Thanksgiving
Introduction
Thanksgiving is a traditional annual celebration and it is celebrated on the United States and Canada. In the United States is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November and in Canada is celebrated on the second Monday of October. Generally during this holiday people gather around a table with family and friends to celebrate this day. Thanksgiving has a different meaning for some people, but for most of them is synonymous of huge meals, parades, football match and spending quality time with the beloved ones.
This holiday is not only about cooking delicious dishes and spending time with family but also is a reminder of being thankful for all the blessings in our lives. More than half of American families celebrate thanksgiving.
History
The Thanksgiving Day had its origins in a mixture of European and aboriginal traditions. Both cultures had their own different way of celebrating the harvest day, but when the Europeans came to America for the first time; they brought their own tradition better known as the harvest festival which celebrates the end of their journey as well as the good harvest of the year. Despite the origins of Thanksgiving Day, this holiday is similar in Canada and the United States but everyone celebrates it in their own way.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621; where a group of 102 people (the pilgrims) from England arrived to the new world. They found a village called Plymouth. As the winter came along and diseases struck the village the survivors made contact with an American Indian named Squanto from the Wampanoag tribe. Squanto taught them to fish and cultivate corn, giving to the pilgrims a successful corn harvest that led to a big feast arranged by Governor William Bradford. Nowadays thanksgiving has been an annual tradition in the U.S.A; President Abraham Lincon proclaimed it as a national holiday in 1863.
The Thanksgiving Day is based on a main component: the dinner. And consist in huge proportion meals, rich on preparations and ingredients like: turkey, sweet corn, salads, cranberries, sauces, desserts, warm drinks like cider and other things. The traditional menu for dinner is a big roast turkey or baked, the turkey is traditionally served with a filling cornbread, accompanied with jelly or cranberry sauce. Also are the sweet potatoes (yams and sweet potato) and the mashed potatoes with gravy made from turkey, and of course a variety of desserts, the most know dessert is pumpkin pie but it is also common to cook the pecan and apple pie.
Besides the preparation of dinner, some people has a few traditions like gather around the TV and watch football or watch the Macy’s parade from New York city. There are a lot of activities to do after the meal, like playing charades, tell stories, share photos, watch some movies and catch up.
Italian Cuisine, Mamma mia!
The richness of Italian cuisine lies in its diversity, each dish has its own history and is defined by geographic, historical, and climactic differences: some regions are large landscapes and mountainous, others regions hug the sea, but some of them have absorbed the Arab or Greek influences, other ones have been marked by the French or Austrians influences; some regions live under the Mediterranean sun most part of the year, while other regions have cold winters with snow, fog, and harsh winds.
Every town, every village, makes the same dish in different ways, and every town and village has its proudest specialty. These cooking traditions define people's identities just as much as their dialects and their traditional costumes.
We decided to make the twist to a classic pumpkin pie using a traditional Italian dessert and a famous product: Biscotti’s and nutella. We’ve chosen this cuisine because stands out of the rest in the use of fresh ingredients and its principle are to make it easy and keep it simple. It is been said that North American food is greasy and isn’t rich of preparations and ingredients, it doesn’t have the freshness, simplicity and the greatness of natural flavors as the Italian cuisine. An example of this is the crust of the traditional pumpkin pie which is made of gingerbread cookies and the pumpkin puree is usually canned.
The biscotti or cantuccini is a twice baked biscuit made of almonds; it’s a very dry and traditionally is served with a drink. In Italy they are typically served as an after-dinner dessert with a Tuscan fortified wine called vin santo or coffee. Biscotti are used as an important ingredient in a variety of traditional dishes like rice, meat and fish.
Nutella is a product of the brand Ferrero Rocher and it is made of almond and cacao, it is based on a sweet cream called pasta giandula, the translation of giandula is “sweet nut” and it is made of hazelnut paste.

Nutella Swirled Pumpkin pie with Biscotti Crust
For the Biscotti Crust
Yield: 3 to 4 dozen * 1/2 cup vegetable oil * 3 eggs * 1 cup sugar * 1 tablespoon anise extract, or 3 drops anise oil * 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour * 1 tablespoon baking poder

For the Pie: * 3 eggs, room temperature * 15 ounce can pure pumpkin or 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree * 1/2 cup heavy cream * 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (may also use light brown sugar) * 1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon * 1/2 tsp ground ginger * 1/4 tsp ground cloves * 1/4 tsp nutmeg * 1/2 tsp salt * 1/2 cup Nutella (or 4 oz melted quality chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease pie dish or line it with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, beat together the oil, eggs, sugar and anise flavoring until well blended. Combine the flour and baking powder, stir into the egg mixture to form a heavy dough.
Fill the pie dish with the heavy dough and bake for 15 minutes

In a large bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the remaining ingredients (except for the Nutella) and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the biscotti crust, reserving 1 cup. Mix the reserved cup of pie filling with Nutella. Drop spoonfuls of Nutella mixture onto pie, swirling gently with a knife. Do not swirl too much, just lightly.
Bake at 375 0F for 40-45 minutes or until the filling is set. The center will still look wet but will not “jiggle” too much. Allow to cool completely and serve at room temperature.