow or, at least, rain - the weather looks to be dry for the next few days here near the 49th parallel. I know western Montana got hit fairly hard with trees down under the snow/ice in the streets of Missoula.

The only question that awaits us each morning here is whether we'll see a little mid-day sun (that's turned out fine :o) and if it will warm the frosted landscape sufficiently for the frost to melt (didn't happen yesterday) . . .

Made over a gallon of apple butter from Dad's/my tree yesterday evening. Planted that Northern Spy at my home and then moved it to Dad's backyard nearly 30 years ago. There'll be homemade bread tomorrow - with apple butter! And one or 2 other things.

Happy Thanksgiving!

digitS'

It's still snowing here. There's at least 4 inches on the ground. It's OK by me - we're not going anywhere and we need the moisture. I've just put a stew in the crock pot - beef, celery, carrots, onion, beef stock, potatoes and barley.

I stay away from the daylily auction - too tempting.

Berry - you're in FTC too, right? Last year was my first year here, and I loved the snow, so I'm excited to see it again, even if it does mean the end of the flowers. Like you I had a couple of petunia blooms and a gazania still going at it in a suntrap garden. Don't talk about the catalogs, that's still a sore spot with me. Luckily I picked up a big stack of organic gardening magazines at a thrift store a while back, so I've got those.

Digit, sometimes it sounds like you live in heaven. Or at least you live a heavenly life. I'd love to spend my days baking and making other nice things like apple butter. Maybe I need to rethink this day job of mine!

Ten minutes ago:

Last night we found out some of my crab apple cider that I forgot to freeze went hard. It's good.

Well, we only got about 1/2" of snow last night, and the sun is shining bright this morning, but we're still not above freezing yet. The kids are all home, so it's loud and rowdy at my house this morning. Plan to make a pumpkin cheesecake in a little while, and some cranberry banana nut bread to have for breakfast tomorrow. Yum!!!

Bonnie

What is that out there in the snow, Cnetter - a havahart trap?

Yeah, we caught a raccoon a couple of days days ago that was pooping right up by my front door and ravaging around the pond. They're so destructive. We're wondering if he's has any siblings still out there.

I need to get started on a heart stopping huckleberry pie. I bet I'm the only one here that makes those.

Alice, Yes, I'm very near FTC. It's the nearest city and I do all business there. I've been here 12 yrs and though I like the snow, I'm glad it doesn't last all winter here. A week or two in and I'm ready for sun. Thankful for the moisture though.

Digit, mmmm bread, apple butter, .....I make my breads too but sure wish I had access to an apple tree.

cnetter...hard cider! Now I really wish I had access to an apple tree!

And Bonnie, do you share recipe's? I have a freezer full of pumpkin from the single plant I put in the garden LAST year but the kids won't eat pumpkin pie but now cheesecake might be a different matter...

Ah, the beauty of snow!! It is our third or fourth snow of the season and it couldn't have come at a better time. Gee, this time last year there had been a ton more inches and a zillion more days of snow! I was worried there'd be a drought...but I probably shouldn't worry about those things so early in the season.

We were still watching the snow fall until about five minutes ago. So far, there has been about six inches so far and I just love it.

The dogs are eating it and running and frolicking. Lucy came in and she was covered in snow...and a little dirt...I hope she gets that vole, or whatever it is, before spring!

If there is a pumpkin cheesecake recipe to share, I'd love to have it, too!!

This year is cranberry-pear pie...num, nyum!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Jennifer
...wouldn't it be fun if we had an apple butter swap!?

Steve just decided that he wanted to make pumpkin bread instead of pumpkin pie, so we can have that for breakfast tomorrow. Must be on a similar wavelength as you Bonnie.

I have this impression of all the RMGers getting snuggled into their homes with their recipes, and catalogs (DIGIT) and comfort food. All of us content for a day or two to not dig in the dirt, but rather just dig in!

Berrytea4me, do I share recipes? LOL, that's like asking me do I like to share seeds, or show off pictures of my garden!

However, I have to admit this is my first time to make this dish, and I combined two different recipes, since I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted. One of them I cut out of a newspaper years ago, and the other one is linked below.

Here' what I did:

BONNIE'S PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE WITH SOUR CREAM TOPPING AND GINGERSNAP PECAN CRUST

CRUST
7 oz. gingersnap cookies (2 cups of crumbs = about 30 2" cookies)
1 cup pecans
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

FILLING
3/4 lb. (3 8 oz packages) of light cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn allspice
1/2 tspn cloves
1/2 tspn nutmeg

TOPPING
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp pumpkin puree (1 can is enough for both filling and topping)
1 tspn vanilla extract
Generous pinch of cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, grind gingersnaps, pecans and sugar together until finely ground. Dump into a bowl. Drizzle melted butter over, and toss with fork until all crumbs are moist. Press evenly into the bottom of a 10 inch springform pan, pushing slightly up the sides about a half inch. Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove to cool while preparing filling.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the pumpkin, then the vanilla and spices, stopping to scrap the bowl with spatula once. Pour filling into pre-baked crust. Bake until cake rises, and edges are light golden brown. (Recipe says about an hour, but at high altitude it took MUCH longer, like an hour and 25 minutes!)

Whish topping ingredients together and pour over cheesecake. Bake another 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and cool for an hour before covering and refrigerating overnight.

Enjoy!

Bonnie

Here is a link that might be useful: Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Pecan Crust

Wow, that looks complicated, Bonnie! Even the crumb crust ain't simple. I don't think I could "whish" that together!

I just made my most important T-day contribution - squash pie. We'll have squash bread with the apple butter tomorrow. Real simple stuff - the recipe for the squash pie is the Libby pun'kin pie recipe. It works fine and has since I was in high school. The bread recipe is simple too and it will be a double batch - some will use potato & some squash.

Huckleberry pie, Cnetter? I'll have you know that Vaccinium membranaceum is the Idaho state fruit!! (And, you thought that might be ME. :o) Well, if it was up to me . . . I'd never be able to pick enuf for a pie. I thought the picture on the USDA Plants website was telling - a huckleberry stem with a single, tiny berry.

We purchase some huckleberries each year and nearly all go into either vanilla ice cream or pan cakes. A huckleberry pie would really be splurging - wonderful!

Wow! Are we in a cooking mode or what? Recipes are on 4 threads and counting!

digitS'

But would you make a huckleberry pie that also contains sour cream, cream cheese, whipped cream and sugar?

Like I said - heart stopping!

I'll be making a butternut squash pie the same way you make squash pie and we'll call it pumpkin pie.

Wow, what a recipe Bonnie! Sounds scrumtous.

LOL, I'm always careful about asking for recipes, especially cheesecake. The first cheescake that I ever tasted was made by a woman whose son I was dating in high school. I asked for the recipe and she was so insulted. She made it very clear that she only shares recipes with "family" and I'd have to marry her son to get it....that's one recipe I'm glad I never got!

cnetter--awe, I haven't had a good huckleberry pie in years. I used to make them when I lived where huckleberry bushes grew. What kind do you have? Decidious blue, evergreen blue, or red?

Hmm, and alice, pumpkin bread for breakfast gives me an idea. I think I'll try pumpkin muffins for breakfast. They are quick to make and the kids actually have started to eat muffins. Hey, What can I expect from 4 year olds? Maybe if I keep the spices mild they'll at least try it.

Mmmm, pumpkin muffins turned out scrumptious too. 50% success with the 4yo's. One ate it all up, the other got lost is sensory action of crumbling it and never took a bite.....

Here's my super easy recipe:

DEBRA'S PUMPKIN MUFFINS

2c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1c sugar
1/2c butter (1 stick)
1 egg
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
1c pumpkin puree
1/8 tsp ground allspice (1 clove)
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
(I made the spice pretty mild for the kids, increase if you prefer more flavor. You can also substitute pumpkin pie spice for all the individual spices.)

Blend all ingredients until evenly mixed. Put into greased muffin pan. Bake 25 min @ 400 deg F.

Now if the turkey breast will just thaw out I can start cooking again...

Just taking a break from the cooking. Turkey in the oven, bread pudding out of the over, stuffing in the crockpot. The crockpot stuffing is a new idea. I saw a recipe in the paper and thought it was a great idea to free up oven space and time. I adjusted the recipe somewhat - made it sort of a combo between the newspaper recipe and my grandma's. So we'll see!

The pumpkin bread was a hit for me, Steve didn't seem as impressed. Maybe because he was the one who made it. Sometimes I think food tastes better when someone else makes it as one tends to be too critical of one's own cooking.

Alice, that is so true about food tasting better when someone else does the cooking! I almost tried a crockpot stuffing recipe too, but I decided to use the crockpot for mashed potatoes instead. I made them this morning, added just a little extra milk, and put them in the crockpot on low. That way it's not as hectic at the last minute, and I can focus on the gravy then. The bird should be ready in about an hour, mmm, mmm, good!

Bonnie

Dinner is done and things are cleaned up.

There's just the four of us this year, and nobody likes turkey, so we did a duck. My spouse always cooks it so I don't know everything he does but it always turns out fantastic. This year it involved basting with imperial stout - though 90% went into the cook. Everybody tried to get as much of the crispy brown skin as possible.

Even though we didn't have too many courses - biscuits with mock devonshire cream, mashed sweet potatoes, fresh orange cranberry relish, lots of cranberry walnut raisin stuffing, there's lots of leftovers. The duck will be made into soup and the relish will go into scones or muffins tomorrow.

The huckleberry pie will be eaten later when we have room again and the squash pie will get made later this weekend.

Everyone just finished a piece (or two) of the pumpkin cheesecake, and it was deemed a success, though I'm sure my arteries may beg to differ. The mashed potatoes in the crockpot worked out fine, though it would be a good idea to turn it off 30 - 45 minutes before dinner, to avoid burning your mouth. DH won't eat dressing that has ANY fruit OR nuts in it, so I added 1/2 lb. of lowfat sausage to jazz it up a bit. I made a cranberry sauce that used sauted apples, and the recipe said to leave the peels on, but I think the kids would have liked it better without them.

I just love hearing about everyone's Thanksgiving dishes, some traditional, some quite different. Cnetter, what is devonshire cream? Alice, is your bread pudding a side dish like a corn pudding, or a dessert type bread pudding?

Well, the turkey frame is simmering in a pot of boiling water, so it's soup for dinner tomorrow.

...and now I think it's time to put my feet up.

Bonnie

Just want to lend your DH a little support, Bonnie. I nearly always stuff the bird since that's a more physical task. Many times, a different recipe has tempted me to try something new but I just can't seem to do better than the simplest - onions and celery sautéed in margarine or butter, bagged bread cubes, turkey stock, and poultry seasoning.

After trying everything from oysters to prunes - I can't say that there's another single ingredient that is an improvement. Doesn't mean I don't like pecans or dried apricots in the stuffing, they just didn't amount to an improvement and I sometimes almost felt I should apologize for creativity. Maybe that's something that tastes better at Thanksgiving - tradition.

If thereÂs an intriguing NEW stuffing idea  IÂm willing to try it with a roasted chicken sometime later in the Winter. Often looking for a way to wake UP in late Winter!

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: Wake up, G'pa !!

Well, I take it back. The pumpkin muffins were 100% hit with both 4yo's. I just caught them with the whole bag out of the fridge and between the 2 of them there was 1 bite out of every muffin! This because I refused their request for ice-cream for not eating their dinners up. Oh, for a second set of adult eyes to keep them in line!

Now the baked acorn squash, dressing, turkey breast, mashed potatoes & gravy were only marginal as one or the other would not eat any of those. The green beans from our garden were a hit though.

Our turkey carcass goes into the stock pot tomorrow. It's smaller than usual as I only bought a breast and a couple drumsticks...have to take our traditional TG picture of each kid biting the drumstick...It's fun to go back and look at the difference in each year's picture.

Tomorrow is our traditional Christmas Pictures day (of course one kid has a black eye for the event) and then this weekend the tree goes up.

Ah, it's nice to enjoy a long weekend. Time to sit back with a glass of wine made from the variety of grapes that my great-grandfather grew "Island Belle" only available from a small local winery back home. Mmmm, a familiar taste from home for the holiday.

I can add one ingredient that alters grama's perfect stuffin' recipe!! Mushrooms. I saute them with the onions and celery and use a big iron skillet which helps me keep the bread from getting soggy. I know most people like moist stuffing, but I like mine slightly crispy...

I can just imagine what a fun time your son with the black eye is going to have, years from now, looking back on those holiday pictures!!

Real Devonshire cream is cream from Devonshire that is so thick that you can spread it. I've only had the real stuff at my friend Karen's house. There are several ways to make mock Devonshire cream. The one I do is just whipped heavy cream mixed with some cream cheese, and a bit of vanilla and sugar to taste. The ratio of cheese to whipped cream varies from 1/4 to 1/2 depending on personal preference. I think yesterday's batch was 1/2 / 1/2.
Fortunately, 1/2 the family is working off some of this artery clogging food today by doing lots of vigorous dancing involving bell jangling, stick banging and hankie waving up in Niwot.

The orange cranberry muffins in the oven are beeping...

Ha, actually it's dd who has the black eye this time. She was flailing around and threw herself into a doorknob of all things.

She wears glasses so I'm hoping they will hide it a little. It's almost healed.

Her brother seems to have better gross motor coordination but he struggles more with fine motor- writing skills, etc. When he does get himself hurt its usually a doozy...er visit type of thing.

I'm trying to decide if I feel well enough to take them to the mall for this. I started coming down with something after dinner last night. Blah, in the past 5 wks we've had every form of the crud that has been around this year.

Sounds like everyone had a yummy dinner! And here, we were thoroughly impressed with ourselves! Everything was so delicious. My modified stuffing recipe for the crock pot was just right. Digit, I used to do a recipe very like yours, but without celery - and lots of onions. For the newspaper recipe and reduced the celery by one cup and increased the onions by a cup - so it was 3 to 1. I left out the mushrooms, but may reconsider next year, based on JC's input. Then I threw in some Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage. Sauteed it up first. Based on the herbs in the sausage, I cut back some of the other seasonings and chicken broth.

The other huge hit was for a recipe called "Potato Brulee". It used Yukon Golds, cream, milk, goat's cheese, cheddar cheese, swiss cheese, green onions and a whole head of garlic. Mixed all together, sprinkled parmesan on top and broiled for a few minutes. Unbelievably good!

Bonnie, my bread pudding is a dessert dish. It's very similar to most bread puddings I've had except there's an apple in the recipe as well. And we serve naked... no rum sauce for us, it's so good as is.

I just got back from shopping, so now it's time to catch up with everyone else and get the turkey carcass stripped and ready to boil up. Can't wait for leftovers tonight!