Making Thanksgiving Memorable

Although I do have fond memories of my childhood Thanksgivings, I also distinctly remember wanting to stay far, far away from my mother all that week. She always took upon herself the burden to entertain and feed the extended family. It was certainly a noble gesture, but one that she was not organized enough to do well. We kids generally wanted to eat quickly and leave the Thanksgiving table as soon as possible.

When my husband and I started our own family, I spent my first two Thanksgivings trying to recreate the ideal Thanksgiving meal – even though it was generally just us, thousands of miles away from family. My poor husband had to stand helplessly by while I whipped up enough turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes to feed an army. His pleas for simplification went unheeded.

It was only after I had an infant to care for and just couldn’t put in the effort required for the traditional feast that I began to rethink my approach to this holiday. I reviewed every tradition that I had assumed was so necessary and asked myself two questions: what does this tradition mean? And do I even enjoy it?

I love holidays, and I would rather spend them with lots of friends and family, so we began organizing large Thanksgiving potlucks every year. I’m not especially fond of turkey, especially when dry; my usual Thanksgiving entrée is Crown Roast of Lamb. I love incorporating local foods – our holidays in Hawaii often boasted local favorites like sushi and fresh pineapple. My kids like simple foods, so we make sure to have chicken and rice for their enjoyment.

Our Thanksgivings are certainly more relaxed and enjoyable, but we also intentionally include some time for real thanksgiving to the Maker of All. Now that’s a tradition I can live with.

Sheri Payne is a homeschool mom of 3 in Virginia
http://kauhale.blogspot.com

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s about time for a recipe–the Fall season puts me in a baking mood.

So many of my favorite recipes have stories that go with them, as I’m sure yours do too. Family and friends connecting through food is really universal.

I don’t think there has been a year that we haven’t had pumpkin bars several times during the holidays. If you ask my kids what their favorite food is in the Fall, these are at the top of their list.

In fact, when the kids attended a small Christian school they had a Thanksgiving feast each year, and I volunteered to make these as the dessert for the whole school.

Mom tip: Volunteer in a BIG way and it can sometimes carry you through the whole year or at least a semester.

I did this for 4 or 5 years and the girls loved to help me make them the week before the feast. Assembly line style, we made between 10 and 20 jellyroll pans of pumpkin bars and froze them. The day before the feast, we mixed up and slathered the bars with the most delicious frosting.

Yes, that is a hand mixer you see Roger Leroy using.

Yes, it is true that I got through 19 years of marriage and 4 children and did not own a KitchenAid mixer until Christmas two years ago when PhilBillPaul found that the hand mixer was too strenuous for him. So he bought me a KitchenAid. Go figure.

In his defense, I was really fine without one.

Mr. Handy PhilBillPaul even made a special tray for me to slide the disposable foil pans onto and carry into the school three pans at a time. Sometimes he scares me with his handy creations.

One year my former next door neighbor offered to help. She made half the bars and I made the other half. Then we loaded up our vehicles and delivered them to the school.

Her two youngest children were obviously assigned the important job of guarding the pumpkin bars until we were ready to head to the school.

These pumpkin bars began with one neighbor bringing one pumpkin bar over on a little dessert plate to share with me. A small gesture that she may not even remember but I loved the pumpkin bar so much that I asked her for the recipe. She sent it over handwritten on a recipe card. Here it is:

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Pumpkin Bars
Sue Domian

4 eggs, 1 cup oil, 2 cups sugar, 1 can pumpkin. Mix together.
Add: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp ginger, 2 tsp cinnamon.

Mix together well. Bake in a greased / floured jellyroll pan at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

Frost when cool:
1 (8 oz) package of cream cheese, 3/4 stick margarine or butter, 1 tbsp milk,
1 tsp vanilla, 1 box powdered confection sugar

Keep bars refrigerated.

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I have lost count of how many people I have shared the recipe with. In the final year at their school, I printed the recipe on card stock so the school would have a stack to pass out when moms asked for it. They are that good!

Do you have a favorite recipe that has become a tradition in your family? Let’s swap some recipes in the comments so we can all add a new recipe or two to our menu this year.

Sherra Humphreys
Reprinted with permission from SherraLifeLessons

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