Thanksgiving {the day after}

To all those who celebrate it, I hope yours was a wonderful thanksgiving filled with family, friends, and good food :)

I did a bit of baking to contribute to the festivities this year - including my first ever pumpkin pie.  Seriously, I had never made pumpkin pie before.  Weird, I know :)  I got really fancy and followed the directions on the can, haha, but the boys liked it which is the most important thing. 

I also baked a Swedish Apple pie {I have no idea if it is authentically Swedish, this much loved recipe came to our family with that moniker.  If there are any Swedish people reading, feel free to comment away!}

I only frosted half the chocolate bunt cake, because my youngest son and three of my nephews can't have dairy.  My son also can't have soy, which eliminates most options for dairy substitute.  Most of the time, I make a frosting of confectioner's sugar and water with vanilla extract so it can be enjoyed by all, but it is far too sweet for me so just this once I made a chocolate butter frosting - so yummy, even though I didn't let the butter soften like I should have and it looks and spreads terrible :)

Cherry Squares are a childhood favorite, and it just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without one smothered in Whipped Cream! :)  Don't let that fugly old pan fool you, it is the best in my kitchen!  My prettier pans just don't cook as nice, and I love that it isn't nonstick so I can scour away with steel wool all I want without damaging it.  This one seems to be an odd size, but is the best fit for cherry squares.  I'm guessing it is old, although I don't know for sure.  It came into my possession after the birth of one of my sons, when several lovely ladies from church brought us dinner for the first few days.  I couldn't remember who this pan belonged to and no one asked for it back, so it has stayed in my kitchen ever since.  {but I'll deny that if anyone suddenly comes to claim it}

When I was a child, we always went to my grandparents' home for Thanksgiving, arriving the day before and spending the night.  The dinningroom table would be covered with all sorts of desserts!  When we woke up on Thanksgiving morning, the adults would already be cooking away for the big meal, and my brother and I could choose anything we wanted from the dessert table for breakfast!  Now, as an adult looking back, I'm pretty sure this happened because my parents forgot to think of breakfast with all the baking that started two days before, let alone cooking for the meal that day.  But to us, it was one of the best parts of Thanksgiving & again on Christmas :) 

This year, I shared that memory with my sons, and then let them choose breakfast from our own little dessert table at home before we went to join the extended family - this is definately going to be a holiday tradition in our house from now on :)



Thanksgiving just happened to be our Netherland Dwarf bunny's 1st birthday, too :)  My sons were so excited to give him his birthday present! 

I'm linking up to A Quilter's Table :)