Thanksgiving Dinner, First Pie, or The Onset of Non-Stop Holiday Gluttony

Thanksgiving really does mark the beginning of lots of eating. Both my birthday and my mom's also fall around this time, and then once December hits, so do all the holiday parties. Luckily the Bay Area maintains good weather so I can still go running.

So as far as I can remember, my family has ALWAYS had Thanksgiving with my dad's brother's family, plus or minus a few people. We alternate between our houses (Fremont or Walnut Creek), and my aunt has almost always made the turkey + "Chinese stuffing," and my dad has almost always made the mashed potatoes and gravy. This year, however, the kids (people under 50) made dinner kind of.

The turkey and sticky rice (my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving - seriously, I look forward to it every year!) were still kind of made by my aunt, with the help of her daughters/my cousins. They also made some other veggies and an American stuffing. On our side, my little sister "made" the mashed potatoes with the help of my dad. My older sister and her Joe made pumpkin soup, cauliflower gratin, and green beans which I didn't touch because there was a crapload of ginger in them.

I took care of dessert and cheese puffs - I made mini pecan tarts using puff pastry because I happened to have some in the freezer, pumpkin parfaits from the Barefoot Contessa, and an apple pie. They were all firsts, except the pumpkin mousse - I made something similar for my Fall Feast, but not the same recipe (Actually, the Barefoot Contessa's recipe called for yolks... but it didn't say to cook the custard which was really strange... because you'd just be eating raw egg yolks in the mousse.... so I brought it to 160 just in case).

It was my first time making pie EVER, so I was a bit nervous. It wasn't the best, but at least my sisters said it was better than Marie Callendars'. =)

Before & After - not a true lattice because I didn't interweave, but eh that's ok.