It is a family tradition to make an obscene amount of pies and then invite friends over to share.  We have a great time making them but the real fun is the PIE PARTY!!

Rolling out dough

Pumpkin pies

Pressing dough

Pecan pie

Pumpkin pie (I like to use cream instead of milk and it makes it so smooth and delicious)

My dough helper

This is a nutella pie

Topped with strawberries

Topped with more nutella cream

Cherry pie (love homemade cherry pie!)

Awesome friends, the Ryvers!

I got a moment to sit and relax.

Lissy and her daddy.

SOOO many pies!

And more pies.

Serving up.

Cream cheese pecan pie drizzled with chocolate.

Lemon meringue pie

Macadamia Nut and Coconut crusted Chocolate Cream Pie

Making pie dough

Finished dough

Making the creme brulee for the chocolate berry tart

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Carl and April

10:20 AM

I know these aren't desserts but it was wonderful and I wanted to share.  We had so much fun preparing with the kids.

We had our friends join us for dinner.  It was a joint effort and together it made an amazing feast!

French 3 onion Soup.  Carl made the stock and it was AMAZING!

Maple Glazed Squash and Cranberry Salad with Cider dressing.

Local Honey Brined, Apple Smoked Turkey only an hour into the cooking.

Green Beans with Cream Sauce topped with Fried Leeks.

OK, so as I was getting the great pictures I realized that we didn't actually take pictures of all the food so I will list the rest here.  You will just have to imagine it.

We also had: 

 Macadamia Coconut Crusted Sweet Potatoes

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Rosemary Roasted Cashews

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta

Stuffing

Brined and Roasted Turkey (yes we had 2 turkeys)

Daddies dinner rolls

Sparkling Juices

Following are pics of the prep, it was so fun having the kiddos in the kitchen.

Stock simmering

Ha-Na was helping put the stock together.

MJ was making the cream sauce for the green beans.

Photo bomb while making the macadamia coconut crust for our sweet potatoes.

Even Lissy dressed for the occasion. 

Sisters who love cooking!

Seasoning the Sweet potatoes.

She can't wait for them to cook before diving in.

Sweating the onions.

Making his roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta.

Spicy Cashews

Turkey is soaking up the flavor.

The soup is coming together.

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Carl and April

7:27 AM

We made this cake for Carl's class for his birthday celebration.  We forgot the camera and so we don't have pictures at the school.  This is sad since Carl designed it so that dry ice smoke came out from the top of the train at the school and we didn't get any pictures of it.  It looked really awesome, the kids were so excited and Lil' Carl was really pleased.  We also didn't get any pictures of Ha-Na's really cool science lab cake since I put the finishing touches on at school and again we forgot our camera :(

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Carl and April

2:42 PM

The kids will be so excited when they come home to this for their after school snack!  It is a sweet dough recipe that I braid and then circle.  After it is raised I put a sweet cream cheese mixture on top and then bake it.  After it cools for a bit I put on some jam and then top with a powdered sugar icing.  It is really, really YUM!

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Carl and April

2:28 PM

Not only did he want a Pokemon Cake but he wanted a Water Pokemon, more specifically Piplup.

It was a lot of fun to design one of the less public characters and he was sooo proud to show it off to his friends as they arrived.

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Carl and April

8:04 PM

Carl's work threw a celebration for one of the guys there who got married recently, they did not have a reception or cake associated with the wedding so he asked if I could make one for them. They wanted it simple. It is a White Chocolate cake with Strawberry Cream filling and Cream cheese frosting covered in Fondant. I topped it with some beautiful Gardenias.

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Carl and April

5:38 PM

This cake was for a girls Luau Party

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Carl and April

2:31 PM

This cake was for a little girls 5th birthday.

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Carl and April

9:17 PM