Cheryl on the Web

My pumpkin pie yesterday - the first one I ever made - turned out perfectly! (win) In addition to my traditional cooking chaos, I forgot to halve the salt when I halved the crust recipe for the pie, but luckily I tasted the dough and realized my mistake in time .. and started over on the crust! Then, after I’d put the (revised) pie crust and the pumpkin filling in the pie form and into the oven, I watched in dismay as the crust started to fall down from the sides of the pan into the filling! Just as I was beginning to think I would end up with something that amounted to a pumpkin pie (soup) dough bowl, the crust started to stiffen and I carefully pushed it all back up against the sides of the pan. (This is a perfect example of why American pie pans have sloped, not vertical, sides.) To accompany the pie at our Thanksgiving dinner, (more…)

What a great time of year, Thanksgiving. In two short days one can enjoy some of the best American pasttimes: extravagant Thanksgiving Day dinners, back-to-back American football games, and non-stop shopping outings. Of course, the reason that these pasttimes are so enjoyable is because they’re all done together with family.

Emulating these traditions here in Europe is never the most straightforward of endeavors, and this year my dedication to celebrating Thanksgiving was even less commendable than most years. In general, I try to take Thursday and Friday off work to cook and call the family and just enjoy the Thanksgiving spirit, but this year I was traveling for work until Thursday night so I just never made it into the right Thanksgiving mood. I haven’t even made the pumpkin pie yet that was planned for this year :( I’ve had the precious can of pumpkin sitting in the pantry since March when Mom and Dad brought it over here (can’t buy the stuff in Germany or Holland), and as an American married to a non-American, it’s my duty to instill in my husband the stubborn expectation he should have, that I will make him pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. When he gets out of bed, I will remind him of his duty to nag me for pie.

I watched re-runs of a couple of the college football games that took place on Thanksgiving Friday, Nebraska v. Colorado and LSU v. Arkansas. Those were good games! The announcers did a nice job of incorporating Thanksgiving references into their commentary, which was especially nice for me, sitting all the way over here in Germany.

Tim tells me that Thanksgiving Friday is called “Black Friday” .. and I have to admit, I can’t remember ever having heard that or why that is. I imagine it has to do with everyone and their children going shopping on Friday? Did any of you dare brave the crowds?