HOLIDAY: Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's all about family, friends, food, and of course football! Oh, and giving thanks for all that we have. There is nothing better than stuffing your face with a great turkey dinner, devouring a couple pieces of pie, downing a few too many glasses of wine, and then taking a nice, long tryptophan-induced nap before watching the Seattle Seahawks defeat the San Francisco 49ers! That is what I call the perfect Thanksgiving Day!

Are you the lucky one hosting a Thanksgiving dinner this year? Or are you invited to your friend's or family's house for dinner? Either way, I scoured the internet to find some great recipes to help make this year's Thanksgiving dinner a delicious feast!

Turkey
Perfect Roast Turkey - By Ina Garten from Food Network
Roast Turkey with Cornbread Dressing - By LouElla Hill from Saveur
Dry-Brined Turkey - By Russ Parsons from FOOD52

Stuffing
Chorizo and Collard Green Dressing - By Patrick and Gina Neely from Food Network
Essential Thanksgiving Herbed Stuffing - By Kelsey Nixon from the Cooking Channel
Wild Mushroom Whole Wheat Stuffing with Tarragon - By Barbara Lynch from Food and Wine

Potatoes
Sweet Potato Casserole - By Southern Living from MyRecipes.com
Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes - By Martha Stewart from MarthaStewart.com
Yukon Gold Potato and Wild Mushroom Gratin - By Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier from Bon Appetit

Cranberry Sauce
Simple Cranberry Sauce - By Betty Crocker from BettyCrocker.com
Cranberry Apple Chutney - By Martha Stewart from MarthaStewart.com
Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce - By Aaron McCargo Jr. from Food Network

Pies
The Great Pumpkin Pie Recipe - By Sally from Sally'sBakingAddiction.com
Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie - By Andrea Albin from Epicurious.com
Dutch Apple Pie with Oatmeal Streusel - By Ginny from Allrecipes.com

I hope some of those recipes help! Have a great Thanksgiving! I hope it's filled with good company, delicious food, and a Seahawks win!!

FOOD NEWS: Pie Shops Top the Trend list for 2011

Move over cupcakes, there's a new tasty treat in town! 2011 will be the year of the pie. Andrew Freeman, of Andrew Freeman & Co., consults on marketing for restaurants and hotels nationwide. He predicts the number one trend of 2011 will be pie shops. Just how cupcake shops have been very popular over the past several years, now pies will be the next big thing.

It seems as if Mr. Freeman's prediction is right on the money. Seattle now has two brand new pie shops that just recently opened. High 5 Pie opened it's shop in the Trace Lofts building on 12th Avenue on Capitol Hill. Dani Cone, of Fuel Coffee, is the owner of the pie shop. High 5 Pie offers all types of sizes and flavors of pies. Their Piejar is a mini pie baked right in a mini mason jar! The Flipside is a handheld turnover for pie-on-the-go. They also have 7 inch and 9 inch pies. You can even take a pie home and bake it in your oven! They also have Piepops, which are pie lollipops! Find out more about High 5 Pie at their website http://www.high5pie.com/

The second new pie shop in Seattle is simply named Pie. It's located in Fremont at 3315 Fremont Avenue. Pie is co-owned by Jess Whitsitt and Renee Steen. This pie shop offers mini pies. Pie isn't your average pie shop. Jess and Renee bake sweet and savory pies. Their offerings include all sorts of meat pies, vegetable pies, ground turkey pie, a smoked salmon with goat cheese pie, and pies with sausages in the pie crust. They will also offer sweet pies. All pies are freshly baked between 7:00am and 3:00pm Monday through Friday, and 8:00am to 3:00pm on Saturday. Pie has a late night window for walk-up purchases. The window hours are 8:30pm to 2:30am on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays. So now you can grab a few mini-pies to take home for dessert after dinner.

If pies become as popular as the recent cupcake and ice cream shops, we just may see a few more pop-up around Seattle. Now go get some pie!