Thanksgiving dinner at Ruth's - Frank's Mom

Frank carving, or almost eating ? the turkey (leg) - his FAVORITE!!!
Patiently waiting for turkey dinner!

The Stanton family.

Ruth and Frank - she cooked a beautiful turkey!

Rochester for Thanksgiving

This was our first day in Rochester, and we went down to Charlotte Beach where we fed seagulls & geese. Also we walked the beautiful beach. What a great beginning to our trip!

Duck for Dinner!

Karla, the lady I get our eggs from, gave me a couple boneless, skinless duck breasts that she raised herself. Here's a picture of about 1/2 of one breast that I grilled. This was leftovers, I forgot to get a picture of it on the first night I served it, so it's not a beautiful presentation, and it's missing the grilled asparagus on the plate. The pasta is Jessica's Northern Italian family Alfredo recipe (with the addition of shitakes) - delicious! I am posting this because it is my first time cooking duck, and because we were amazed, especially Frank, at how much the look, texture and taste was like a fine steak. Doesn't it look like red meat to you? It did to us. We absolutely loved it and now Frank is considering becoming a hunter to bring home some more duck! (I am NOT kidding).

Home made Butternut Squash, Sage and Goat Cheese Ravioli with Brown Butter Hazelnut Sauce

I made these raviolis with butternut squash that I grew this year (crab cakes on the plate too). This was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! Unfortunately (for Frank), he doesn't really like butternut squash, so he wasn't a big fan (but loved the crab cakes). Now this means fortunately (for me) that I get to eat (or share with others) all of the yummy ravioli!!!

Dutch Apple Pie

After seeing all of the apple pies baked at the Apple Butter party I was motivated to make one myself. It's been a year or so since I've made a home made apple pie.

This Dutch Apple Pie was featured on the cover of the Fall issue of Entertaining from Cook's Illustrated. Using a home made crust for the base and a struesel topping instead of a top layer of crust, it intrigued me. Overall, a very delicious apple pie!

Update: Frank tasted it tonight and is quoted "this is the best apple pie I EVER had - EVER". Pretty enthusiastic after looking at the magazine picture and saying it didn't look very good.

Apple Butter Day

Here's a picture of Tommy & Vicky Concannon, who first introduced Frank to Apple Butter making at their home in Dayton, OH. Tommy was an instructor at UD when Frank met him years ago, and ever since had become very close with these 2 special people. They were kind of like his second set of parents, and to Colleen, another set of Grandparents. Colleen later attended the apple butter parties also and it was her decision to keep this tradition alive.
Their recipe called for 3 1/2 bushels of apples.Prep work began early in the morning and there were (thankfully) lots of people who helped, including Connie, below!

More prep. Lia wasn't exactly helping, but she was having fun!

Lots and lots and lots of apples to be cored, peeled and steamed!

Adding some of the pureed apples to the pot of apple cider. Colleen got this pot especially for making apple butter, and Frank designed and made the base (welded it) and the surrounding platform for standing and stirring.

Another ingredient: 1 gallon of local honey.

We were blessed to have close friends come and lend a hand or just stop by for support. Here's Danny Hafer, who attended many of Tom & Vic's apple butter parties. Danny met Tommy because Frank called him and told him that he's GOT to meet Tommy. And also here's another good friend, David Tracy.

Everyone tried to help by stirring some!

This was mid-afternnon, way before the huge crowd of people showed up.

Lia and her friend Stella playing. We think she's dancing here.

Elena won the apple pie contest! She made the pie with her mom!!!

Elena and her 3 kids and Lia with Jeanne.

Filling the canning jars outside before bringing them inside to Jeanne who worked with Biggie canning all of them.

Total count = around 75 jars. We were actually expecting/planning for 175 from what Jeanne read on line, but this number was a bit off. Next year we may double the recipe, or at least increase it.