First "Engaged" Holidays Friday, November 27, 2009

It's the holidays! Last year at this time, I was minding my own business, quietly wondering if my boyfriend was "the one," enjoying the holiday season, but with one eye on all those ubiquitous diamond commercials!

What a difference a year makes! Here we are, with entirely new reasons to be thankful this year... and the realization that next year at this time, we'll be married! How exciting.

I am truly blessed to be marrying into a family that is so nice and loving and has embraced me. This week, I went shopping with FMIL and she said she needed another pie to complete her Thanksgiving meal. I love to bake and was planning to bring something anyway, so I offered. I ended up making a pecan pie -- the first time ever!

When I was a kid, I baked apple pies nearly every year (starting when I was like 10 or so) and I generally love to bake. So while not a novice to pies in general, I was new to this one. I warned FMIL of my inexperience, and she gave me a bag of pecans and said, "See what happens!" So I did.

I was initially stressed out about it, since I didn't want to use corn syrup and I couldn't find too many recipes without it. But when I got to Whole Foods, my initial plan to use a combination of maple syrup & honey was thwarted by high prices, and I found some brown rice syrup instead. The recipe I ended up using was from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, the same one my mother cooked from all those years.

The pie turned out perfect: despite a Kitchenaid mishap (I must remember to choose an attachment that reaches all the way to the bottom of the bowl) and some inexperience, the pie was a big hit and tasted great! Here it is, ready to go to Grandma's house:

I also made a breakfast quiche for FH & I, and some delicious Williams-Sonoma cranberry squares (an unpublished recipe found only in their store, apparently).

Since I am still adjusting to FH's house, I wasn't moving as quickly as I normally would; I generally felt kind of out of place and like I didn't have room to cook and couldn't find anything. I didn't feel too much pressure to make everything perfect until Thanksgiving morning, when mishap after mishap threatened to ruin my baking projects.

In an extremely rare moment of 1950s-era traditionalism, I said to him, "What if I am not a very good wife in the kitchen, and I keep my husband & kids hungry and waiting for food that's not very good?" And he says, "Since when are you responsible for all the food in the house?" Good point. Don't you just love modern feminist men?