On the first day of Thanksgiving my true love gave to me...

..well, nothing really, though he did stay mostly out of my way while I spent much of the early part of the day in the kitchen.

What a beautiful autumn day to have off and overeat! It should be like this more often. I'm not horribly full - I think having the dinner at an earlier time and then taking a walk in the neighbourhood when we got home was a good idea for helping with the full belly. Plus, I ate not much - but not well - the rest of the day. Mostly picking at things and "tasting" as I baked.

Ah, yes, baking. I'm back. I sort of started last night with some pastry to chill overnight. Conrad and his Mom had made a couple of pies as well. She made a key lime pie that was a big hit tonight while he made a pecan pie that I enjoyed. For my part, I was out the door just before seven to walk to Jewel, buy some things, stop at Starbucks for a coffee, then home to get going. Jam tartlets were up first - a warm up exercise, in quince and blueberry. Then it was the pumpkin cheesecake (from the cookbook I gave you, Jeph - if you try it, bake it a little longer, perhaps). Brown butter blueberry tart was the third thing. When it came out of the oven, the two layers for the almond torte with lemon glaze went in. I also got soup mostly made up for tomorrow's tree-trimming (split pea with smoked turkey) and pastry and candied sweet potato for the meat pie I'll also make.

The photo doesn't show the cake put together, alas, but it does give an idea of what I got done.

In this photo, though you can some of the results as well as some of the other desserts. Not shown are some Japanese treats flavoured with sweet bean paste. Also not shown are a plate of chocolate Kahlua cupcakes. On the lower left you can see the key lime pie with the pecan pie behind it. My blueberry tart is next to the key lime pie, and the finished almond torte is on the lower right. The cheesecake is farther back on the table, between the bundt-style cake and cupcakes and behind the pumpkin pie. Debbie's desserts are the kick-ass ones on the table - I love her coconut cake immensely!

Conrad and his Mom took a walk of their own, and we took another one together before they started on putting the tree together.

3:15ish was when we arrived at Yoshi's. Michael and Laura are the hosts of the dinner, but it has outgrown their place. We now have it at the restaurant (which makes it easier for Yoshi than having to transport the turkeys). People still bring food - we weren't the only ones with desserts, in fact. A good crowd there.

Some photos of people(Michael and Mari, Yoshi and Nobuko's daughter)

(Nobuko and Yoshi)

(Fernando and Scott)

(Debbie - dessert goddess, truly! - with Conrad and Tom - lucky boyfriend of Debbie)

(Laura, Kobe, Michael)

(Conrad and Laura)

and food.(one of the three turkeys - the deep-fried one, I believe)







You may be stuffed (unless you're a Canadistani friend, as FXK would call it), so I hope the sight of more food will not be too dreadful!