Ravioli and pears

It'll be many days - well, many hours - since Thanksgiving by the time you're reading this, but I guarantee I'm still thinking about Wednesday night's dinner.  My family had a much-appreciated pre-Thanksgiving rendezvous/celebration because Josh and I had made plans to spend the long weekend in Colorado with his family.  (Okay, Reader, it is Wednesday night as I'm writing this and trying to be tense-appropriate for when you're reading this on Sunday is a skill I apparently don't have at the moment.  Work with me, okay?)

The details: Because everyone (except for my vegetarian sister) would be enjoying turkey the next day, my mom tried a new recipe for butternut squash ravioli.  Gah!  Even those words are beautiful all together!  She borrowed a ravioli-maker from her sister (thank you, auntie!) and made the ravioli, then added this mixture of butternut squash, cream, butter and sage for the filling.  Here's what it looked like, pre-cooking:

Then she cooked the ravioli and topped it with this browned butter sauce and shavings of parmesan cheese.  Amazing.

And then came dessert.  Mom wrapped these little pears with puff pastry, baked each one and served it with whipped cream and a cinnamon stick.  Readers, this is pretty stuff.

Obviously, I was tremendously full after this meal.  It was great to celebrate the holiday (just a little bit early) with my family, and Mom's cooking was perfecto practice for the Thanksgiving Day endurance eating events.