Obviously, given that it was Thanksgiving weekend, I did a fair amount of cooking, however, not on Thanksgiving Day. Since Gay and I were dining alone we agreed that fixing an enormous meal was just not worth it. Instead I fried some chicken and made a light salad. Okay, it wasn’t that simple. I fried chicken, Cornish game hen and smoked chicken. I was interested in comparing the taste and textures. Friday we went out to eat and with the grandkids coming over on Saturday that became the big cooking day. First thing to make was ice cream as it needed to cure by dinner time. I made eggnog and vanilla ice cream. In making eggnog ice cream, the quickest way is to purchase good eggnog and add additional sweetness with sweetened condensed milk, sugar or brown sugar and a pinch more of nutmeg. You must make these additions or the ice cream will taste a bit bland because once frozen, flavors are more difficult to taste. I also made a sweet potato pie. I prefer sweet potato over pumpkin pie. It has a richer taste and texture than pumpkin. Mixing a bit of cream cheese, salt and pepper with the left over sweet potato, I also made a quick potato cake which I fried, and topped with thinly sliced ham and an egg. Voila! Breakfast was served. The main course for dinner was scarpiello made with chicken and sweet Italian sausage. I served it over spaghetti with slices of crusty French bread. The kids loved it. Sunday, I went simple again with home-ground beef for burgers and parmesan cheese French fries. The recipe of the week is Sweet Potato Pie as I make so few desserts. It harkens back to my mother’s version. However, since she did not use a recipe this is my re-creation of a great pie. Enjoy!

Sweet News

While there were stories of people going somewhat nuts over the weekend as they shopped, the good news is that spending was up. Consumer spending represents 70% of our economic activity and although, I personally did not participate in Black Friday shopping, millions of Americans did. Shopping on Black Friday was up 26% with the weekend total up 16.4% reaching an astounding $52.4 billion according to the National Retail Foundation. IBM reported that online sales were up similarly with an increase of 24.3% on Black Friday. That is very good news as Cyber Monday (today) is suppose to be the peak day for online holiday sales.

The role of IP communications is growing as part of the holiday sales season. Sales utilizing mobile devices tripled over last year rising from 3.2% to 9.8%. According to PayPal mobile shopping volume has increased more than 500% this year.

Finally, world markets, the Dow, NASDAQ and the S&P 500 have all opened higher in response to the improved holiday sales.

‘Tis the season for a strong close to your year. Good selling!