No seriously, I do!  This is what I was told, no lying!  So, what does a girl do that is told, “Your Lemon Meringue Pie is the best I’ve ever had and looks the prettiest I have ever seen.  One with perfect peaks, browned just right”?  She never makes one ever again.

As all of you know, next Thursday is Thanksgiving.  Can you believe it?  That bad boy just came up on us really quick.

While doing all the planning for the day, as I always do the cooking for my family pretty much since 1986, hubster and I began talking dessert.  If it were up to me, it just wouldn’t happen, I could care less about dessert.  For hubby, there would be an issue with no dessert for Thanksgiving.  With our three parents in the nursing home, and all three deciding not to wear their false teeth, meal planning to take to the nursing home each holiday presents itself with problems.  The dessert is a big problem.  There are only six of us, so making a pie to suit everyone’s needs would mean making five different pies.  The daughter passes on any pie, so I wouldn’t need to make one for her.  My Mom and I like pumpkin and only my Father-in-Law might eat it.  Hubby will usually eat anything sweet – but draws the line at the pumpkin.  I even try to shame him into eating it saying “but it’s a vegetable, and it’s good for you”.  No such luck.  Then there’s my Mother-in-Law who reminds us all that she has to watch her “SHUga” (insert German accent here), because she’s diabetic.  While she’s watching her “SHUga”, she will eat any and all sweets that come into the room.  Though she will always make comments on how she doesn’t like that kind of pie, cake, etc.  Once everyone else is eating it, she’ll have her piece and often reach over and eat my Father-in-Law’s as well.  She’s such a sweet one (insert sarcasm here).

We have our menu down and we are back to the dessert issue.  We are discussing whether we should buy cheesecake slices (not Thanksgiving-y too me, but 6 choices of flavors per tray), or I should bake an apple crisp, or oh yum – a Pecan Pie.  We both say, “Yes.”  Then we realize – wait, they don’t wear their teeth, they can’t eat the nuts!  But—handy that I am—I decide that I could grind those suckers and it would make do!  Then the choco-holic hubby comes to my mind and I remember that I have somewhere in the archives a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie.  I say that out loud and a smile goes over his face.  Now we are talking!

Then it happens….he brings up the Best Lemon Meringue Pie.  “Why won’t you ever make me another Lemon Meringue Pie?”  I have to tell you, this had to have been some fantastic pie.  Can you guess when I made it?  Would it have been while I was going through cooking school as I got my diploma?  Nope.  Are you ready for this?  It was October 1982.  Yep, you read that right!  It was 1982 folks.  And the man still pines for that Best Ever Lemon Meringue Pie!  Here’s a photo of this masterpiece.  (Yes, he was so excited about it he took a photo and we STILL have it after all these years!   And yes, I was that small.  Once.)

So folks, I’m asking you these questions today.  What is YOUR favorite Thanksgiving dessert?  What is your family’s traditional dessert?  These are not always the same!!  Please comment below, I’d really love to hear what your plans are for dessert!

And if you think I’m digging for ideas for dessert next Thursday and the recipes….you would be absolutely correct!

…and that’s all I have to say about that!

Tammy