Leftovers

Thank you all so much for your awesome cleaning tips. I especially liked Hipwritermama's idea: "Leave out some disinfecting wipes and place them in wastebaskets so the rooms smell clean." Genius!

Thanksgiving went very well and we had a lovely time with both sides of our family. The only glitch was my pie making. I baked them the day before, in the midst of cleaning and organizing, which may have been a mistake. The first pumpkin pie burned because, although I remembered to reset the timer, I forgot to turn the temperature down from 450 to 350 after 15 minutes. I hurried up and made a second one, but in all of the confusion of people coming in and out of the kitchen during dinnertime, the oven got turned off while the second pie was still baking. We turned it back on and it turned out all right. Clearly I didn't learn to stop while I was behind because after everyone left, I tried to make a pecan pie for the first time while Scott brined the turkeys. (Spellcheck suggests I use "brained" or "bribed" instead of "brined.") The recipe practically yells at you not to let the pie overbake and to take it out while the middle is still a little jiggly, which we did. Unfortunately, it was still jiggly the next day at Thanksgiving dinner. I had made the dairy-free pecan pie for Katherine since she can't eat her grandmother's pecan pies, so Scott and I kept the unappealing, oozing pie down at our end of the table. Not surprisingly, K. decided not to try it. At least the pumpkin bars turned out well. (I frosted them with dairy-free frosting.)

Here's the pumpkin pie recipe. It is a lovely pie when you follow the directions. No photo, for obvious reasons.

Pumpkin Pie from A Vegetarian Harvest

1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
2 eggs, beaten
12 ounces of soymilk (I use vanilla.)
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar
prebaked graham cracker pie crust

Preheat the oven to 45o degrees. Mix together the ingredients. Pour them into the crust. Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 50 minutes.

There is no school today because it is the first day of antlered deer season for rifle hunters, affectionately known as "the first day of buck." The kids are snacking on the last of the candy corn while coloring snowflakes and snowmen to hang from the dining room chandelier. I'm digging out some of the Christmas decorations and taking advantage of some online sales in between catching up on blogs. Happy first day of buck to you all!