Please share your recipes with us

Pumpkin pie is a traditional favorite for the Thanksgiving table. The Pioneer is seeking recipes of both traditional and non-traditional dishes to share in an upcoming issue. (Pioneer file photo)

While it’s not yet Halloween, spooky skeletons and colorful costumes can be found everywhere from the grocery store to the secondhand shop. And I’m not trying to rush the year along, but the gatherings get tastier as the calendar slides into November.

Looking toward the future, the Pioneer would like to request recipe submissions from our readers to share in an upcoming issue prior to Thanksgiving. From Grandma’s tried-and-true pumpkin pie to the new recipe that got subbed in at the last minute because you had the ingredients, we’d like to see what you’d like to share.

Please send recipes via email to callan@pioneergroup.com or by regular mail to Candy Allan, Pioneer newsroom, 115 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids, MI 49307. If possible, please include a picture of the completed food item — those of us who aren’t top chefs find it helpful to know what we’re aiming for by the end.

Giving you a peek behind the scenes, here at the Pioneer we often have a costume contest company-wide for Halloween, but then the newsroom gets down to business in November. Yes, there’s election day, but what brings us together as a group is Newsroom Thanksgiving.

The brainchild of Emily Grove, our senior staff writer, we have a potluck meal somewhere near the holiday, but before the out-of-town folks head to their parents’ or grandparents’ house for the usual family meal.

We’ve tried a couple different ways of recreating a traditional Thanksgiving meal at lunchtime for the team to share and enjoy, but what it comes down to is a potluck with some traditional — and not-so-traditional — dishes. I’m not talking popcorn and jelly beans, like in Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving cartoon special, but it’s not far off sometimes.

We have some wonderful cooks … and some folks who know their limits. Past meals have included rotisserie chicken (a turkey stand-in we can easily get from a deli), mashed potatoes, stuffing and homemade desserts, but there’s also a person in charge of paper plates, a chips-and-dip person and the one who gets pegged to bring the pop.

Overall, the recipes are simple, the food is good and the company, better. Ultimately, it’s about the people around the table, not the food on top of it that makes or breaks a Thanksgiving.