The Surprisingly Un-American History of Apple Pie - by Jo-Ann Roberts

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Goodness, 2025 is flying by at warped speed! Today is Thanksgiving. Once you've enjoyed the turkey and fixings, and are anticipating dessert, here's a short history of that perennial favorite...apple pie!

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Everyone knows the phrase "as American as apple pie." It's a warm, golden, buttery badge of patriotism that's served up at July 4th picnics, Thanksgiving tables, and small-town diners across the country.

But did you know the star-spangled sweet isn't really American at all? In fact, if this pie had a passport, it would have stamps from England, France, the Netherlands, and a few centuries of travel under its crust.

The French had their Tarte Tatin, the Dutch had their streusel-topped pastries, and the Swedes had apple desserts that could rival anything cooling on an American windowsill.

Tarte Tatin

Swedish Apple Pie

The Apples

The crisp, juicy varieties that many hands across the country slice for pie aren't even native to North America. Early settlers brought seeds from Europe, and it took years of careful grafting and cultivating before America could even produce an apple fit for dessert. The only apples that grew here before colonists arrived were crabapples--tart little guys that definitely weren't meant for a lattice-topped legacy.

Crabapple Tree

The Spices

And what about those warm, cozy spices associated with homemade apple pie? Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove--all imported from Asia via European spice trade routes. So, even the flavor apple pie had to take a long journey to get here.

The Crust (in my opinion, the best part of the pie!)

The idea of encasing fruit in flaky pastry was happening centuries before Betsy Ross ever got to stitching the Stars and Stripes. The concept of wrapping fruit in dough dates back to medieval Europe. The first recorded apple pie receipt (recipe) in England around 1390. It included apples, figs, raisins, pears, and--oddly enough--no sugar! In the 14th century, sugar was a pricey commodity, so dried fruits pulled double duty as sweeteners.

Despite its international roots, apple pie slowly earned its place in American kitchens. By the end of the 18th century, the first American-published cookbook, American Cookery by Ameilia Simmons, included two apple pie recipes.

Cultural Significance

Apple pie's association with American culture came into its own in the early 20th century. It became a symbol of patriotism, especially during World War II, when soldiers would say they were fighting for "mom and apple pie." The phrase "as American as apple pie" began to appear in print around this time, reinforcing its status as a national symbol.

Today, apple pie is celebrated as a classic American dessert, often served at

holidays, family gatherings and, at least in our home, my husband's birthday request. Its significance extends beyond just being a dessert. It reflects the themes of home, comfort, and its deep-rooted connection to American identity despite its non-American origins.

Apple pie's journey from European kitchens and orchards to American tables illustrates the blending of cultures and culinary traditions make it a beloved symbol of American heritage.

"Wishing you a Thanksgiving filled with love, laughter, and

the warmth of cherished moments."

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CHRISTMAS BRIDES OF HARMONY

This anthology contains three standalone, yet inter-connected, books based in Harmony, Kansas. It’s nearing Christmas and the Circle of Friends Quilting group is planning the Annual Christmas Quilt Giveaway. Here, the quilts are stitched with love and where the quilter weaves dreams into reality, one thread at a time.

Noelle

A widow reluctant to love again…

A deputy determined to win her heart…

With Christmas looming, will the growing attraction between Noelle and the deputy reveal the gift of a second chance? Or could a stranger from the deputy's past threaten the man who captured her heart?

Hope

He was the most stubborn and prideful man she’d ever met.

She was a busybody who stuck her nose in his business at every turn!

As Christmas approaches, will they look beyond each other’s faults and see a future blossom from a special, once-in-a-lifetime friendship?

Ivy

He was the town bully.

She was his target.

Had anything changed?

Was Ivy Sutton willing and able to forgive the boy who made her childhood unbearable?

Can Grady Walsh make up for the reckless actions of his youth?

Or will another steal her away before they have a chance to discover a kind of love that might heal the pain from the past?

In Praise of Thanksgiving

Post (C) Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

As holidays go, there are Halloween and the Dia de Muertos. This is followed by Thanksgiving and then Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. As the years have passed, we seem to jump from the end of October holidays to the end of December holidays, with Thanksgiving getting lost in the shuffle of candy and gifts.

It was not always this way. Those who know its history know it dates back to the early days of the Pilgrims' settlement on the eastern seaboard. By 1863, then-President Lincoln made it a national holiday, and in 1941, it was set nationwide as the fourth Thursday of November.

In her 1926 writing "An Outline for the Study of Early Rhode Island," she states: "Thanksgiving, to the New Englander, is a season of home thought, gratitude, and of home-turning, if that be possible. It is the supreme feast of the family, and the home, particularly to those born and bred under New England skies."

Image (C) Doris McCraw

In his 1936 publication, William B. Newell, "Indians at Work," states: "Careful study of the historical background of our present Thanksgiving Day shows that all of the early day Thanksgivings proclaimed since the first one in 1637 have been to thank God for some bloody military victory over the Indians, French, or the English. It was not until the time of Abraham Lincoln that we observed the real Indian Thanksgiving Day. When Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Day proclamation, it was to thank the Great Spirit for the fruits of the earth. It was the first real Indian Thanksgiving and it had taken the Whites many years to learn what a real Thanksgiving Day should be like."

And finally, from the 1913 publication "The Improvement Era, Vol. 17," an entry by Lee A. Snow has this to say, "Though Thanksgiving ranks with the Fourth of July as an American institution, it touches a deeper chord in our feelings with its early three hundred years of historic associations. It combines the religious, social and festal enjoyments, and it fills a very unique place in our social and national life."

Of all the holidays that come at the end of the year, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite. I've always been so thankful for the blessings in my life, and as I age, it becomes even more evident,

May this look back at some of the early thoughts on Thanksgiving give a historic perspective on this fourth Thursday in November. 

Wishing everyone a day and year full of many things to be thankful for.

Until Next Time,

Doris

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Gobble! Gobble! Thanksgiving Feasts by Marisa Masterson

 Ah! The turkey. I can easily conjure up the smell of it roasting in the oven. Does it bring to mind Thanksgiving for you, also?

Consider the sound we associate with it. Gobble! Gobble! Have you noticed the double meaning of that in connection with the holiday meal?

We think of it as a sound, true. Also, it is what happens at the meal. And that is one reason turkeys became the food of choice for the special day.

Homer Winslow's view of Thanksgiving

In the nineteenth century, Thanksgiving went from being a regional celebration to a national holiday. Communities would come together to celebrate. Turkeys provided enough meat--much more than chickens--to feed many people. And since it had been an early symbol of the feast, it became the choice for the holiday.

I remember my grandfather speaking about raising turkeys on his farm in the 1930s and 1940s. He would ship them to Chicago. Because of the appetite for the bird, his children received Christmas presents.

So, gobble, gobble up the meal this year and Happy Thanksgiving!

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The Day Santa Claus Came to Town - The Origin of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

 

Happy Thanksgiving! If you're like me, memories of Thanksgiving morning are inseparably tied to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year marks the 100th anniversary of this nostalgic New York City parade, which began in 1924.

The first parade was initially known as the Macy's Christmas Parade and was staged to promote holiday sales and welcome Santa to New York. The floats were based on nursery rhymes to match the nursery-thyme theme in Macy's Christmas window display. They featured Mother Goose favorites such as the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Little Miss Muffet, and Little Red Riding Hood. Macy employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, and sword-wielding knights.

A menagerie of animals on loan from the Central Park Zoo--including bears, elephants, camels, and monkeys--offered a circus-like atmosphere as four bands played along the route. Bringing up the rear was a float bearing the guest of honor--Santa Claus--sitting in his reindeer-driven sleigh on top of a mountain of ice.

In 1927, organizers rebranded the parade as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The zoo animals were replaced with large balloon animals. The first balloon was Felix the Cat and was inflated with air, not helium. Balloon handlers carried Felix on sticks along the parade route. The first Mickey Mouse balloon entered the parade in 1934 and resumed in 1945 running through 1951. 

A year later, Macy's began inflating the giant balloons with helium and releasing them into the air after the parade. Anyone lucky enough to find a balloon after it floated back to Earth could exchange it for a prize. The practice ended in 1932 when a young pilot sent her plane diving to capture a giant balloon floating 5,000 feet up. The balloon wrapped around the plane's wing, causing it to spiral toward Earth. The instructor took the controls at the last minute and landed the plane safely. 

From 1942 to 1944, Macy's canceled the parade. The balloons used a lot of rubber and helium, both of which were in short supply during the war, allowing Macy's to contribute 650 pounds of rubber for military use. 

Before 1946, the only people who got to witness the Macy's parade were residents of New York and those who traveled there, while others listened to radio coverage of the parade. In 1948, the parade was televised for the first time. Those lucky enough to own a television set invited friends and family to see the parade, albeit in black and white.

Marching bands had been part of the parade since the beginning; it was not until 1958 that the first celebrity performances were added. Technical and logistic problems made early attempts to perform on a moving stage difficult.

While the parade route has been scaled back from six miles to two-and-one-half miles, the size of the parade itself has blossomed with dozens of balloons, marking bands, celebrities, and the New York City Rockettes. Although it is now called the "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade," Santa Claus remains the showstopper and his arrival in Herald Square still rings in the Christmas season in New York.

On behalf of my family, I'm sending good wishes to you this Thanksgiving! Good food that fills your table, good health as you work hard, and good times with family and friends. May you have all the best delights in life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Friends, as a Petticoats & Pistols Filly, I am happy to share this wonderful series, Christmas Stocking Sweethearts, with you. 

Christmas Stockings made by a devoted music teacher for her beloved students connect each story in the series. A classic Christmas carol adds a romantic layer to the stories, and of course, each piano student--all grown up--finds his or her true love.

My Upcoming Release... 

Will a dose of Mother Nature’s magic, along with a bit of divine intervention make a little boy’s Christmas wish come true?

What is a boy to do when he is trying to play matchmaker for his father? Seven-year-old Danny Stone is working hard to help his lonely widower father find love again. When a pretty, new teacher moves to Angel Falls, Danny believes she is the perfect choice. But so far, his matchmaking attempts have not been successful until a snowstorm hits and strands Miss Holly at their farm.
Fleeing an ill-fated relationship, Holly Ross accepts an interim teaching position in Angel Falls, Kansas. During the first week, she is knocked down by a stranger, and his rude behavior raises her annoyance when he insists he saved her life...not that she believed she needed saving. When she discovers Jesse Stone is the father of one of her students, she vows to give the man a wide berth. But when Danny leaves behind a scarf belonging to his late mother, she makes a decision that will alter her Christmas plans…and her life.
Since his wife’s passing, Jesse Stone has no interest nor the time for romance. With a herd, a ranch, and a seven-year-old son to raise, the last thing he needs is ungrateful criticism from a woman he saved from being hit by a wagon. His irritation grows when he discovers Holly Ross is the new teacher his son keeps praising…and the feeling is mutual. So, she is the last person he expects to see at his door at the start of a blizzard.

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My Favorite Holiday

 Post by Doris McCraw

aka Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

As we approach 2025 and the Holiday Season, I wanted to take some time to talk about my favorite Holiday.

With the Christmas Quilt Bride books arriving, you might think my favorite Holiday is Christmas. While I do enjoy that day, my favorite Holiday is Thanksgiving.

Why Thanksgiving? 

There are no expectations for anyone but yourself and the gift of thanks you have for the life you've been given. Oh, I can hear people say, my life, AAAK, but hear me out. Even when things are horrid, there are ways of seeing that are not rose-colored glasses, but an appreciation that one has survived, has friends, been gifted the beauty of nature. 

Image (C) Doris McCraw

So this year as with every year I celebrate this Holiday with gratitude for the many wonderful, big and small things that make up my life. 

To all those reading this, thank you for being here. To all who don't see this, I still am grateful for you.

I am also grateful to be a part of this group and the authors who tell the stories only they can tell. The world needs people like you. Please remember to support the authors and check out the stories they have offered or are releasing soon.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Until Next Time: Stay safe, Stay happy, and Stay healthy. 

Doris

BETTER THAN PIE FOR THANKSGIVING by Marisa Masterson

 

Don’t be fooled this Thanksgiving by an image of a Pilgrim holding a pumpkin pie. It never happened.

Pumpkin but not pumpkin pie—that is likely what colonists new to the United States ate. Why no pie? I will explain, but first let me share about the pumpkin’s history in the Americas.

Squash and pumpkins originated south of the United States. The oldest seeds have been found in Mexico, so it was a plant that was brought into North America,

Many indigenous people groups relied on it in their diet. They ate the seeds, flesh, flowers, and even the leaves. Little wonder those people who landed at Plymouth Rock discovered how useful the humble pumpkin would be for them.

Colonist in my country’s history came to rely on the pumpkin as a staple in their diet. The seeds were dried from those first pumpkins shared by native tribes and planted. It was easy to grow, and the vines produced a great deal of fruit.

Europeans enjoyed spiced pies. The immigrants brought those recipes with them. Only, wheat was not readily available. They could not make pie crust. Instead, they substituted a spiced custard baked inside a pumpkin shell nestled in the coals of a fire for the desserts they remembered from their home country.

The heroine in my new release, Custard Pumpkin by Claire, makes this very thing:

Mrs. Zehnder had shared a recipe with her yesterday. She told her to create a custard and add nutmeg and cinnamon to it. Poured into a hollow pumpkin, it would bake in the ashes.

Claire watched her husband inhale the aroma. The pumpkin nestled in the fireplace. She had heaped the hot coals around it, careful not to let any get into the open top where the custard browned.

Making the custard had required every egg she had in her small bowl. Hans had bought her four hens and a cow while they were still in Saginaw. She was blessed to have them. Many people in the community did not have the money to buy animals.

The recipe had used up her small store of sugar. She hoped the men might travel to Saginaw soon for supplies. Last evening, she had heard the three men discuss a trip upriver to do that.

When she serves her custard, my heroine will also scoop out part of the baked orange flesh of the large fruit. It is the beginning of our traditional pumpkin pie.  

By the way, I include a recipe for the custard baked in the shell in my new release. It is modernized and ready for you to enjoy this Thanksgiving.

Available Now in Amazon. Free with Kindle Unlimited:

His guilt separates them. Can a mystery create a bond of love between this couple forced into an unwanted marriage?

For Claire's small German village, it is a black summer. Typhoid hits the townspeople and surrounding farms. With Claire's parents dead, she struggles to know how she will survive.

When a call for volunteers goes through her part of Germany—a chance to settle in Michigan and Christianize the local tribe—she seizes the opportunity. She hopes to forge a new future--one filled with possibility rather than starvation.

As a single woman, she must travel as the unpaid servant to a couple, the young carpenter Hans Mueller and his wife. Unfortunately, Claire's prospects change radically when the man's wife dies during the voyage. The minister of their group pushes Hans and her into marriage. Reluctant but determined, she agrees.

She and her husband arrive in a new land carrying their old grief. Hans ignores Claire. She is sure he hugs his grief for his wife. He throws himself into the work of building the settlement for their community. She is at a loss on how to be a wife to a man who does not want one. Instead, she spends her time befriending women from the Chippewa tribe.

Mischief and outright vandalism threaten the settlement. Are the Chippewa—the people Claire views as friends—responsible? What can stop the sudden surge of hate that springs up in the missionary community they founded to reach out to the indigenous people?

Claire and Hans are determined to discover who wants to drive away the German immigrants. But at what cost? And why does a certain fur trapper target the women in their settlement?

Discover how custard pumpkin plays a role in allowing this couple to reveal their hidden passion for one another. If you enjoy well-researched historical romance with a cozy mystery, grab your copy of the book now.

Find Your Next Favorite Read Now!

"Sassamanesh, Ibimi, Bitter Berry or Crane Berry" - A Cranberry by Any Other Name - Jo-Ann Roberts

While plenty of people eat turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie year-round, it seems like cranberry sauce almost exclusively exists only at Thanksgiving. Although the jiggly, gelatinous side dish probably wasn't eaten at the First Thanksgiving, they may have been an ingredient in some "puddings in the belly," as stuffings were called then.

But a little more than 50 years later (according to a 1672 account cited by The Washington Post), Americans and Native Americans had both started to enjoy cranberries. 

"Indians and English use it much, boyling them with Sugar for a Sauce to eat with their Meat."

For Eastern Indians, they were "sassamanesh".  The Pequots and Wampanoags of New England, and South Jersey Leni-Lanape tribes called them "ibimi" or bitter berry, while the Algonquins of Wisconsin dubbed the fruit "atoqua". But it was the early German and Dutch settlers who started calling it the "crane berry" because of the flower's resemblance to the head and bill of a crane.

It was the Native Americans who first took advantage of the cranberry's many natural properties. By mixing mashed cranberries with deer meat, they made a survival food called pemmican. They also believed in the medicinal value of the cranberry, using it in poultices to draw poison from arrow wounds. And the rich red juice of the cranberry was used as a natural dye for rugs, blankets, and clothing.

One of only three fruits native to North America, cranberries grow in the wild on long-running vines in sandy bogs and marshes. While they're primarily harvested in the Northeast, they also grow in Wisconsin, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington. 

But even with its many uses, cranberries weren't farmed on a large scale until the 1800s. At first, growers picked the berries by hand. They then revolutionized the dry harvesting technique with an idea called wet harvesting. By flooding the bog with water, the cranberry's buoyancy allows it to float to the surface, where they are collected.

     

DID YOU KNOW?

• In 1816, the first recorded yield of cranberries was grown and harvested in Dennis, Massachusetts.
• Americans consume some 400 million pounds of cranberries a year close to 80 million of those pounds during Thanksgiving week.
• Small pockets of air inside fresh cranberries cause them to bounce and float in water.
• If you strung together all the cranberries produced in North America, they'd stretch from Boston to Los Angels more than 565 times.
• Cranberries are picky when it comes to growing conditions. Because they are traditionally grown in natural wetlands, they need a lot of water. During the long, cold winter months, they also require a period of dormancy which rules out any southern region.

Each September, Cape Cod celebrates this most-beloved fruit at the Harwich Cranberry and Arts Festival. My mother-in-law lived in Harwich Port, not far from the festival. When are children were young, this was an annual tradition. Click Here

Happy Thanksgiving dear Friends,

        May you have a joyful day this Thanksgiving. May your holiday be full of blessings and love and brimming with an abundance of happiness. 

New Release

He made a promise to a dying friend.

She vowed never to love again.

"You can't continue living like this, Linnea. You've become a hermit.

Linnea Nyland heard the concern in her sister-in-law's voice. Still filled with grief and missing her husband a year after his unexpected passing, she didn't have the inclination to disagree with the statement. Though she dearly missed working her magic in the family bakery, she liked her life on the farm just the way it was...solitary.

Especially after Deputy Finn McBride came calling with his ridiculous proposal of marriage!

In a moment of panic, Finn made a heart pledge to Erik Nyland to take care of Linnea, to marry her. He'd bungled his first attempt, and he's not sure his heart can endure the vow he made knowing he'd been in love with her from the day he came to Holly Springs.

Giving it one last try, he challenges her to a holiday baking competition. If he wins, she must agree to let him court...if she wins, he'll leave her alone...forever.

Throw in a matchmaking landlady, a Norwegian Buhund dog, and a missing special ingredient, the lonely deputy prays for a Christmas miracle.

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It's Not All About the Turkey! - Side Dishes Served at the First Thanksgiving by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

No holiday is so completely defined by its food as Thanksgiving. No matter what part of the country you're in, it's safe to say at least some of the foods listed in this blog will be served on your table today. Read on to discover the sometimes-surprising history behind your favorite holiday dishes.

While we don't know the exact menu of the first Plymouth (or Plimouth - an alternative spelling that got my husband in trouble during elementary school!) feast, there was evidence of wild turkeys. In addition, boiled duck with onions, geese, and even passenger pigeons were the more prominent and available fowls. And given their proximity to the ocean, oysters, lobsters, clams, and eel were likely on the menu.

However, stuffing was quite different from what we're used to. Plymouth colonists didn't have white flour or butter so traditional bread stuffing wouldn't have been possible. Instead, they used chestnuts, herbs, and chunks of onions to flavor the meat.

Like local fowl, cranberries were widely available in the area along with Concord grapes, blueberries, and pawpaws (its taste compares to pineapple, mango, or
banana). The cranberries grew in such abundance, they were mashed with lard and dried venison to create pemmican.

Potatoes weren't yet cultivated in Plymouth prior to the first Thanksgiving, so how did mashed potatoes become a holiday staple?  Thank Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book. Her frequent appeals to officials and President Lincoln were compelling enough for him to declare Thanksgiving a national day of celebration in 1863. Her writings included recipes and descriptions of idealized Thanksgiving meals, which often featured--you guessed it--mashed potatoes!

Despite the lack of potatoes, it's likely a gravy of some sort accompanied the meats. Cooking meat in sauces dates back hundreds of years, and the word "gravy" was found in a cookbook from 1390.

To make the gravy, the remains of the roasted meat were put in a pot to make a broth. That broth would be thickened with grains to create a gravy to liven day-old meat...a precursor to today's leftovers!!!

Corn was a staple of the Native American diet and would have been nearly as plentiful then as it is today. But it was prepared either as a cornmeal bread or mashed or boiled into a thick porridge-like consistency. Sometimes it was sweetened with molasses.

  

Like cranberries, pumpkin pie does have ties to the original Thanksgiving but not in the way you might think. The Pilgrims knew how to make pie pastry but couldn't make it without flour. In addition, they were perplexed by pumpkins which were larger than the gourds they knew in England. Especially when they noticed the Native Americans using pumpkin as a dessert meal. They baked the pumpkin and squash in the ashes of a dying fire and sweetened with honey or maple syrup. It was likely that Sarah Josepha Hale was inspired by those stories when pumpkin pie appeared in her column!

 

As you gather with family, friends, loved ones, or neighbors today, remember it's not what's on the table but who's around the table that make us truly grateful for the blessings and bounty we have received.

My newest release, Noelle - Christmas Quilt Brides, goes live tomorrow, November 25th!!!!! Give yourself or your favorite reader an early Christmas present!

A widow reluctant to love again...

A deputy determined to win her heart...

Two years ago, Noelle Prentiss lost her husband to an outlaw's bullet. With two children to raise, a small farm to tend, and a job making quilts to sell at the mercantile, she's doing her best to keep her property and life intact...until a man claiming to be the new deputy rides into her life captivating her children with his dog, his smile, and his easy-going charm.

When Coleman West agrees to stop by the Widow Prentiss's home on his first day as a deputy in a small Kansas town, he has no way of knowing obeying the sheriff's order will change his life. Spurned by love years before, he became a lawman, dedicated to protect and serve. Yet, he has no idea the widow and her children would call to his heart in a way he never expected.

With Christmas looming, will the growing attraction between Noelle and the deputy reveal the gift of a second chance?

Or could a stranger from the deputy's past threaten the man who captured her heart?

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