Thanksgiving's a wonderful holiday with way too much food ... and pie!

Thanksgiving is a great concept: taking a day to be grateful for what we have. 

I'm not at all pleased with the addition of shopping to the mix. It really doesn't seem to go with the concept of the day. 

Black Friday sales before Black Friday, which is bad enough, as I am not fond of large hordes out shopping. It's a good way to get injured. Plus, I wouldn't get up that early unless someone was paying me. As someone once said, "Not a morning person doesn't even begin to cover it." 

But back to the bird and all the fixings; since this is a food blog, you knew food had to come in somewhere! 

I was thinking of pie. Pumpkin and pecan, specifically. One of my friends was making a pecan pie cheesecake and I told her to add chocolate, because it reminded me of a marvelous pie I had in Texas once at a fundraising dinner. I found a recipe that sounds similar here if you want to give it a try. 

If I make it, I'll post a pic. I may not, because I'd need to do some shopping the day before Thanksgiving (shuddering at the thought). But perhaps you're more daring. 

Thanksgiving Week Was Filled with Lessons

Lesson number one from my Thanksgiving week was simple: homemade isn't always better. 

My aunt got a turkey dinner from Meijer this year and we all brought fill-ins. While the stuffing was nothing to write home about (though admittedly, I'm a harsh critic of any stuffing but my aunt's or mom's), it beat StoveTop. The side dishes were fine (I was particularly fond of the orange-cranberry concoction), but the turkey was the star. It was moist and juicy, which isn't always the case with store bought rotisserie chickens, and a nice surprise. Kudos to Meijer for that!

Lesson number two: you have to be a much more hard-core shopper to go into Kohl's and actually stand in line to buy something. I picked three items, looked at the line (even the jewelry counter was ridiculous, though I did have a jewelry item) and ended up putting them back. Kmart was not as insane, thankfully, and I got most of the really little kids' presents there, so mission accomplished, more or less. 

I should have gone out shopping Saturday, but instead, I spent the time at a friend's "mini-Thanksgiving" where I ate my fill including an amazing lemon-infused boneless turkey breast as well as great desserts and played a "new" game (meaning new to me) involving quotations. 

We had a lovely time, bringing me to lesson number three: friends who are like family are nice to have. 

And Tati, if you're reading this, I want the recipe for those pecan tarts and the little chocolate tarts, too! (They may not qualify as healthy, precisely, but at least they're tiny.)