Thanksgiving

Today we were invited to have a Thanksgiving meal with friends in Sterling and so I thought that I should make something to contribute to the meal and I decided on some shortbread mince pies.

This is a recipe from BBC Good Food which I have made before - it is branded as 'very easy' but I must admit I found it quite stressful trying to get it right.  I doubled the recipe which meant rather a lot of rubbing in and then kneading of the dough to make it workable.

In the end today's batch seemed to come out reasonably well and they were well received by our hosts and other guests, none of whom had tried one before.

It was lovely to sit down to a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner with twelve other people and sample two types of turkey - one roasted in the oven and one cooked outdoors in a barbecue smoker, together with traditional accompaniments of cornmeal stuffing, cooked Brussels sprout salad; roasted sweet potato; candied sweet potato casserole; mashed potatoes and spiced cranberry relish.  All very good.  In addition there were plantains and a spinach dish.

Desserts included Banana Cream Pie; Chocolate Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie (we didn't sample them all!) and of course the Mince Pies.

We have now returned home for a little rest by the fire..