Spiced Pumpkin Parfaits

I have a confession. A true confession. A truly horrifying Thanksgiving-day confession. You see, the truth is, I don't really care for ... pumpkin pie. Or most fruit pies in general. I mean, I love fruit, and I can certainly eat just about any pie you put in front of me (major exception being coconut - I cannot handle coconut). But let's just all be straight-up at this point: we eat pie for the crust. Or at least I do. Some of my earliest memories involve my mother slapping my hands because I was once again picking off pieces of pie crust (from an as-yet-uneaten-pie). And to me, the true mark of adulthood comes when you can make your own pie and pick off crust pieces with no consequences.

So getting back to the point, I don't like pumpkin pie. But last fall, I had the first-time privilege of hosting my in-laws (famous for

This is my very first turkey.
I just thought you should all see it.
I slaved over him.

gargantuan Thanksgiving feasts) for Thanksgiving. At our house. Where I wasn't planning on making a pumpkin pie ...

The answer (in my opinion at least) was to try to create the mirage of a pumpkin pie without actually having to make and eat a pumpkin pie. So when I saw these charming little Spiced Pumpkin Parfaits over at The Cozy Apron, I knew where Thanksgiving Day dessert was headed. To Parfait of Pumpkin Bliss.

These turned out so well and were such a hit that I made them again at Christmas last year (when MY parents came to visit). However, that's where my other confession comes in: I was 7 months pregnant then, and by the time I got done cooking our meal and prepping that dessert, I was so wiped, I couldn't even finish my meal - or dessert. Both times. But I know the parfaits are amazing because, well, I sort of picked at stuff while I was making them. Snitching is my game. :-)

I hope if you are looking for something fun and pumpkin-y for the holidays, you can try these out. They really are amazing, and I thought a much better finish after a big meal than a heavy piece of pie.
(NOTE: I did make a blueberry pie later in the week so we could say we DID PIE.)  

Below is a link to the original recipe with a few notes: 

Spiced Pumpkin Parfaits 

with Chantilly Whipped Cream and Honey-Graham Crumble

a few notes

• You can substitute vanilla extract for the dark rum.
• I used just regular granulated sugar in the whipped cream and pumpkin cream. 
• If you're wondering where the mascarpone cheese is in the grocery store, check the deli section (wisdom learned after 40 minutes wandering all over Target's grocery section). 
• I would advise removing any rings before making the crumble. 
• Also, this recipe makes a lot of extra crumble. You could almost cut the crumble part in half. Or refrigerate leftovers and use them for something else (or just give kids a fun bowl of crumbles). 

The four finished parfaits.

Megan for The Sisterhood

Pumpkin Scones

Today's contribution to The Great Pumpkin Posts will nicely compliment yesterday's Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Jill recently found a recipe online for Pumpkin Scones, which she has now made, tasted, and loves! We're thankful that she's sharing it. 


Scone Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 tablespoons  butter
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 large egg

DIRECTIONS

Step 1: Preheat oven to 425* F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients until no chunks are obvious. Set aside.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, and then form the dough into a ball. 

Step 3: Pat the dough out into a long rectangle on a floured baking sheet. Slice the rectangle into 3 separate pieces. Then diagonally cut the dough again to make 6 triangular pieces. Bake in the oven for 14-16 minutes (scones should begin to brown). Then place on a wire rack to cool.

Spiced Glaze Ingredients:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS: Combine all ingredients together in a bowl, mixing with either a fork or metal spoon. Drizzle the icing over scones (while still on the wire rack) and let dry before serving.

Thanksgiving Recipes Part 2

Janet's Spice Rub for Turkey

Janet's Stuffing

Tamra's Cranberry Salad

Robin's Apple Crumb Pie

Yesterday we shared with you some of the Thanksgiving recipes our mother's shared with us.  Click here to see recipes for Crescent Rolls, Cranberry Jello, and Sweet Potato Souffle.  Today we have included the rest of our Thanksgiving favorites collection for you to enjoy.

Janet's Spice Rub for Turkey and Stuffing

One of the most basic elements to a Thanksgiving dinner is turkey.  Janet shares with us the way she prepares both the inside and the outside of the turkey prior to roasting.  Turkey flavored this way sure would make a tasty soup the day after Thanksgiving.

Tamra's Cranberry Salad

Cranberries are also a very basic part of most Thanksgiving dinners.  While many enjoy the canned, jellied variety that very much resembles the shape of the can it came from, this salad adds a nice component to any Thanksgiving dinner.  Tamra says that, "even if you don't like cranberries, this is a great salad."

Robin's Apple Crumb Pie

Robin has tailored Thanksgiving Dinner in her home to include her family's favorite dishes, including this delicious apple pie.  This recipe that requires no fancy lattice work, comes from the Better Homes and Gardens basic cookbook, and is well worth a try.

Thanksgiving Recipes Part 1

Grace's Crescent Rolls

Jan's Cranberry Jello

Laura's Sweet Potato Souffle

As promised in the previous blog post, we would like to share with you some of our families' favorite Thanksgiving recipes.  While you most likely already have your Thanksgiving menu planned for this year, why not give some of these recipes a try for Christmas dinner, or the next potluck you're a part of?

Please come by again tomorrow - we will be featuring favorite Thanksgiving recipes from Tamra, Robin, and Janet.


Grace's Crescent Rolls

"I don't believe that I have a reputation as a fabulous cook so that neither my expertise nor my recipes are in high demand, but my family appears to love my homemade crescent rolls which I usually only make for Thanksgiving.  I am willing to share this recipe, but just know that it comes from a very small and underused recipe box.  This recipe comes from my long time college friend, Carol Senn Ruffin (if you know her, ask about how she came to acquire this recipe)." -- Grace

                                     

Jan's Cranberry Jello

Cranberry Jello was introduced to me very early in time spent getting to know my husband's family.  While this delicious side is a standard at Thanksgiving dinner, it also finds its way into the menu at other times of the year.  This jello is a tasty complement to any turkey dinner. -- Joanne





Laura's Sweet Potato Souffle

Sweet potatoes are a pretty standard Thanksgiving Dinner menu item.  There's mashed sweet potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, and sweet potato dishes with marshmallows on top.  However, this sweet potato dish, with it's crunchy topping, has become a favorite of Laura's family.



A Thanksgiving Heritage

Albright Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving - the holiday sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas; the holiday, though seemingly ignored by most of the retail world, holds great significance to us; the holiday that is (scarily) less than a week away! So with that in mind, we would like to take a little time here in The Sisterhood to focus on one of our favorite holidays.  

The five of us sisters will not be together this Thanksgiving, but we will each have a role in the execution of Thanksgiving celebrations in the next few days.  We have been thinking about Thanksgiving centerpieces, menu items, and traditions we want to establish for our own families - and we have also discovered that the blogosphere is full of ideas . . . from beautiful tablescapes to 100 craft turkeys any preschool would love; from trees of gratitude to random acts of kindness.  While we do go to blogs, Pinterest, and magazines for all these great ideas, most of us have found that we still tend to rely on the ideas and wisdom of the best resources we possess - our mothers.

The five of us sisters have a combined total of six mothers/mother-in-laws. We surveyed them all on the topic of Thanksgiving with the intention of learning from them and sharing their wisdom and experiences with you. Please allow us to introduce you to our moms, and impart to you some of their Thanksgiving "know-how."

Grace

Grace is the matriarch of “The Sisterhood.”  Thanksgiving dinner is typically the biggest hostessing event of the year for her, featuring an Albright Family favorite - "the rolls." The Albright kids spend the rest of the year remembering and craving more of their mom's famous yeast crescent rolls.

Jan

Jan, Joanne’s mother-in-law, enjoys planning, organizing, and hosting dinners like Thanksgiving.  Joanne appreciates the traditional family Thanksgivings she has spent with her in-laws and looks forward to many more (as do her kids).
 



Tamra



Sarah's mom, Tamra, has continually expanded their family's Thanksgiving festivities to include many more people than just family.  Sarah has obviously acquired her gracious and hospitable spirit from her mom.



Robin





Thanksgiving for Megan's family - especially her mom, Robin, has always included more than food - it involves presents! (You'll find out why further on). Last year Megan’s parents joined the Albrights for Thanksgiving, and you should have seen the display of pies Robin (and Megan) made!




Janet



Janet, Jill’s mother-in-law, loves to cook!  And Jill enjoys the Thanksgivings she has spent with Steve's family learning creative ways to use up turkey leftovers.

Laura

New to the Albright family this year is Laura, Julie’s mother-in-law.  This is only the second Thanksgiving Julie has even known her in-laws, but she looks forward to learning more about how her husband’s family has typically celebrated Thanksgiving.

The following are the questions we asked our moms, with some of their responses:

1. What are the key menu items in a typical Thanksgiving dinner in your family?



Joanne's Father-in-Law
Carving the Turkey



Combined Menu: Turkey, Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Potato Souffle, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Corn Casserole, Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Jello, Cranberry Salad, Homemade Crescent Rolls, Pie (apple, pumpkin, pecan). Check back in the next few days to see some of these menu items in recipe format - just for you!

2. What has been your biggest Thanksgiving cooking/baking disaster?

 Jan: I don’t really remember any although that might be convenient memory loss.

Robin: Wow. Hmmmmm, I’m so paranoid about making mistakes (I really am - so I’m NO FUN to be around) that it hasn’t happened much. But I guess it was the time I pulled green bean casserole out of the oven and the pan collapsed and casserole went ALL OVER the floor.
 

Laura: I was washing dishes afterword at my mother-in-law’s house and the water pipe broke and water went everywhere.

3. What do you usually do with leftover turkey?
 

Grace: Most years I buy the largest turkey I can find, a minimum of 21 or 22 pounds. My motive? To have lots of leftovers.  We love turkey sandwiches, turkey salad sandwiches, and sometimes turkey pot pie.  Love all of the above.
 

Jan: Got to have left over stuffing too and have warmed up dinner the next night or so.
 

Janet: Turkey Soup (carcass is used to make the broth, and then the leftover turkey is added to make turkey noodle soup).
 

4. What is your favorite Thanksgiving memory?

Creating Memories
The "Kids' Table"

Grace: 1978, my first time as the hostess for the family Thanksgiving meal.  I had never fixed a turkey by myself before and I think I spent hours on the phone with my mother having her instruct me in GREAT detail about how to prepare one.  The Albright in-laws were visiting us in our small apartment in Mt. Prospect, IL. Included in the group around our table that day were a Japanese couple and their little girl.  The family had recently moved to our neighborhood and out of curiosity about American life, attended our church for the couple years they lived in America.  We wanted them to experience a traditional American Thanksgiving celebration and invited them to join us.  Their English was quite limited and often it was difficult to communicate with them.  My favorite memory from the day was my father-in-law who believed that the best way to overcome the language barrier between Japanese and English was to raise the decibel level.  I can still hear him saying, “MASHED POTATOES!”
 
Tamra: Being a nurse I worked every other Thanksgiving when the girls were younger, so spending time with them and/or other extended family was so wonderful.  In the first several yeas after our church plant was started, we were able to have a meal at our small apartment with those who weren’t able to go home for Thanksgiving - but now the group is too large for that.  We have since had larger meals at the church which has also been a blessing to us.

Robin: An EASY ONE! The Thanksgiving my first child [Megan] was born.  I went into labor about 3am on Thanksgiving and she was born that night at 8:47.  I had a turkey sandwich about 11pm - my first meal of the day, and probably my favorite Thanksgiving dinner! :)
 
Laura: When I was a little girl, we went to my Aunt Era’s farm for Thanksgiving.  She had all the family over.  The land was beautiful, and everyone brought food.  We had so much fun that day playing with all the cousins and my uncle would take us on tractor rides.
 
5. Are there any traditions unique to Thanksgiving you have established over the years?  What are they?

Jan: When I was a kid, we would usually go to the Thanksgiving parade downtown (Detroit).  When my kids were little, we would watch it on TV.  Our typical traditions have included watching the Lions football game, and at times having shrimp cocktail (a Thanksgiving treat) when we were at my parents.
 
Tamra: Our “tradition” has truly been just enjoying the day, relaxing,and fellowshipping with each other.  We, of course, want to make sure before we eat our meal to go around the table to say what we are thankful for.  With the extended family, we have played a lot of games after the meal, looked at photo albums, and planned where we were going to shop on Black Friday. :) Several times at my sister-in-law’s house, we participated in their tradition of gong to a tree farm in the evening, so they could cut down their Christmas tree.
 
Janet: Lots of food! Making way too much food, which seems to disappear.  The Berbee Derby (5K race) several family members run a 5K Thanksgiving morning and then return home to have nice warm monkey bread.
 
6. As you approach Thanksgiving this year, what are you especially thankful for?

Grace: This blogspot does not have enough megabytes to contain a list of all that I am thankful for.  In short, this year I am especially grateful for our growing family and our children’s ongoing commitment to pleasing God and serving Him.  We are also grateful to God for our church and its core of committed faithful members.  They are an encouragement to us.  I believe that each year, I become even more grateful for my salvation and appreciative of the undeserved blessings I enjoy. 

  

Tamra: Our children and grandchildren, that they are all healthy and our children are following the Lord; our ministry, that the Lord has not only allowed us to serve Him in this way, but also the people He has given us to minister to; our continued health; most importantly, the gift of salvation, His perfect love, mercy, and grace which we see in every area of our live as we live in a major downtown city! 

7.  Any other thoughts or advice about Thanksgiving?

Jan: You (Joanne) always have to spend your Thanksgiving with your husband's family.   Hahaha, just kidding. :-) 

Robin: Spend much time during the Thanksgiving season counting and recounting all the blessings the Lord has allowed in your lives.  Don’t get so caught up in the pre-Christmas hustle that you miss out on the opportunity to praise the Lord for all he’s done.  He is a great God who is GOOD all the time!

A Pfeiffer Thanksgiving

Janet: Enjoy those who are around you: the season, the family, the friends.  Don’t be so tied up in the kitchen that you lose the fellowship of those who are around you.  Enjoy their company.  Have the thankful spirit all year round, instead of the emphasis just the Thanksgiving time.  Yet, it is a good reminder that we are to be thankful.  Take time to have a prayer of thanks, a time of prayer without asking - just praise and thanksgiving.

 8.  And finally - Who would you like to see win the Packers vs. Lions football game this year?

 
Grace: This year’s game puts me in a great dilemma.  First, I want the Lions to win as my sentimental favorite, BUT we have a family Fantasy Football League in which I "own" the Packers defense. So . . . I am hoping for a Lions victory with the score of 3-0.
 
Jan: LIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course.
 
Tamra: Go Lions!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Robin: No Contest: PACKERS!!!!!
 
Janet: Go Pack Go!! 

Laura: Go Packers!