Thanksgiving, Snow, and Pecan Pie!

     We had a nice Thanksgiving yesterday, at home, with just the 4 of us. I don't think the phone even rang, which was nice. Dale usually gets several calls on weekends from work, so why should a holiday be any different? For dinner I made a turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn, green beans, rolls, rice, and gravy. Dessert was homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and ice cream. I was going to make a Jello brand cheese cake, but apparently that ended up in the bottom of a box during the move. It's not in my cabinet. So Caitlin and I had ice cream with whipped cream for dessert as we don't eat pumpkin pie. All day today, I have craved some kind of dessert, and there hasn't been anything in our house that I wanted. I decided I wanted Pecan pie, but it's been snowing like a mad dog foaming at the mouth since yesterday. Not the easiest thing to just hope in the car and go buy one. I told my husband if went out for beer, which I know he will eventually, that I wanted a frozen pecan pie. Well, he hasn't gone anywhere yet. I started thinking, I love to bake so I always keep certain baking supplies in the house. This includes chocolate chips, Karo syrup, flour, sugar, brown sugar, even melting chocolate. There would be nuts too except that my husband always finds them and eats them. So I was thinking about what it takes to make a pecan pie, and looked up a recipe. I wondered if it might be any good without pecans, cause I just knew there weren't any in the cabinet. Found a recipe, and I have everything I need, except of course the pecans. Ok, I decided to cross my fingers and check the Tupperware containers full of my baking supplies, and what do you know?! I found an unopened bag of chopped pecans! You know this was one excited, craving, pregnant woman! There's even one frozen pie shell left from baking the pumpking pies. What more could a person snowed in ask for? I'm waiting for the dishwasher to finish and then I'm headed to the kitchen to bake that pie! The reason I have to wait for the dishwasher is because it's a portable which means I can't use anything but hot water while it's going. You can't bake and not be able to keep constant wash of your hands. At least I can't.

     I said we are snowed in right? Yeah, not really, but if you don't have to go out this weekend, why bother? We are getting lake effect snow. This has something to do with the great lakes having gotten so warm during the summer, and the sudden cold we are having now. There was no time for the lakes to gradually cool down, and it affects the climate therefore making crazy amounts of snow in some areas. Here, we are right on the edge of the snow belt. Dale has already been out and blown off the driveway and sidewalk, and part of the neighbors driveway. Then it started snowing like crazy again so he came in. We had, I know, a good 8 inches when we woke up this morning, and within 30 minutes this afternoon there was another inch. Since the "blizzard" of this afternoon we have gotten another 2 to 3 inches at least. It's beautiful and peaceful, but it's a good thing we don't have anywhere to be right now. It makes me feel trapped, and I have a feeling that after the baby is born I'll be asking for some antidepressants of some sort. I don't like feeling trapped. I've always been a free spirit and like to be able to pick up and walk out the door at a moments notice.

     Well, I've cleaned the woodstove of all the old ashes and half burnt cinders, so I think it's time for a fire, and some pie baking! And while the pie is baking I think I'll unpack some more boxes.