Thanksgiving - Part 3

Our final stop of the night was with our favorite B family! We ate, played cards, and games, and ran around with all the B kids and had just a great time all around.

R.B. vs. turkey...the turkey never had a chance.

E vs. the Ham...you can't tell from this angle, but he massacred that ham. :)

All of the kids got into the act, including the teens...but they could only help with foods that coordinated with their outfits.

You can't tell, but T.B. is wearing a mashed potato colored shirt under her jacket. Honest.

E with M.G.B.

T.B. with M.G.B.

G.B. (who wasn't eager to have her picture taken) and her aunt T

W.B....cutie-patootie

A sweet kiss from M.G.B.

And all smiles afterward

Thanksgiving - Part 2

The second stop on our progressive thanksgiving was with our my sister in-laws in-laws. They are always so gracious and make us feel very welcomed and loved!

The lovely guests at the lovely table

E and Row, one of them had just gotten up from his nap

Miss O playing peek-a-boo

Miss O likes to dress to-the-nines for all major holidays...and minor holidays...and banking holidays...and days that end in "y"

If you didn't guess before, Row was the nap-waker-upper...prematurely obviously. Poor guy, the holidays can be a very stressful time.

Thanksgiving - Part 1

Our thanksgiving was filled with fun, friends, food and lots to be thankful for! Rather than type lots and lots of words, I'll let the pictures (okay, and the captions) do most of the talking.

We started with our friends, the Wilsons, in Maple Valley.

We took a walk down to the Cedar River with Aiden, Cael, Anne, Katie, Roger, Sante (the black lab) & Melvin.

The rain held off all morning and we had a great walk down a very steep hill...that we had to walk back up...to a pretty view of the river.

Wet dogs are happy dogs

Lots of little fishing houses along the river, this statue was at one of them. I'm not sure which saint it is. This was pretty high up on a large tree and you can see water stains on the wood.

Cool things to look at

crooked trees...cool

swing made out of a tire that looks like a horse...cool

very sweet little bird house...cool

Aiden was not impressed with my picture taking. If I remember correctly his words were, "Dop taten piturs!" Then I showed him this one, he laughed and we didn't discuss it again.

Okay, the "safety doggles" were my favorite. :)

Aiden found a treasure!

No, wait, two treasures!

Cutie-patootie Cael...on the swing made from a tire that looks like a horse...still cool and now super-cute.

Ever see a picture of yourself from behind? My reaction was a quick scream followed by "really?!" Yeah, so where's the turkey, gravy, potatoes...and don't forget the pie.

And truly the strangest sight...a giant Keebler elf peeking out of a tree stump. I'll end with this, because what could possibly follow it?

triple silken pumpkin pie

Last year, for Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me a beautiful dessert cookbook called Desserts by the Yard, by Sherry Yard, pastry chef at Spago. It is a gorgeous book that is actually entertaining to read, as it presents recipes from different times in Sherry's career. There are little opening paragraphs detailing how Sherry came to be at this or that restaurant as well as short descriptions before each recipe. This is the first recipe I've attempted and I think it was a success! The pie consists of a tender, flakey crust with pumpkin custard topped by maple whipped creme fraische topped by pumpkin caramel mousse. Not for the fat/calorie conscious. By the time I remembered that I intended to take pictures of the process, I was about half-way through, but here they are none-the-less.

You can see the custard under the whipped creme fraishe

Here is the sugar cooking down into caramel

Once the caramel was finished, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin were whisked in. Then whipped egg whites were folded in along with whipped cream.

Here is the finished product, still in the springform pan.

Mmm, it was yummy