A new reader named Susan made a comment on the “manners don’t matter? excuse me” post.  She gave an example of how she taught her kids manners with a little toy pig at the table.  Go ahead and read her comment.
Then, since it’s been way too long, and since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I think we should start up a little dialogue about manners.  So, here’s the question:

How do you teach your kids manners for the dinner table?

and, another question for good measure:

What are your favorite family traditions for Thanksgiving?

A few years ago, we invited our friend Shannon and her family for Thanksgiving.  If I remember right, she wasn’t a fan of cranberry sauce, but this recipe ended up converting her.   I gave her the recipe, and then the next year, I forgot how to make it.   She emailed me my own recipe, and now every year, I search through my ancient gmail archives and dig it up for Thanksgiving.  Maybe it will be easier to find, now that is on my blog.

And thank you, Shannon, for remembering the recipe!

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I know most pumpkin pie traditionalists will not join me in this, but isn’t this a fun alternative to pumpkin pie?   And guess what!  Crème brûlée is easier to make than Rice Krispy treats.  Okay, maybe it’s not that easy.  But if you’ve never made it, you’ll be surprised at what a cinch it is.

Every Thursday, when my husband is around to watch the kids, I go to a writing group at the local bookstore.  It’s fun, but lately I haven’t been thrilled with what I’ve been writing there.   I didn’t really want to go yesterday, but I had promised Connie (a frequent sophistimom commentator) that I would bring in my pumpkin crème brûlée sometime.  Last night was as good a time as ever, so I made this up and shared it with everyone.  It was a hit.  As for my writing—I’ll keep working on it.

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Every post has been orange lately.  Don’t worry, after we finish up with these pumpkin recipes, I’ll move on to cranberries.  Mm.  That will be fun.
For now, though, I’m posting a recipe for pumpkin pie.  I made this one in a deep dish ceramic pie plate with a 5 cup capacity.  I had to bulk up my recipe some to make it fit.  Then, I ended up having extra pumpkin filling, which I poured into ramekins and oven proof mugs, and baked along side the pie.  The kids like them as snacks.

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Here’s just a quick how-to on roasting a pumpkin.  Are you all sick of pumpkins yet?  I am.  It’s not even Thanksgiving, and I just made my second pie for the blog.  I think on the day of Thanksgiving, I’m just going to order pizza.

Most cooks say sugar pumpkins make the best pie, so that’s the only kind I have ever used.  Grocery stores usually label them as pie pumpkins or sugar pumpkins.  They are generally smaller, and have shallower ridges then the ones sold as carving or jack-o-lantern pumpkins.

Sugar pumpkins can vary in size, so the only way to measure how much pie you can make from one, is to roast it, puree it, and measure it.  A medium size sugar pumpkin should yield about two cups, though, which is enough to make one standard size pie.

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Lately, the only characters keeping my nose between the pages are a girl from Arizona and a boy who has been alive since 1901. Reading seems to be more difficult when all my time is taken up by kids and blogging and writing (forget cleaning!).
However, my friend brought me The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (the same book Stephenie Meyer recommended on her website) last week, and when I finally decided to read it, I was hooked.  I finished it in a little over a day.
Set in the future, in a place formerly known as North America, it is the story of a teenage girl who is thrown into a game with twenty-three other teenagers who must fight to the death.
Though probably not a book for those who cannot handle Lord of the Flies, it is free of profanity, and promotes themes of hope and humanity.
Romantic and ironic, haunting and thrilling,  The Hunger Gamesis an excellent read.

I have been a bit distant lately.  I know; I’m sorry.  I entered a fiction contest on Saturday (Yeah, yeah, la-dee-dah.  I’m sure I won’t win.), which meant the weeks leading up to Saturday were very busy.  It was hard to concentrate on cookies and chocolate when my head was buried in tall ships and Pre-Revolutionary America.

Anyway, I did come up with a few recipes, and I figured I’d post them now, while you’re all dreaming up your Thanksgiving menus.  This is the winter squash soup I promised you.  By the way, it freezes beautifully, so if you want to serve it for Thanksgiving, make it now, let it cool completely, and freeze it in a big container.  You can heat it up when the turkey comes out of the oven!

Coming soon: pumpkin crème brûlée, for those of you who want something a little different for pumpkin pie.

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Not very.  The kids are eating Spaghetti-o’s (Pixar Cars edition–Charlie’s really into Lightning McQueen these days), and I am eating chips and Guacamole (both from Costco).  I have a winter squash soup that I’ll post soon, I promise.

I want briefly to create a buzz about two of my friends who blog.

Some of you may already know Brooke—just about everyone I know knows her.  We crossed paths when we were teenagers (same youth conferences at BYU), and then again in college.   But we never knew each other until her daughter and my son were in kindergarten and their desks were separated when they were talking too much.  Anyway, her blog is called Conversations With a Cupcake.  It’s zany and fun and displays Brooke’s tireless energy and creativity.  Go check it out!

Also, my friend Theresa, who is the sister of my best friend from college, just put up a cool post on how to make edible play dough for your kids.  Never would I have thought of that, nor would I ever have the energy to do something like that since having my second kid, but for all of you supermoms (i.e. Brooke), it looks like a lot of fun!

That’s a picture of my daughter from awhile ago.  I didn’t have any recent pictures I felt like posting, so there it is.

You ready for something healthy after all that candy? Don’t worry, this salad won’t take you off the sugar cold turkey. It’s a little like eating a candy salad, which happens to be the way I like mine.

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Pavlova is like a big meringue cookie topped with whipped cream and fruit.  It has a gooey center, which is the result of the chemical reaction between the egg whites, vinegar and starch.
I thought it might be fun for Halloween to make a chocolate pavlova with something orange on top.  It was good, but very rich.  The kids were bouncing off the walls all evening from the chocolate.

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When we are in Utah, my family and I like to go up to snowbird to attend the Oktoberfest they hold every year.  The kids enjoy all the activities, and though we never drink any of the beer, we enjoy all the food.  Unfortunately, we missed the festivities this year (They started back in August and finished up the first weekend of October–sorry everybody.), and we had to make our own potato pancakes and applesauce to serve at home.  We found the best chicken and apple sausages and bratwurst we could find, and served it all together.  Sometime soon I’ll have to come up with a great strudel recipe.

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Tasha Tudor passed away this summer.  You may recognize her work from the covers of The Secret Garden and A Little Princess (when published by HarperFestival).  Having lived a full and fascinating life based on the styles and habits of the 19th Century, she was the Thoreau of her time.  Her book, Pumpkin Moonshine, has always been the book that comes to mind when I think of the fall. It is the story of a little girl and a runaway pumpkin.  It is sweet and simple—reminiscent of an era gone by.

Here are some of the books you all listed for our harvest of great books dialogue:
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
Max’s Halloween (Max and Ruby) by Rosemary Wells
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie (Picture Puffins) by Alison Jackson and Judy Schachner
The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg (my favorite of his after The Polar Express)
A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly
Four Scary Stories by Tony Johnston
The Hallo-wienerby Dav Pilkey

Thank you everyone for all your other marvelous suggestions.  If you haven’t had a chance yet, you can peruse them all in the comments section.

A special thanks to Erin who reminded me of the name of the book I rambled about on that post.  It was called  Pumpkins: A Story for a Field by Mary Lyn Ray and Barry Root

I have one more suggestion.  Jerry Seinfeld Halloween.  My husband and I laugh over this until we almost cry.  We were both the kids who had to go trick-or-treating with our winter coats on . . .  you’ll see what I mean when you read the book.  We bought the book for ourselves, but the kids love it, too.  I must warn you, though, it is a little rude in some parts (he uses the words shut-up and stupid, and is ungrateful to a nice old lady), at which points I will either switch in another word, or say things like, “We don’t say shut-up.  We don’t treat people like that.”  Then I just laugh on the inside so the kids can’t see.

My husband just emailed me a YouTube link where you can see the pictures, and hear Jerry perform the stand-up routine that goes with it.

Sorry for not putting this up yesterday, or the day before.  I got sidetracked with my major award!
The orange zest in this cider hints at the orange glaze on the brioche doughnuts, making it the perfect complement.  Enjoy!
Oh, and if you don’t have all the things like cardamom pods or whole anise florets, just toss in whatever you have.  It will still taste good.

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It was for the pumpkin contest.  I decorated mine to look like a trick-or-treater dressed as a ghost.  I won five dollars, and it was the highlight of my childhood.

Well, I was a little afraid to put this up, but Pam from For the Love of Cooking awarded me with it a little over a week ago.  Thank you, Pam!  Everyone should check out her site.  Two recent posts—Shredded Beef Taco Salad and Baked Acorn Squash and Butternut Squash—look delicious.

When you receive this award, you cut and paste the icon into your own post, and then you select five other blogs to give the award to.  Then you email them with the fabulous news!  Here are my picks:

Chocolate Shavings—great photography; great food

Tea and Cookies—more great photography, and great writing about life and food

Landoflauralot—my smart and sophisticated friend from college.  Her blog has great writing and insights on life.

Exclusively Food—two cool food bloggers from Australia.  Try their lemonade scones!

Sweet and Low—a great new design blog

Thank you again to Pam, and thank you to everyone who reads my blog!

I know, I know: “easy brioche” is an oxymoron.  And let’s be honest—homemade doughnuts aren’t that easy, either.  But these are so delicious, you’ll be happy you made them.
Although the ingredients are very similar to what is in brioche, I cut out most of the steps—making a dough sponge, refrigeration time and multiple risings—which are required in a traditional brioche dough.
I developed this so you can be inspired to make a little before lunch time, and have them ready by the time the kids get home from school.

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This trip reminded me why I love New England.  The trees were magnificent; the weather was glorious.

I am sad to be back.

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I’m still on vacation, so today I’ll post a recipe I made up over a year ago.

I love these. I make a big batch, let them cool completely, wrap them each in plastic wrap (you could also use paper towels), and then freeze them in a large sealable container such as a gallon size ziploc bag. Whenever I want a healthy lunch or dinner, I just heat them up in a skillet with a little olive oil, and serve them with the guacamole. I never even miss the meat or cheese.

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My nieces and nephews call this place Narnia.  Nestled among trees and streams, stand the ruins of an abandoned mill.  We spent a few hours in this lovely place, drinking in the the beauties of a New England fall day.

Emphasis should be placed on the word lucky. I never get to do stuff like that.
And unlucky you—I don’t have the recipe for those gorgeous things.

My sister lives in Western Massachusetts, and she’s been telling me about this unbelievable chocolate shop for years.  This weekend, while we were enjoying the Berkshires in all its fall splendor, we took the kids to Chocolate Springs which was worthy of every cry of praise I’ve heard.

After our trip to chocolate utopia, we stopped at Guido’s, the local gourmet shop, and bought what we needed to make a cheese platter.  You probably can’t tell at first glance, but some of the pears are only a little bigger than the grapes.  The two varieties are called Seckel and Forelle.
We took the platter to my sister’s friend’s house for a fall party.  The word party is a huge understatement, though.  How do you put into one word the epitome of a New England autumn celebration?  There was a huge inflated slide for the kids, a square dance in the barn, a fire ring with s’mores, old fashioned jars full of candy, and crates of freshly picked apples.  It was perfect.

While we were there, I saw a friend from college, and met Gabrielle Blair.  Most of you know her as DesignMom.

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I’ve been visiting my parents who have two cast iron pans which are about as old as my father.  Sadly, I do not have one of my own yet.  (I would love to have a Lodge Signature Series skillet.  They look perfect.)
I made this frittata in one of their their well-seasoned pans on a rainy day.  Sadly, the pictures of how I made it are too dark, so you will all have to use your imaginations.
I also made a low carbohydrate version by omitting the potatoes, which was just as good.

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