Thanksgiving

What is it about Thanksgiving that inspires such procrastination in me? Maybe because I'm too busy doing things, baking things, buying things, seeing people, and then just sitting. But at least I got this post done in the right month this year. 

Earlier in November, when it was still really nice out, Lily and I went leaf picking. We ran around in the parks picking up all different kinds of leaves and putting them into a paper bag. Then I promptly forgot about the bag underneath the stroller so the leaves all dried out and got crunchy. Read - pretty much useless for crafting. So I let Lily crunch those up and do whatever she wanted with them. I also gave her a brown colored pencil to draw with. Add in some mama-directed glue stick, and ta da! She's clearly a baby genius. 

The original impetus for collecting leaves was to press them and then make a leaf turkey. So on a much crappier weather day, we went out again and while Lily snoozed I scavanged what was left of the good leaves and found a couple of pinecones as well. After pressing for about a week, they were ready. And ta da! I'm clearly a genius as well. The colors are a bit muted in this picture, but the leaves are really beautiful reds, golds, and different shades of brown. 

And of course there was cake. On our trip to Springfield, IL in October, we found a dish towel with a recipe for 'Abraham Lincoln's Favorite White Cake.' How could I pass that up? So I decided to make it for Thanksgiving dinner, and I was determined to make it look like the picture on the dish towel as well. This is what I ended up with. 

There are so many problems with this cake, I'm not quite sure where to start. My first mistake was trying to follow a recipe, a historical one at that, on a dish towel without cross-checking it with anything. The cake part turned out fine. It's an almond cake and I made a filling out of candied pineapple and dried cherries. It was the icing that was a disaster. Boiled sugar icing is supposed to be light and fluffy. Mine ended up more like a glaze that hardened into a semi-sweet crust. I didn't have the ingredients or patience to try it a second time, so on I went. My second mistake was trying to make it look like a drawing on a dish towel. I made the bow out of fondant and edible markers. I didn't think about the cake being curved and domed, so that's why the tails look funny. The Lincoln silhouette cameo made out of fondant turned out pretty good. The picture doesn't show it well, but I actually sculpted the silhouette on the fondant. If you squint you can sort of see it. Some of the detail is lost because of the luster dust. I wish it was a little more penny colored, but I like it. And the toothpick adds a touch of class, no? It was just there to support the bow during transport, but I didn't get a picture before or after it was in.`All together, it tasted better than it looked. 

I also made mini pumpkin cheesecakes with gingersnap crust, whipped cream, and chocolate leaves. But after dropping a few, and sitting out for a while before serving, they did not photograph well. So you'll just have to imagine them. They tasted fabulous, though. 

All in all, it was a pretty great Thanksgiving. I'm grateful for family, good friends, and a job. And I'm grateful for the time to enjoy them all. Now onto Christmas!