I made five pies to take to thanksgiving, and it ended up that
instead of 25 people there were only 12, so there was a ridiculous
amount of dessert! Everyone sampled and nibbled and we had pie for
dessert for the rest of the weekend... my SILs don't cook from
scratch, so they were impressed by homemade pastry, but it really
wasn't a lot of work - it took about three hours to do all five pies.
Apple and Blackberry pie was a novelty to them even though I thought
it was a pretty mundane combination... they enjoyed it. They raved
over the homemade 'fruitmince' (no it didn't have suet and it didn't
age - I made it on the stovetop with currants, raisins, golden
raisins, some cherries for colour and a nice granny smith apple, and
sugar and spice of course) and it turned out pretty good!) The pecan
cheesecake pie also went down well though I found it a bit too sweet
and treacly - I couldn't taste the cheese at all. I had peach pie for
breakfast every morning, and the girls loved the traditional pumpkin
pie so I'm glad I made them all.
John's aunt made a 'cheese cake' which was yummy, and my SIL made her
traditional pumpkin bread but because there was so much food we didn't
eat it and she took it back home again. She gave us four little loaves
to bring home with us, and boy are they good.
We also had the traditional thanksgiving dishes - turkey cooked in a
tabletop roaster (tastes fine but John's neice was upset that it
doesn't go brown so she couldn't have crispy skin), a yummy ham with
pineapple glaze, sweet potatoes and vegetables and a Waldorf salad
that John's neice makes every year for her Thanksgiving contribution.
The only disappointing thing was the dressing, which came out of
packets and baked in the oven. It was a fairly expensive brand and my
SIL swears it doesn't have MSG in it (I'm sensitive to the stuff), but
it was mediocre compared to the 'real thing'. Maybe next year I'll try
my hand at making a dish...

Next time we go up to visit I'm going to make dinner here and take it
up in the cooler and reheat it there - they're always feeding us so
it's time to reciprocate.

--
~Karen aka Kajikit
Crafts, cats, and chocolate - the three essentials of life
http://www.kajikitscorner.com
Online photo album - http://community.webshots.com/user/kajikit