Thanksgiving ...

Well - here we are at the last day of November.  It is hard to believe that December is upon us and Christmas is just around the corner.

We have just come through the Thanksgiving holiday.  At our house this year, it was over a week long event (and I loved it!).  My parents came in last Friday afternoon, our daughter, son in law, and the 3 most beautiful grandchildren in the world arrived later that evening.  We had a great time with all of them here - played games, checked the cows, and the son in law even got to go out hunting as we set up a deer feeder in our back pasture.  They had to head home on Monday, but my parents stayed.  Our son came in from college on Tuesday evening and the guys got to have some time together on Wednesday.  Thanksgiving day was a bittersweet day.  My sister and her boys came over to spend the day with all of us - their first without my brother in law, who passed away in June after a long battle with ALS.  We missed his laugh, his sense of humor and his love for all of us!

The day was filled with tears, laughter, games, football and of course food.  The guys also got to go out to the ranch to do some target shooting - think they enjoyed it!  Games of choice were Spades and 42.  We were blessed to have everyone here and love the time spent with family.

My parents and our son left this morning - sure was quiet!

This is a food blog so I am getting to the food.  We did not have a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal.  No turkey and dressing.  Instead we opted for beef.  The brisket was excellent - cooked all night long with the Red Mud sauce (Thank you again, Lane and Susi Thompson) and it was so tender, juicy and had great flavor.  We had baked beans, cole slaw, cheesy potatoes, green beans with tomatoes, cowboy biscuits, pecan, pumpkin, and chocolate merignue pies.  it was excellent!  I am sharing 2 recipes today.  The baked beans is actually my mother in law's recipe and is one of our favorites.  The pumpkin pie is one that I ran across several years ago and it is the best one yet!  Hope yall enjoy!

Baked Beans
3 cans (15 oz.) Van Camp's pork and beans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. prepared mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. dried, minced onions
1/4 tsp. dried red peppers
4 slices bacon, cut in half
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the first 7 ingredients in a oven proof dish.  I use a 13 x 9 pyrex dish for mine.  Stir all ingredients together.  Place bacon slices on top and sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of brown sugar over the bacon (this will carmelize as the bacon cooks on top of the beans and give a great topping).

Cook for 45-55 minutes until bubbling and thick.


Pumpkin Pie
(from Borden)
1 9" unbaked pie shell (see earlier post for recipe)
1 can (16 oz) pumpkin
1 can (14 oz.) Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In large mixer bowl, combine all ingredients except pastry shell; mix well.  Pour into pastry shell.  Cover crust with a circle of foil or a pie crust cover.  Bake 15 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees; bake 35 - 40 minutes longer or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean.  Cool Garnish as desired.  Refrigerate leftovers.  Serve with sweetened whipped cream.