Dickens' Thanksgiving Reunion - Naples Florida

Rob, Finley, Kyle & Aly

Janet & Aly

Janet, Rob, Aly & Finley

Excellent, quick and easy Holiday Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

This pie was Will's favorite, I am so sad and hurt that he is not here these past 3+ years to enjoy it. The Dickens' family enjoyed it during our Thanksgiving holiday in Naples, Florida.

Ingredients:

1 6 ounce package of vanilla pudding
1 cup of milk
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin
16 ounces of cool whip
1 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
1 graham cracker pie shell

Combine instant pudding, milk, pinch of pumpkin pie spice, can of pumpkin and cool whip. Save some cool whip to cover the top of the pie. Pour mixture into pre-baked pie shell. Cover pie with remaining cool whip. Sprinkle top with pumpkin pie spice.

Aly's Oysters Rockefeller - Merry Christmas - Home from college for the Holidays

Richard and I picked up fresh oysters from Cook's seafood earlier this week. Aly made the tastiest Oyster Rockefeller that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 10 oz package frozen chopped Spinach, thawed and drained
8 oz Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
8 ounces fontina cheese, shredded
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Clean oysters and place in a large stockpot. Pour in enough water to cover the oysters. add garlic, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat, drain and cool.
2. Once oysters are cooled, break off and discard the top shell, if it is not already removed. Arrange the oysters on a baking sheet. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion and garlic in butter until soft. Reduce heat to low and stir in spinach, Monterey Jack, fontina and mozzarella. Cook until cheese melts, stirring frequently. Stir in the milk and season with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over each oyster, just filling the shell.
4. Bake until golden and bubbly, approximately 8 to 10 minutes.

This centerpiece is made out of wine barrels by Bob Dixon at RE Designs,Inc. For more information or to place an order for custom made wine barrel furniture, contact Bob Dixon at robertdixon158@comcast.net.

Ken Dauber for Palo Alto School Board

While the Presidential race and California ballot measures are consuming most of the oxygen this election season, there are also important local races. One of the most critical is for the Board of the Palo Alto Unified School District, which has drifted in recent years and ceded too much authority to the Superintendent and his staff. Four candidates are running for three seats. I'm most enthusiastic about Ken Dauber and I urge you to support him too. You can learn more about Ken at Ken Dauber for School Board. Ken is a data-centric software engineer at Google, who also has deep experience with education policy and advocacy. He's been a consultant about education data and achievement for the Education Trust, Gates Foundation and U.S. Department of Education. His five kids have attended many local schools, including Barron Park, Nixon, JLS, Terman and Gunn. And for the past two years he's led successful local parent advocacy about student emotional health and achievement. Ken wants our schools to enable all students to thrive academically, social and emotionally. His priorities -- student achievement and health, transparent and accountable governance and data-driven innovation and planning -- make sense to me. Over the past few weeks Ken has mounted one of the most energetic local campaigns I've ever seen. He's earned key endorsements from 7 current City Council members, many other local officials and dozens of community leaders. The Palo Alto Weekly has endorsed Ken. So has Palo Alto High School's student newspaper, the Campanile: "We feel most compelled to support non-incumbent Ken Dauber . . . . Dauber has helped shape homework policy, drive discussions on student well-being and Project Safety Net and more." Last year, my now-graduated daughter Meghan was the Opinion Editor of the Campanile, so I know first-hand how seriously the students take their endorsement responsibility. Thanks for considering this special request to vote for for a special candidate: Ken Dauber.

Pancake breakfast to benefit Project Safety Net Palo Alto firefighters to serve flapjacks at fundraiser Saturday From Palo Alto Online Project Safety Net's first annual Pancake Breakfast is scheduled for Oct. 20. The fundraiser is the brainchild of Palo Alto firefighters, who had been looking to forge a relationship with a local charity. "We felt a connection with PSN (Project Safety Net)," Palo Alto Fire Department Captain Carter French said. Referring to the youth suicide cluster in 2008-2009, he said, "When those suicides were happening, we had to deal with that. It was difficult." Carter said that the partnership with PSN "is the perfect connection. We want to help bring awareness and funding to this organization," he said. Facebook chefs will also be on hand for the breakfast event and plan to do the actual pancake cooking. Other activities include a fire engine show, a jaws-of-life demonstration, door prizes and a safety fair. It takes place Saturday, Oct. 20, at Fire Station 6 on the Stanford campus, 711 Serra St., starting at 9 a.m. Tickets are $5. Friday, October 19 is the 3rd anniversary of Will's death. We love and miss him dearly. The partnership of PA Firefighters and Project SafetyNet (PSN) is wonderful. If you are in the area, please support the partnership by attending the 1st annual Pancake Breakfast at the fire station on Stanford Campus this Saturday. Janet Dixon-Dickens

Richard's Signature Salad-Nicoise Use the following steps to make the salad: 1. Cooks the potatoes and make the herb dressing 2. Prepare and assemble the salad Ingredients 2 lb potatoes salt and pepper 3/4 lb green beans 6 eggs 1 lb medium tomatoes 10 anchovy fillets 2 6 1/2 oz cans solid light tuna 3/4 cup black olives For the dressing 3 garlic cloves 7-10 sprigs of fresh thyme 1 bunch of fresh chervil 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar 2 tsp Dijon-style mustard 1 1/2 cups of olive oil Preparation Peel and boil potatoes Make dressing Peel and finely chop garlic cloves, strip thyme and chervil leaves from the stems, finely chop the chervil leaves. In a bowl, whisk the wine vinegar with the mustard, chopped garlic, salt and pepper, slowly whisk in the olive oil Drain the potatoes, rinse with warm water, drain again, cut potatoes into chunks and put them in a large bowl Briskly whisk the herb vinaigrette. Spoon 5-6 tbsp over the potatoes, stir thoroughly and let cool Top, tail and cook the beans for 5-7 minutes, drain, rinse with cold water, drain again. Put the beans in a bowl and whisk the rest of the dressing and add 3-4 tbsp to the beans tossing so they are coated with the dressing Hard boil eggs, peel and cut lengthwise into quarters Peel and cut tomatoes into 4 wedges each Flake the tuna with a fork, whisk the dressing and add 5-6 tbsp to the tuna Arrange potatoes in a large, shallow serving bowl Put the green beans in the center, then spoon the tuna on top Alternate a few egg and tomato wedges on the tuna and the remaining wedges around the edge of the bowl. Briskly whisk the remaining dressing and spoon it over the salad Arranges the olives and crosses of 2 anchovy fillets inside the egg and tomato border. Serve