Well, Thanksgiving dinner leaves me stuffed, exhausted, warmed by friends and family and mostly grateful to have a chance to cook traditional recipes and to have the audience to try some new ones!!

Every year I am disappointed by the marshmallow topping on my sweet potatoes. Corny as it may be, it is the one thing that is purely junky and without gourmet inspiration- just downright childish. We all scramble for the marshmallow topping that seems to simply evaporate, no matter how many I manage to pile on top.

So, this year, having acquired a new skill- making marshmallows at home- was the perfect time to try using homemade marshmallows on my potatoes. Normally, I would have some kind of sweet brown sugar and butter and oatmeal crumble thing I would sprinkle over the already once baked spuds before smothering them in white clouds of whipped sugar. This year, in my focus to make the topping myself, I completely forgot to put anything atop of the spuds before piping the white fluff on top...

 Normally I would not talk too much about a "savory" dish, but the inclusion of a homemade confection on top, bringing dessert to the main course of a meal, warranted such a move.
It piped out quite nicely, and held its shape perfectly until time to go in the oven.

 I wish I had a chance to photograph it before it was attacked. It was quite successful, and the pillowy white topping held up so stunningly, so substantially, that there was NO FIGHTING for marshmallow topping as each served portion had topping that did not seem to simply vanish between the serving dish and the plate. This was a thrilling turn of events for the children especially, but the adults were equally happy, just not as vocal about it.

Now we must discuss dessert.
I was quite happy with the Pumpkin-Ginger cheesecake recipe from last year, so I opted to try it again but not add additional crystallized ginger than what was called for in the recipe- it was not appreciated by the biggest cheesecake fan at the table, and I felt his input was worth noting.

Again, I managed to serve it before I realized I had not snapped a good photo.... alas.

It was extremely creamy, and gingery, which was fabulous, and I liked the swirly stuff happening on top.









THE  French Pear-Almond tart was by far the biggest hit of the night. Thank-you David Lebovitz and Dorie Greenspan. They said one could use canned pears, but..... how could I!!?? So I didn't. I poached the pears in a lemony sugar syrup and the outcome was well worth it in the texture of the fruit. Sweet but a slight tartness and pleasant firmness of the bosc pears helped make this a beautiful aria in the mouth.

Beautiful poached pears




Almond cream schmeared onto a partially baked cookie sweet crust

Even the cored pears looked pretty

And ready to go into the oven!!

Once again, in the chaos of the meal, did not manage to snap a photo- but is was lovely. I grated some pistachio nuts on top, but really it could have stood as it was. In its almond cream and pear goodness.

Great way to end the night, mmmmm.