Wednesday, November 23, 2022

The Great American Bake Off? Thanksgiving Dessert! A guest blog by Catriona McPherson

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: So, Publishers' Weekly says, about SCOT IN A TRAP,  "McPherson keeps the laughs and the action rolling along." But you know - that's just Catriona, whether writing her Last Ditch mysteries, hanging out at the bar at a conference, or, as she shares with us today, working her way up the ladder of that most-American of all meals: Thanksgiving dinner.

My hat's off to you, Catriona - if I reversed the trip my ancestors made, emigrated to Scotland, and was invited to contribute to a Burns Night dinner? I'd just pretend both my hands were broken.




 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving for tomorrow, Reds!

 

And what a timely guest post this is. Thank you so much for having me today. SCOT IN A TRAP (sorry for the earworm) opens on Thanksgiving Day morning, with my fish-out-of-water Scot, Lexy Campbell surveying the prepped food in the Last Ditch Motel kitchen and having mild hysterics.

She commits the solecism of suggesting she might slice up some ripe pears in case, after the mammoth main course, anyone wants a lighter dessert than . . . the seven pies she can see all around her.


It was a lot of fun to write and it made me realise how long I had lived here (eleven years), given that I had to dig so deep for the food vertigo I used to suffer. Thanksgiving dinner feels completely normal now. I don’t blink at the fact that there’s a brown-sugar crust on top of the yams; I barely notice the marshmallows; I know the rolls are going to taste like cake; and I believe that there truly will be some macaroni under all that cream and melted cheese if I keep digging.

My part in Thanksgiving has seen a dizzying ascent over those eleven years. When fellow writer, Eileen Rendahl, first invited me to join her Friends and Family Thanksgiving Feast, and I asked what I could contribute, I was – rightly and properly – held down at Martinelli’s level. The last thing they needed was someone who didn’t know what a yam was turning up with a casserole dish under her arm.

After a couple of years, I got promoted to appetisers. Pretty safe still, because who eats appetisers on Thanksgiving? I dutifully put blobs of blue cheese in the sharp end of a lot of chicory spears and sprinkled them with candied walnuts, knowing they’d end up in the compost.

Apprenticeship served, I was given clearance to bring green bean casserole.

I almost lost the commission when I asked what pearl onions were, but I promised I would google extensively before I turned the stove on. As the picture shows, I made two casseroles: one with fresh beans, a roux, onions fried in a pan and pesky little onions that I skinned myself; one with frozen beans and onions, a can of soup and French’s fried. Guess which one went first? Yep. And you know why? It was nicer.

By this time, at other points on the calendar, I had served up trifles, shortbread, cakes and crumbles at various gatherings and so it came to pass that one year, Eileen asked me if I would make, for Thanksgiving, for twenty Americans . . . you guessed it . . . the pies.

What a humbling experience it was to be given this honour. What a nerve-wracking experience it was actually to do the baking, take it to the feast, sit there through hours of turkey and football knowing the axe would fall eventually, and then hear someone say “dessert?”

I didn’t eat any myself. I couldn’t swallow. I just sat there watching twenty Americans dig into my pumpkin and pecan pies. Me, who had never made or eaten a pumpkin pie in my life and didn’t even pronounce “pecan” in a way that could clue a produce assistant in to what I was looking for. People, I didn’t know “pie crust” was what you called the pastry bit underneath the filling. Talk about flying blind.

I’ve made the pies for a few years now: one pumpkin; one pecan; and one wild card – i.e. whatever the person who speaks up first asks for. Sometimes it’s chocolate, sometimes it’s apple and blackberry, this year I’m tempted to make lemon meringue because I’ve never made one. But I’ve watched ten seasons of the Great British Bake Off and I’ve got the apron. How hard could it be?

 

 

Reds and friends, what wild-card pie would you have asked for if you were coming to Eileen’s with me? Or, if you want to make me feel better, what’s the scariest bit of catering you’ve ever been talked into?

 

Catriona McPherson (she/her) was born in Scotland and immigrated to the US in 2010. She writes: preposterous1930s detective stories, set in the old country and featuring an aristocratic sleuth; modern comedies set in the Last Ditch Motel in fictional (yeah, sure) California; and, darker than both of those (which is not difficult), a strand of contemporary psychological thrillers.

Her books have won or been shortlisted for the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Lefty, the Macavity, the Mary Higgins Clark award and the UK Ellery Queen Dagger. She has just introduced a fresh character in IN PLACE OF FEAR, which finally marries her love of historicals with her own working-class roots, but right now, she’s writing the sixth book in what was supposed to be the Last Ditch trilogy.

Catriona is a proud lifetime member and former national president of Sisters in Crime. You can find out more about her at her website, friend her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter

 

A mysterious object the size of a suitcase, all wrapped in bacon and smelling of syrup, can mean only one thing: Thanksgiving at the Last Ditch Motel. This year the motel residents are in extra-celebratory mood as the holiday brings a new arrival to the group - a bouncing baby girl.

But as one life enters the Ditch, another leaves it. Menzies Lassiter has only just checked in. When resident counsellor Lexy Campbell tries to deliver his breakfast the next day, she finds him checked out. Permanently. Shocking enough if he was a stranger, but Lexy recognises that face. Menzies was her first love until he broke her heart many years ago.

What's he doing at the Last Ditch? What's he doing
dead? And how can Lexy escape the fact that she alone had the means, the opportunity - and certainly the motive - to kill him?

109 comments:

  1. Catriona, your tale of the dishes of Thanksgivings past made me chuckle . . . I’d ask for a mince pie if I were the one making the pie suggestions . . . .

    Congratulations on your newest book; “Scot in a Trap” sounds deliciously intriguing and I’m looking forward to finding out how it all turns out . . . .

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    1. My father's fave was mince pie too Joan, with hard sauce. None of the rest of us would eat it!

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    2. Okay, here goes with a confession: I buy my mince pies. We eat so many of them over the 12 days of Christmas that I couldn't keep up. Also, I can't ever get the pastry thin enough. So I go to the World Market and pay $6.99 for six. (And dream of Tesco where I'd pay 99p for six, but hey-ho!)

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    3. Hard sauce! Or, as my friend Joy calls it, bum rutter.

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    4. Anonymous was my, by the way. I forgot to sign in.

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    5. I'll share the mince pies with you all. ! I love mince pies.

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  2. I love your meal preparation stories. Most people just ask me to show up because in truth, I rather stay home. But I do enjoy the day when I show up. Sad to say I do not like pies, so I would bring rainbow sprinkled cake.

    Congrats on SCOT IN A TRAP, which I'm reading right now and enjoying it so. I can hear your voice when I'm reading the chapters.

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    1. the rainbow cake sounds good Dru, what time are you coming??

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    2. (Whisper) I'm not mad about sweet pies either, Dru. I'd rather have a pavlova or a trifle. But I wouldn't dare on Thanksgiving!

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    3. I got a chance to disown that comment - I'd forgotten to sign in. But tell the truth and shame the devil, right?

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  3. So funny, Catriona! I grew up making three kinds of pies with my mom and sisters for Thanksgiving, and they are still my favorite part of my favorite holiday, which I always host. Always pumpkin (two) and apple (sky-high), plus pecan if son #1 is with us. This year I might venture into chocolate-pecan territory!

    I don't think I've ever been scared off by a food request. Bring it on. Have a lovely (and delicious) feast tomorrow!

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    1. I'm making a chocolate peanut butter cake, but I'm wondering now if it's a mistake not to have pumpkin!

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    2. (Whispers even quieter) Never a mistake not to have pumpkin. I make it every year and have consumed exactly one mouthful in year one to check that it was okay.

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    3. My favourite bit of Thanksgiving (and Christmas) is what to do with leftover turkey. I Love leftovers!

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    4. OMG - pumpkin is my favorite. And it's also the ONLY way I consume pumpkin spices...

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    5. I LOVE turkey sandwiches with my cranberry relish--best part of Thanksgiving!

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  4. Welcome and Congrats Catriona! I'm sure you are the life of the party and that's all that matters:)

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  5. Catriona, congratulations on all the great buzz about this book! I must catch up with the Last Ditch books, such a fun bunch of characters! Thanksgiving is a perfect setting for a "fish out of water" mystery. No holiday is as quintessentially American. Most cultures do not put marshmallows on their dinner plates.

    My step mother had friends who were wealthy and refined. They still had their European accents and I believe they were survivors. We were invited to break the fast at their home after Yom Kippur and I was asked to bring the soup. Even when you know everyone, it can still be intimidating. I salute you and your pies! I love Thanksgiving!

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    1. Okay, you win. Breaking the fast after Yom Kippur is higher stakes than the Thanksgiving pies!

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  6. As a fellow Brit I can sympathize Catriona, facing Thanksgiving traditions can be daunting but your tales of T’day food are hysterical. I’m not much of a pie gal but I do adore a fresh fruit tart. I recall with much laughter a call from my daughter on Thanksgiving morning many years ago. She and guy de jour were living in London and had gathered some expats to share the feast . Olivia, having asked for the apple crumble recipe to be sent to her, says “well Ma, I’ve opened the Calvados and had a drink, what do I do now?” - Celia

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    1. Ha! I remember those calls when the next generation down was learning to cook. My niece phoned one day to ask "How do you make gravy?" We were stumped. I mean, where are you starting from, right? Have you got a piece of almost roasted meat anywhere or are you just gazing into a larder.

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  7. Catriona, how did I not know the Last Ditch was a series?? Lucky me, it will be fun to catch up!

    Pie? Make mine cherry, please. And being asked to cater a wedding the night before the event was, shall we say, one for the books. When the guests started using cups for the chocolate fondue, you know you've done something right ;-)

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    1. Oh yes - that was high praise. And mmmmm to the cherry pie. Or any fruit pie actually, if you're forced to have a pie of some sort. There's a diner near El Portal (the western gate into Yosemite) that serves berry pies so good, they were my dad's favourite bit of the trip there. Redwoods? Okay, sure. But that berry pie . . . chef's kiss.

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  8. CATRIONA: I loved learning about your US Thanksgiving menu progression over the years.
    Like Flora, my choice would be cherry pie, but it's not really in season now. Or a bumbleberry pie.

    Looking forward to reading about the Last Ditch Thanksgiving hijinks in SCOT IN A TRAP.

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    1. I have no idea what a bumbleberry is, Grace. To Google!

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    2. Bumbleberry is not one type of berry but rather a mixture of three-four berries + apple. It's an Eastern Canada regional specialty which is sold in grocery stores around Canadian Thanksgiving (October 10 this year).

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    3. At Cider Hill Farm this morning, when I went to pick up my fresh turkey (a mile from my house...), others were picking up bumbleberry pies!

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    4. Yay, good to know bumbleberry pie is eaten in New England. I was told it was a Maritime (Eastern Canada) specialty.

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    5. Yum, I would definitely go for the bumbleberry.

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  9. Catriona: I love your 'promotions' through the various courses of T'giving dinner. I must catch up on the Last Ditch series, which sounds great. As for being daunted by a food request: I was tasked with bringing a dessert to a seder so it had to be flourless. For the first time ever, I baked an apple-something using almond flour. It did not hold together at all and looked a mess, but was welcomed and enjoyed nonetheless. Phew!

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    1. I love Passover Seder! And me eating gefilte fish without complaint (although admittedly with a lot of horseradish) obliged that same Eileen to try haggis. Once.

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    2. Food dares! Can be fun or awful, depending on one's tolerance and one's tummy. Haggis, hmmmm. Not yet tried it. Nor, come to that, gefilte fish.

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    3. I think haggis gets a bum rap. I had it, once, on my honeymoon in Scotland, and I loved it. I have to admit it was at what's now a three-star Michelein restaurant, however.

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    4. I think haggis can be really good, or dreadful, depending on the chef. It's also spicier than you would imagine.

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  10. Hi, Catriona! Is it really 12 years? I have to say, pies are only second in importance to the turkey in some places, so that's an honor to be trusted with them.

    I should make a blackberry pie, since we have wild berries frozen. But we were gifted a pumpkin from a bakery and I will just serve that. If it was just me and my mom, we would have our favorite, a chocolate bourbon pecan pie. It's not as sweet as a plain pecan pie, plus dark chocolate.

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    1. Ooo, Karen, that sounds sinfully delicious.

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    2. That will be the third pie option I offer tomorrow, Karen! I have printed out the recipe. ;^)

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    3. Karen, we call that Derby Pie in Kentucky.

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    4. I think I NEED a recipe for Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie. Karen, share?

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    5. Yep, 12 years, Karen. Neil has now lived in this house longer than anywhere else in his life.

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    6. Okay, here's the recipe:

      Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

      3 eggs
      ¼ C plus 2 T butter, melted
      ¾ C light corn syrup
      ½ C sugar
      ¼ C firmly packed brown sugar
      2 T bourbon
      1 T flour
      1 tsp vanilla extract
      1 C chopped pecans
      1 C semisweet chocolate chips
      1 unbaked 9” pie shell

      Beat eggs in a large mixing bowl until frothy. Add butter, beating well. Add syrup, sugars, bourbon, flour and vanilla; beat well. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle chocolate chips in pie shell. Pour pecan mixture over chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees for one (1) hour, or until set.

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    7. Kathy, can you compare this with your Derby Pie recipe? I'm curious whether it's the same.

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  11. My in-laws have a 1 pie per person rule for Thanksgiving dessert. Most of them (now me too) end up with 3 or 4 smallish slices on one plate to start. Then the grazing throughout the evening begins. If by chance there is any pie left the next morning it is served up for breakfast. My go to pie is Blueberry-Raspberry, yum.

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    1. Ha! Yes, Mo, the leftover pies get wheeled out for breakfast in my book too. It's the only downside of going somewhere for a feast instead of hosting it. I wake up the next day thinking of all the leftovers not in my kitchen.

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    2. That is definitely the biggest benefit of being the host!!

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  12. Thanks for the hilarious stories about moving from appetizers to green bean casserole to pie. I remember food culture shock the other way during a couple of 6 month sojourns in the UK. The first time, my twin sister and I were teenagers and attended a girls' high school in Leeds. In Domestic Science class (called DomSki for short) we made rock cakes. Weighing all the ingredients was so different from the cooking we had learned in HomeEc here. When we brought the rock cakes home, my dad said, "Shall I take my pick?" Always a character.

    The second time was in 1978 when I was 21 and lived with a host family in Edinburgh (my host mum was Welsh). I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for them and traipsed all over looking for chocolate chips. I also figured out what to use to make a rough version of a chocolate cheese cake recipe I was fond of, but it took some doing.

    I've never really figured out pie crust. My mom made crust using oil and milk. Sometimes it tasted pretty good, other times not so much. I have tried other versions and even had a lesson that I bought at an auction, but never practiced enough to really get it down. So good for you!

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    1. Oh, Gillian. First off - I do apologise for British food. Rock cakes are . . . well, it's like John Knox's did a cookbook, isn't it? They are technically treats but they don't have to be nice. And looking for chocolate chips in the 70s? No way. And YES! on the impossibility of moving from volume to weight. I can't go the other way. I just translated a recipe for this blog tour and 1.87 cups of flour strikes me as bonkers.

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    2. Thank God for digital scales! Catriona, your "treats but they don't have to be nice" cracked me up!

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  13. My scariest catering job was, yes, bringing the turkey and stuffing to a Thanksgiving dinner for nine or ten fellow graduation Berkeley students. I had never, ever done a turkey--for all previous potluck Thanksgivings, I'd been ask to bring starts, veggies, desserts. But never the turkey itself. I made my family's cornbread stuffing for the bird, which involves an extraordinary quantity of butter, among other ingredients; it was a success. But the turkey . . . well, all I can say is that, for some reason, when I got it out of the oven, it fell apart. No beautiful bronzed bird on the platter, just a pile of meat chunks. Astonishingly, it tasted fine--it wasn't even dry--but it looked like it had backed through a fan. Everyone, including me, laughed when I got the plate out of the car, carried it in, and removed the foil. But everyone ate it, which is what matters. As for a third Thanksgiving pie, I think apple is almost as traditional for Thanksgiving as pumpkin and pecan, so that's what I'd vote for. Nice to hear about your eleven years of Thanksgiving dinners, Catriona--thanks! And good luck with Scot in a Trap.

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    1. Sorry--that was meant to be "Berkeley graduate students." My brain must have backed through a fan as well as my turkey.

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    2. Kim, better falling off the bone than a trip to the ER, right?

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  14. Too funny, Catriona. Pies are a big deal, so kudos to you to be entrusted to make them. My kids don't consider it Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie.

    Like Edith, I've never been afraid to try something (although it doesn't always turn out well), but like Julia, if I was asked to do food for Burns Night I'd plead a broken...something.

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    1. For Burns' Night, you could bring . . . mashed potato. Or whisky.

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    2. I thought about that, Catriona, but I'm not sure I'd dare pick a whiskey for a gathering of Scots. (What is the collective noun for Scots, anyway?)

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    3. I could do the whisky! (No "e" in proper whisky!)

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  15. I will be baking my pies today. Pumpkin (recipe on Libby’s can) and French cranberry apple (recipe from the internet). Some years I have made Chocolate Dream Whip pie (recipe on the Dream Whip box). At Christmas I make cherry pie (recipe from my grandma). My grandma was a great pie baker and would make everyone’s favorite so there were lots of pies! My pick was always lemon meringue!! Hope you try one and it turns out well.
    The Last Ditch Mysteries sound so fun. I must pick this book up after I come out of my food coma.
    Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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    1. French cranberry apple sounds fascinating, Brenda! I'll have to look that up.

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    2. I was so relieved when I discovered Libby's and t recipe right there on the can. A Libby's wrapper lives on my fridge door year-round. There was a while when it was held in place with a Ho Chi Minh fridge magnet, which I thought might cost me my greencard. (I swapped it.)

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  16. My mother was the pie baker and always contributed 2 or maybe 3 pies every year. Pumpkin and apple were the best until the time my little granddaughter, around 4 at the time, wanted a chocolate chip pi. My mother had no idea what that was and neither did anyone else. Somewhere we found a recipe that met the requirements. I remember there was peanut butter and whipped cream (my mother never would have use cool whip.) Maybe cream cheese was in there too. So everything got folded together, mini chips were added, and it was piled into a baked shell. Delicious, but very rich. A tradition was born. I'd always opt for peach pie myself.

    Thanks for the smiles today, Catriona! happy Thanksgiving to all!

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    1. Judi, one thing I've noticed about holiday meal add-ons - the "healthy" ones never last more than a year, but the decadently rich ones go on for decades!

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    2. I avoid cool whip. Not least because I'm never sure if they mean that or miracle whip. Which is which? And you can't always tell from the recipe either. Those salads with jelly in them!

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  17. Thank you so much for having me back, Julia and the Reds. I'm looking froward to reading about a lo-ho-hot of pies in the comments today. I've already seen "cherry" as I scrolled by.

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    1. I voted for cherry below, Catriona, despite it being, shall we say, less than seasonal. I think something a bit tart goes well with the super-sweet pecan pie and the... mushy, blah pumpkin pie.

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  18. Scot in a Trap sounds like a fun read. I vote for mincemeat for the third pie!

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  19. It's always such a pleasure to "hear" Catriona's voice - And I'm a huge fan, so queuing the new book up.
    I love pies. I know American style pies re disdained on the Great British BO. But what do they know? They put watery tomatoes and beans on a breakfast plate of eggs. :-p
    My wild-card pie... coconut cream. Haven't had one in years but I always ordered it from Hamburger Hamlet, a long-gone California chain that got started practically in my backyard.

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    1. Ooooh, coconut cream! Can I just say I agree with you on pies, Hallie? Fruit pies, custard pies, pecan pie--bring 'em on!

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    2. Hallie, I still dream about Marie Callender's fresh strawberry pie. SO good.

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    3. I sent this comment once already and it disappeared, but all I said was that yes they were incredibly snooty about the pies on that episode of GBBO - except for lovely Sarah Jane the vicar's wife. But re. breakfast: I don't want eggs with one kind of meat and some potatoes. I want egg and bacon and sausage and haggis and black pudding and mushrooms and beans and fried bread.And watery tomatoes.

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  20. Does cheesecake count? I’m making one today to bring to a very extended family gathering. I make the version with ricotta and pine nuts and a little less sugar. A Joy of Cooking classic. The cookbook opens to that page because there’s dried egg white, flour, and dried up bits of graham cracker that have worked their way into the center.

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    1. Cheesecake always counts. I love those recipe books that fall open at the crusty bits!

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  21. I'm going to join with Catriona in a big thumbs down for pumpkin pie. This is heresy for a New Englander and probably would have gotten me pressed to death in the 1600s, but pumpkin pie is just a wodge of squash Jell-o made bearable by the addition of cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. Pumpkin bread and muffins? Delicious! Pumpkin cubed and simmered in a stew? Wonderful! Mixed with eggs and sweetened condensed milk... I'll pass, thanks.

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    1. But, but...you've never had mine! From my grandmother's recipe, double the spices, halve the milk. Not pale, not insipid. Seriously delicious, with fresh-whipped heavy cream.

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    2. Ah, and Julia has never had mine, Edith. It's my mother-in-law's recipe that uses just under three cups of sugar and only one can of pumpkin for two pies. Of course, there are other ingredients in there, too. Now, my daughter has a version that avoids all that sugar and uses honey or some other blasphemous substitute. But her pie actually tastes pretty good, just not sugar straight to your veins good.

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    3. Right, Julia - pumpkin pie joins jazz music and dogs as one of the things where if you admit an aversion you're invited to check one more time! Seriously though, La La Land drove me nuts - that guy responded to his date saying no to jazz by taking her to a jazz club. I'd have left through the loo window.

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    4. Julia, I think you would have hated the dessert choices at my house when I was a kid--pumpkin or mincemeat pie. My dad loved mincemeat so my grandma and mom made it for him. The rest of us ate pumpkin. Now usually we do pumpkin and something else, this year it will be either chocolate cream pie or brownies. A couple of times we made German Chocolate Pie.. that was delicious, but a lot of work.

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    5. Pumpkin pie is probably my least favorite, too. I once bought a big cushaw melon and made a pie from it for Thanksgiving, using pumpkin pie spices. No one was the wiser. Sweet potato pie is similar.

      When I went to pick up our gift pumpkin today I also picked out a cherry lattice to bring home. And some of my daughter's favorite bakery cookies. We will all go into diabetic comas tomorrow, I suspect.

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    6. Pumpkins have one, just one mind you, joy to give: Jack-o-Lanterns! Not the squishy mess cooked in a pie (all due respect Edith, you can’t change the texture) and Julia, why ruin a perfectly good muffin? Just say “no to pumpkin!”

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    7. Probably should rant anonymously, but it is Elisabeth the pumpkin hater. LOL

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    8. I'm late to the party and just seeing this now. In old New England, pumpkin was an extremely popular dish, because it was SO EASY to grow and needed no weeding or tending. I have had pumpkins grow many times on my manure pile, because I fed old pumpkins to my cows. After passing through the cows, seeds took root in the spring! In the past, everyone ate pumpkin pies (or desserts/puddings) because they were so cheap. They also helped ward off scurvy. In a Maine memoir a man remembered his mother in the 1880s making pumpkin "pies" in giant baking dishes the width of their oven. My favorite mention is from a diary during the Revolution... Lt. Jabez Fitch, a CT prisoner on parole on Long Island, is thrilled when "a remarkable great Puding made of Pumkin, & of Equal Size to a Sawmill log, appeared on ye table..." By the way any squash at all can be used for pumpkin pie.

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  22. Hi Catriona,
    I’m excited to hear that there’s another Last Ditch mystery!

    I’m not much of a pie eater. My sister is making apple pie. Apples, which I love in any form, have been irritating my stomach lately, so I’ll probably say “no, thank you.” My favorite pie, one which I used to make for the holidays, is chocolate pecan pie. I could eat a whole pie by myself!

    DebRo

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    1. That's a shame about the apples, Deb. Peaches, intead?

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  23. Early in our marriage when I was still trying to "impress" I made pies from scratch. Didn't look great but tasted fine. I wised up somewhere along the way and assigned pies to others to bring when we were hosting. Last year we had on offer: local Boy Scout troop apple pie, Walmart pumpkin pie, and World Market mince tarts. Evidently my guests were as pragmatic (or lazy) as me. Third pie? Go for cherry!

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    1. Ahhhh "from scratch". I had to learn a bit of diplomacy when I moved here and came across the concept of "from scratch". Actually, I spent a few years kicking myself after asking for recipes, assuming people would be embarrassed about the boxes and packets!

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  24. So looking forward to the latest Last Ditch, Catriona--the perfect thing to curl up with while digesting the feast! My wild card pie would be mincemeat. I can see a trip to World Market in my future. I'd also vote for cherry, and I like apple, which we always have to have because my hub doesn't like pecan or pumpkin.

    My mom was famous for her lemon meringue pies. Alas, I have no idea what recipe she used and have never tried to duplicate them.

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    1. Cherry pie is the bomb, isn't it? Anything that's a bit sour, actually. Banana cream and chocolate cream and all that? I wonder if you have to be raised on them.

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  25. I'm in the middle of reading Scot in a Trap, and its echoes of my favorite Scot, Catriona. This series is one that the tried and true LOL actually means laugh out loud, and like others, I hear your voice, Catriona, when reading Lexy's dialogue. I don't think this will spoil things by mentioning Lexy confessing to some of the Last Ditch Motel residents that she thought Della's baby was actual rather ugly-looking and those residents' reactions. No, Lexy, never confess that you think a new-born baby looks ugly, even if they have ears that could pick up transmissions from outer space or look like Winston Churchill. Lexy's has such a knack for the faux pas, and it is always hilarious, especially since she doesn't understand why what she said or did is so bad. I hope you keep writing this series forever and a day, Catriona. It is a tonic of happiness for me with every single page.

    Now, what pie would I choose for the wild card pie? Well, my nice choice would be Key Lime Pie or Cherry Pie, but who wants it to be so easy. I'm going to throw out two pies to mess with your mind. The first is Transparent Pie, and don't be confusing it with Chess Pie. That's your only clue. The second choice is (I can't quit laughing on this one) is Moon Pie. Be sure to have some RC Cola on hand for this last one. Wooheehee, I wish I could see your face when you look up Moon Pie.

    Oh, and for our Thanksgiving dinner, we will have pumpkin pie and pecan pie and my chocolate cherry cake. I'll make the cake, my daughter will make the pumpkin pie, and the pecan will be a Kerns Pecan Pie. I used to make my pecan pies, but Kerns is the company out of Louisville, Kentucky that is the originator of the Derby Pie, and their plain pecan pie is delicious.

    Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

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    1. I have eaten Moon Pie, I'll have you know, Kathy. And re. challenging babies. Just once I walked towards a plastic baby box in a maternity ward readying myself to say "He's beautiful" as required and I just couldn't. I said "He's . . . big, isn't he?" He's now in his 30s and drop dead gorgeous but he was a funny-looking baby.

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  26. Thanks for the laughs, Catriona, on this day when I worry if I have enough sweet potatoes and still have a cherry pie to make. Those sweet potatoes? One of my daughters always asked for marshmallow topping and the other day, HER daughter did! (She's only 6- how did she even know?) Well, too bad for them. I don't like marshmallows. They will have to settle for maple syrup glaze and pecans on top. :-) Actually I love Thanksgiving, especially when daughter is making the turkey.

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  27. There's always enough, Triss. And that never stops us from getting a bit more just in case and worrying that there still won't be enough.

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  28. Catriona, although New England born and bred, like you I had never eaten or made a pumpkin pie (don’t like anything pumpkin flavored!) until that fateful Thanksgiving when, because a friend thought I shouldn’t be alone (I’d planned a cookie baking marathon for myself) on THANKSGIVING (her caps not mine). “Please come and bring a pumpkin pie,” she ordered. Bought a can of pumpkin and a premade crust. Crossed my fingers and hoped it would not gag anyone. Passed on eating it myself as too full. Unfortunately, everyone thought it was wonderful and my fate was sealed for next several Thanksgivings. Elisabeth

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    1. Ha! Imagine us the first year with people bursting out in sobs about us being so far from our family on Thanksgiving. And Neil and I muttering "Yeah, just like Bastille Day." It's such low emotional stakes for me compared with - say - the Queen's funeral.

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  29. How about my last wild-card dessert: apple, pear cranberry tarte tatin, that I make using puff pastry instead of the healthy oak oatmeal crust that has always a failure for me. Sometimes I'll just make the filling and roll in the puff pastry like a strudel. I can even assemble it, last minute, at my sister's, which is what I'll be doing in Friday.

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    1. Now, that sounds delicious! And hahahaha on "oak" healthy crust.

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    2. Silly fingers, it was oakmeal and when I tried to fix it, it's that the"oak", need proof more thoroughly. :-)

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    3. I truly thought it was a commentary on the texture!

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  30. I made a tarte tatin once, a bourbon pecan pie once, a flourless chocolate cake once...delicious, but do I have time and access to ingredients to make the effort? This year, I made my tried and true apple pies with 10 Ohio farm apples apiece, spices, apples drained for 30 minutes and the juice reduced with butter to a carmel mixed with the chopped apples. Simple and lovely.

    You didn't discuss the stuffing/dressing wars. I married a man raised with rice stuffing, which he happily ditched in favor of my bread stuffing with sausage and herbs...as did his father! My MIL was quite miffed.

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    1. I'm only in charge of stuffing at Christmas and then it's sausage, onion, breadcrumbs and sage. I'm on team Margaret.

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  31. Oooooh, talk desserty to me :) Great post, Catriona. Now I'm drooling for pies and your latest mystery!

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  32. Many years ago, I was given the task of barbecuing the turkey on Thanksgiving when my mother-in-law hosted dinner. I was 'commissioned' because I'd suddenly become the eldest male at the dinner and therefore, through some sort of divine transfer of knowledge, must have known 'all things barbecue.' Fortunately, the turkey passed the taste test. Unfortunately, that meant I was forevermore put in charge of the turkey. It took a pandemic to end my reign, but I now know that if I'm ever asked to cook a turkey for someone else, I should definitely answer with a solid 'no!'

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  33. Ha! Why don't we just say no more often? I must say, I can't imagine barbecuing something the size of a turkey, Terry.

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  34. Your pies are legendary! And your willingness to jump into new traditions is part of what makes you delightful. I will never forget the first Passover seder we invited you to, though. That might have been the real culture shock.

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  35. All of your pies look yummy! Happy Thanksgiving! Diana

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