Thankful for Thanksgiving!

My lovely, long-time friends, Pete and Kathryn Hunter and their young son, Jay Wesley, were kind enough to have me to their home in London, Ontario, Canada to celebrate American Thanksgiving.

Despite the fact that there were only three of us eating the meal directly, we had a spread fit for an army. Our meal was traditional, including:

-Turkey (we ended up using a turkey breast due to a foibled grocery run in the States)
- Dressing
- Gravy
- Orange cranberry sauce (Kathryn's recipe)
- Mashed potatoes
- Green bean casserole
- Butternut squash, apple and cranberry bake (http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/006160butternut_squash_apple_cranberry_bake.php)
- Pumpkin pie
- Mince meat pie
- Cranberry nut pie (Kathryn's recipe)
- Whipped cream

Most of these recipes are very traditional, like I had in my childhood growing up. And, sometimes, that's the best.

The really interesting recipes were Kathryn's and I'm not telling. :) However, the Butternut squash, apple and cranberry bake is very easy and delicious (esp. if you get pre-cut squash). The recipe calls for butter and brown sugar, but they aren't really necessary if the apples are juicy, so it's an easy recipe to reinvent health-wise.

Kathryn did teach me how to roll a pie dough from scratch, a skill I'm looking forward to putting into action.