Thanksgiving- My Part of the Menu

I love cooking, especially for large groups of people. It's hard for me to make food for two, and I am lucky that my husband like leftovers. Last year, I worked in direct care for the Children's Home, and cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal for about 30 people. It was super fun and although I was tired, my inner Martha Stewart craves that many people thinking my food is yummy and well-presented.

This year, however, I have an office job, at the same place, and no cottage full of lovely girls to make a holiday for. So I was excited when my new sister in law invited us over to celebrate with their family, and asked me to make several dishes. I like making the traditional foods of Thanksgiving, especially the pies. My pie recipes are very special to me, because they are my grandmother's. She has Alzheimer's and is currently in a nursing home. She doesn't know any of us. I am always reminded when I use one of her recipes, that one of the first signs of her Alzheimer's was losing her ability to bake. She had always been a fantastic baker, and then slowly her cookies became a little dry, then things didn't turn out anymore....it was very sad. So whenever I use (or tweak!) one of her recipes, I feel like I am carrying on what she cant anymore. It makes me proud that her pie crust recipe is probably the best pie crust I have ever tasted. You know it's good pie when people don't leave the crust like they normally do! :)

Here are the pies I made.....apple, pumpkin, and sweet potato. (The sweet potato was a recipe from the internet, the other two are her recipes that my family has always used.)

Below is my grandmother's pie crust recipe. It's tempting to skip making home made crust, and just get the store bought stuff, but I promise, the 15 extra minutes is well worth it.

Perfect Pie Crust 

Yields: 4 balls of dough, enough for four 9" pie crusts

 Ingredients:

4 cups of flour
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups Crisco
1/2 cup water
1 egg
1 tbsp. vinegar

Mix together flour, sugar, salt, and Crisco. I find that the best way to blend the Crisco in is a pastry cutter or large fork. The mixture will be sort of crumbly. Add in water, egg, and vinegar. Even after mixing this in, it will need a little help mixing in that last bit of flour that seems to stay on the bottom of the bowl. You can do this by kneading the pie crust until everything is mixed in and smooth. Separate into 4 balls, and roll out pie crusts, or seal in an airtight plastic freezer bag or container and freeze. This recipe can be frozen for as long as desired. You should bake this according to the instructions of the pie you are making.