Thanksgiving Dinner

So I pulled off my first Thanksgiving dinner without a hitch. My 16lb free-range turkey came out moist and full of delicious stuffing (Mom's recipe). My Challah bread was a hit - especially with the toddler's. We had Cajun dirty rice, mashed potatoes, gravey, green-beans & carrots and three kinds of pies. But, at the end of the day I was most proud of my Pecan pie.

I found a recipe online from Food.com and edited a bit to suit my tastes and my deep dish pie pan..

Ingredients 

1/2-1 cup margarine  (I used 1 cup Butter)

2 cups light brown sugar, packed (I used 3 cups)

3 eggs (I used 4 eggs)

1 (9 inch) pie shells (I used Mom's pie crust recipe except I substituted frozen butter for the shortening.)

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I always add extra vanilla.)

1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped (I used 3 cups of Pecans.)

Directions 

1. In a saucepan, melt margarine with brown sugar. 

2. Add eggs, salt, and vanilla and mix well. 

3. Add pecans. 

4. Pour mixture into an unbaked pie shell. 

5. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. (obviously I needed a longer bake time.)

Mustard BBQ Sauce & Fried Fish

Last weekend Ryan, Ella and I went to Urbana, Illinois for Ryan's conference. Although, neither the drive nor the conference itself were delightful, we did have lunch/dinner at this little BBQ place that turned out to be wonderful. The best surprise was the fried Catfish which Ryan only ordered because we knew Ella eat it. The waiter recommended that he choose the mustard BBQ sauce to go with it and the combination was amazing.

So, tonight for dinner I tried to recreate it. I fried up some Tilapia  (dipping it in a little milk and then lightly flouring it in a flour/salt/pepper/cyan mixture). And, to go with it I made the following mustard sauce:

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Yield: Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 cup prepared yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cayenne

Preparation:

Mix all ingredients together and simmer over a low heat for 30 minutes.

The sauce was so good we ended up putting it on our wilted spinach and baked potatoes too.