Thanksgiving, Take Two

This Thanksgiving was definitely the smallest gathering that I've been to in recent memory - usually we would go to a family member's house and see my entire extended family that lives in the area, but my aunt and uncle that used to host moved WAY up north so that wasn't happening anymore. Ben had the brilliant idea of my parents having Thanksgiving up at their cabin, just about 2-3 hours north of Minneapolis.

We drove up there on Wednesday night, and came back on Saturday morning. It was great to get away, to spend time with family, eat a TON of awesome food, and to enjoy cable television that we don't have at home :) I watched several hours of the food network, and also started a book Kate lent me, What To Eat. So far it is quite interesting!

I did a little bit of baking while up north. Wednesday I made this pumpkin cheesecake that I saw on The Pioneer Woman's blog. I had found about 10 recipes for pumpkin cheesecake, but this was the one Ben chose because of the heavy use of caramel :) I only had a 9 inch springform and clearly I should not have filled up my pan quite so much! Oops :) I was kind of freaking out seeing it in the oven, but it actually did settle down to not look so puffy. I thought the cheesecake part of this was great, but the crust turned as hard as a rock with the caramel in there... I'm not sure if I did something wrong or not, but I didn't like how hard the crust was - it was next to impossible to cut and I ended up not really eating it. I tried to make homemade caramel but that failed. Luckily I had bought caramel sauce just in case so I just used that :)

Making the crust


Maggie HATES loud noises, so when I was using the food processor she tried to hide... so cute :)




Teamwork!


Ben and my sister the loon


um yeah, I guess avoiding cracks wasn't going to happen this time :)


I reached in and tasted a piece... looks like crap but still tasted delicious!


This is what it looked like the next day - I left off the caramel on top because it was already rich enough and people could add it if they wanted.

On Thursday morning, I set out to make these Soft Garlic Knots that I saw on Amber's Delectable Delights. These were VERY easy and super good! I will definitely be making these again...

dough, pre-rising


post rising


I apparently cannot count and made 9 pieces of dough instead of 8. Oh well.


Me and my sis, waiting for the meal




Beautiful buttery garlicky goodness






My pops making some gravy


Ben watching the sweet potatoes to make sure they didn't burn :)


Liz is at times a bit violent...


The same sweet potatoes as last weekend - still delicious!


Too bad my dad ruined the family photo by trying to "suck in his gut" :)


My plate


Cheesecake!

On Friday, my uncle Joe came up to the cabin and brought with him the largest pork..... whatever.... (loin? I don't want to know) that I have EVER seen. We had that for dinner that night, after my mom, Ben, and I went to Nisswa to see the Festival of Lights. I have to admit, I was expecting a little more, but it turned out to just be a whole mass of people watching all the lights in the town turn on at once. No big tree or anything. Whatever, it was something to do :) All in all, it was a lovely weekend, and I am sad that it went so quickly!

People were already ice skating. Crazies!


Ben and I in Nisswa


There were lots of bonfires


and here's the huge slab o meat. A good way to end this photo heavy blog post :)