We are having a fresh turkey breast slow cooked in the crockpot with rosemary, orange skucesm thyme, onions, celety, bell pepper, a little southern comfort, apples, portabella mushrooms, salt, pepper, garlic and a dash of oregano. I removed the breast this morning and will be making a great dressing with the broth to which I add walnuts, cornbread torn uo, torn up italian bread, boiled eggs chopped, additional raw celery, onions, apples, sage adn few other herbs. I then bake it and we will have some giblet gravy to go with it. I cooked collards, mustard for me and I will fix country style mashed potatoes for my husband with gravy along with fresh English peas for him. I baked sweet potatoes and will serve them with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. For dessert we have fresh pumpkin bread, fresh pumpkin pie and choclate chip blonde brownies with walnuts which will go to work for the characters I work with at Chef Mickey's, I did save the pie for my husband along with a few squares of the brownies and the bread. I will have fresh fruit mascerated in champagne with a thin slice of blue cheese. I was suppose to go to work this afternoon, but before I heard from my manager to pick up the shift we received a phone call from Lee's daughter in Tampa and we are going over there for dinner tonight at least Lee will be eating. She fixes all carbs and protein and since I am on a protein restriction and am diabetic I will take a salad to eat. I reallu want to be at work. That is our day and I hope each of you have a day of thanks for everything you hold dear in life and for having the ability to spend the day together. Love you, Linda

That cake looks FANTASTIC! YUM! I've been cooking up a storm. I never know if we'll have 2 or 3 or 20. Usually the odd drop-ins all day when our friends figure out who's got the food! I stuffed a pumpkin with lentils, wild rice, amaranth, toasted pecans and dry cranberries and roasted it almost all the way, made pumpkin pie, baked sweet potatoes and regular potatoes and the regular get mashed tomorrow, made a salad of tomatoes and will pick arugula for it tomorrow, roasted carrots, beets and creamed the beet greens. Tomorrow I finish off the corn bread. We are also going to hang mini bagels with bird seed for the birds and probably begin baking holiday cookies tomorrow if people drop in and decide to bake. I dried herbs all this week to begin making herbal holiday cookies, teas and treats!

Bulldinkie, that was exactly my understanding of coconut cream pie, that the shell is baked first, then a pudding/custard filling is cooked on the stovetop, poured into the shell, and topped with meringue or whipped cream, either is technically "optional", but not in my opinion, LOL. Coconut custard is a custard filling, poured into an unbaked pie shell and baked in the shell. Or at least that's what it is here. Chiffon? In my world, a chiffon pie is a creamy pie with a cooked filling, but with something folded in to "lighten" it, like a chocolate pudding base with whipped cream folded in. However, Grandma used to differentiate between meringue and a whipped cream topping. Meringue was of egg whites and was baked, chiffon was the creamy topping, so the same lemon pie could be "Lemon Meringue" or "Lemon Chiffon", based only upon what she put on top of it. A plain old chocolate pie with a dollop of whipped cream became so much more elegant when it became chocolate chiffon, and the only difference was that she spread the topping over the whole pie, then cut it, as opposed to a spoonful of topping on the cut piece of pie. I liked "chiffon" better because there was more topping, or at least I thought there was. Is that technically correct? Darned if I know, LOL, but it's what I knew growing up, so if chiffon topping is different than just whipped cream topping, I want to know how to make it too! Annie

Coconut Cream Pie (From Anna Olson) Yield: 12 Makes 1 9-inch pie. This coconut cream pie has a sugar cookie crust, which complements the coconut cream filling wonderfully. GINGERSNAP CRUST (or you can use bought gingersnaps) 3/4 cup + 1/3 cup unsalted butter or vegetable shortening at room temperature 1 cup golden brown sugar, packed 1/4 cup fancy molasses 1 large egg 2-1/4 cups all purpose flour 2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves Sugar, for coating COCONUT FILLING 2/3 cup sugar 2-1/2 Tbsp cornstarch 1 tsp salt 2-1/4 cups coconut milk 2 whole large eggs 2 large egg yolks 1 tsp vanilla extract 2 Tbsp unsalted butter 1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted CREAM TOPPING 1-1/2 cups whipping cream 1/4 cup sugar 1 Tbsp skim milk powder 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted To Assemble FOR GINGERSNAPS, preheat oven to 350 °F. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Stir in fancy molasses and beat in egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add to butter mixture and stir just until blended. Shape spoonfuls of dough into balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and press flat with the palm of your hand. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are lightly browned and remove from baking sheet to cool. FOR CRUST, grind cooled cookies finely and measure out 2 ¼ cups of crumbs. Melt remaining 1/3 cup butter and stir into crumbs. Press into a 9-inch pie pan (or 2 6-inch springform pans) and chill until ready to fill. FOR FILLING, stir sugar, cornstarch and salt together in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in coconut milk, whole eggs and egg yolks. Heat custard on low heat, whisking constantly for 5 minutes. Increase heat to medium and continue whisking until custard thickens and becomes glossy, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Stir in vanilla, butter and coconut and stir until butter has melted. Pour immediately into chilled pie shell, let cool on the counter for 15 minutes, then chill completely before topping with cream, at least 4 hours. FOR CREAM TOPPING, whip cream to a medium peak, and whisk in sugar and skim milk powder (the skim milk powder stabilizes the cream). Top coconut custard with whipped cream, and sprinkle remaining toasted coconut on top as garnish.