Prepare for Thanksgiving and Advent

Thanksgiving is in three days, and our plans are pretty much set. We will host a dinner at our house this year, for our dear friends, and our son and his partner. Since we are hosting we will make the turkey, stuffing and gravy, as well as pumpkin pies, of course!

Agenda:
1. Make a thank-you card and hand it out
2. Cook the pumpkins
3. Collect greens
4. Make pies

1. Make a thank you card and hand it out:
I am continuing the tradition I started three years ago of making a thanksgiving card to give my friends. 

This year I used a picture of my ducks swimming together in their washtub, then uploaded it to Pixlr, a free on-line program, to add words and borders. I printed a few to hand out, and I plan to send some by email as well.

2. Cook the pumpkins:
The secret to good pumpkin pie is to use fresh pumpkin. We had a bumper crop of 20 small pie pumpkins this year-- I've cooked up 7, and each one averaged 3-1/2 cups of pumpkin. That's enough for 6 pies!!

To cook, I chop each pumpkin in half, clean out the centers, and bake them at 250ºF until they were soft. Then I scoop them out of the skins and put the pumpkin in containers in the refrigerator.

3. Buy a Turkey:
According to the Butterball Calculations site, we need a 16 lb. turkey, and we need 4 days to thaw it, so I bought it on Saturday.

4. Collect greens:
This week I am also thinking ahead to advent, which starts next Sunday. Each year I collect greens from around the neighborhood to make an advent wreath. Today I picked up a large Grand Fir branch in an alley and dragged it all the way home.

4. Make the pies:

This recipe card is very old!

On Wednesday I will make pies-- several, because we need one for breakfast on Friday! My pumpkin pie recipe-

Ingredients:

• 4 c. pumpkin
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. each ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg

Makes one large pie-

1- Make the pastry and line the pie plate. Preheat the oven to 450ºF.

2- Put half of the pumpkin and half of the milk in the blender with one egg and blend until pureed.

3- Pour into a mixer bowl, and repeat with the second batch.

This is a double batch- enough for two pies.

4- Add sugar, salt, and spices to the mixer bowl and mix on low, then pour into pie shell.

5- Bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 375ºF and bake for 45 minutes.