This Thanksgiving I've been reunited with my familiy in snowy Minnesota, not the coastal North Carolina where I grew up, but still a place I'm learning to call my home away from home. It's been interesting and funny and different being reunited with everyone, a comfort sometimes, and then a reminder of childhood angst at others. I suppose this is how families go. On Thanksgiving we arrived home to find that nothing had been prepared and it was nearly 4 o'clock, so I put my game face on and quickly prepared as much as I could in a few hours. I whipped up rosemary mashed potatoes, a sweet potato bake where I used eggnog (surprisingly delicious!) with maple brown sugared pecans on top, sauteed spinach and shallots with lemon and grated parmesan, stuffing, and a Greek salad, all in a couple of hours! While we were waiting for the turkey to I decided to finish it all off with a pie - cranberry apple pie.
We didn't have any cutters in the house, so I had a lot of fun cutting these shapes by hand. The process was very organic and quieting and I felt reunited with my decision to pursue baking.
