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WAY!! I adore pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake roll, pumpkin ice cream... I was even able to recently find some tea with real pumpkin flakes in it! I also love pumpkin scented stuff - candles, fragrance oil, bath and body items... I'm addicted!

My dad and brother attempted to fry our bird a few years ago... it was the first and last time they tried! The bird was golden brown when they took it out at the recommended tie, but when we cut into it... way underdone, much to our chagrin and disgust. My mom didn't trust any attempts to try to cook it further, so we fell back on the ham (as well as the chicken that, for whatever reason, my nana had baked - thank goodness she did!). It's too bad, as we were psyched to try fried turkey after all the hype we'd seen on Food Network and the like about how wonderful it was. We're just too skittish to try it again!

Pumpkin pie brulee

Even though I have to watch my carbs and sugar for health reasons, I always have been and always will be a sides girl (just gotta eat little bits of it now instead of going all out!). I like ham and turkey just fine, but I eat deli meat a lot throughout the year, so it doesn't really seem like anything special. Southern cornbread dressing, macaroni and cheese, sweet potato casserole (we do a pecan streusel-mini marshmallow mixture on top), orange-cranberry sauce, yeast rolls... it's all so good!! Of course, I adore pumpkin pie and pecan pie too... have to have a little bite of them to really call it Thanksgiving!

In defense of sweetened condensed milk, it's what *I* grew up with, so it's what I am familiar with and what I like (I'm from the South... we like things sweet, LOL!). That being said, I'm definitely open to variations - I adore pumpkin in most any form! I went back to the Epicurious web site to bookmark some of the recipes for myself; here are the ones I found most intriguing:

Pumpkin Pie with Brown Sugar-Walnut Topping: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Pie-with-Brown-Sugar-Walnut-Topping-355849

Pumpkin Pie Brulee: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Pie-Brulee-105850

Maple Pumpkin Pie: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Maple-Pumpkin-Pie-104200

Pumpkin Pecan Pie with Whiskey Butter Sauce: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Pecan-Pie-with-Whiskey-Butter-Sauce-104141

Must-haves include Snickers, 3 Musketeers, Kit Kat, Butterfinger, Baby Ruth, Krackel, M&Ms, and Reese's Cups. For the non-chocolate selection, I'd include Nerds, Twizzlers, Blow Pops, candy corn, and Starburst. Sour stuff is a big hit too, according to my 12 year-old sister (she likes most of the above but hates nuts, so like a few others have mentioned, having some non-nut chocolates is a good idea). On the "no" list - no boxes of raisins, no Pixie Stix (just gross IMO and something no one I knew ever liked), no Smarties (I assure you, most kids will end up with 1/4 of their loot comprised of Smarties from other houses!), no boring hard candies (we were always bummed with butterscotch discs, Werther's, cinnamon discs, and Starlight mints), and no vegetable chips (yes, I have gotten these before!).

And, being a native Southerner, I've always said "Reesey cups," and my husband, also a native Southerner, does the same... never gave it much thought until now! :)

I can't bring myself to eat the bruises - have to cut them out! They're probably fine to eat, but the way they look... just can't do it. I trim off as little as possible, though - hate to waste any of it!

My wedding cake - butter cake with strawberry-cream cheese filling and buttercream frosting.

Lucky you - I love Adam and would really like to meet him! He seems like such a teddy bear and is such a hoot. Man v. Food is such a fun show to watch; it's infinitely better than anything currently on Food Network IMO (certainly more enjoyable than anything obnoxious Guy Fieri hosts!).

Rectangle pizza, tater tots, and sloppy joes!

Whipped cream out of the can, banana peppers, peanut butter, and back in the day, apple butter... mmmm... :)

Also wanted to add congrats to surviving your defense Traveller (even though your director was being difficult). I defended my Master's thesis in the fall of 2006 (after having to take an extra semester to make the changes to it that my committee required - UGH, they were insanely nitpicky) and I remember very well how stressful it was! I was 38 weeks pregnant during my defense, so at that point, I was pretty much daring them to find anything to critique, LOL. Anyway, kudos for all your hard work!

My biggest success was perfecting my nana's banana cake recipe (tweaked some things here and there, devised my own frosting recipe), which ended up getting me selected as a finalist in the 2005 Southern Living Cook-Off! I was so proud!

My favorite burger is a chili cheeseburger from The Beacon in Spartanburg, SC (second largest drive-in in the U.S.). I've loved it ever since I was around 9 years old (am 28 now), and it still tastes just as wonderful now as it did then. The burger is super thin (the only way I'll eat them), the chili is awesome, and with the melted cheese on top... perfect! No need to add anything here - it'd just get in the way.