American pie for breakfast!

Originally uploaded by lools.

If you gorged on Thanksgiving treats last night, chances are you had some form of pie for dessert and I'd guess that it was probably either pumpkin, mince or apple unless you live in the South in which case it must have be PE-can or Pe-CAN depending on your accent. Ever since Abraham Lincoln declared the first national Thanksgiving in 1863, pie became the preferred dessert of the day.

Apple pie is one of the most popular pies baked at home in the United States. Even though we say "as American as apple pie", the apple is not a New World Fruit but was actually brought to America by the early European settlers. But then the colonies mastered apple production so much that by the mid-18th century they were exporting apples back across the Atlantic!

For our friends' Thanksgiving celebration dinner, I baked apple pie last night using a recipe that features in the Top Ten in Jamie Oliver's new cookbook. I continue to be amazed by the simplicty of Jamie's recipes. The crust came out thick and crunchy while the raisins and powdered ginger gave a nice kick to the well-baked apples for the filling.

The best part of baking is, of course, leftovers, of which I have plenty. We found ourselves nibbling sugary crust early this morning. Have to be careful though otherwise the proverbial five pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas will definitely creep in before the 2005 is here!