Pumpkin Brulee Cheescake from FoodNetwork.com

The angels start to sing when people get together over Thanksgiving pie...at least I imagine them singing "hallelujah." Especially when this season's pies are the homiest, and most satisfying, somewhat like that rush of good feeling that comes from being warmed by a crackling fire on a cold day. There's always room for dessert.


This past week, my children and I had a pie baking marathon with my mom and best friend. FoodNetwork.com has the most delectable dessert recipes for Thanksgiving. We gave several FoodNetwork.com pies a try but the one everyone loved the best was the Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake.
My husband's favorite dessert is cheesecake. When I told him that his daughter helped make a Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake, he sounded as excited as a little boy. Thanksgiving pies do that to us...make us feel like kids hovering over the dessert table just waiting for a slice.
My daughter's smile says it all. She was just dying to stick her finger into the warm, gooey pie. My favorite pies are the smooth and creamy ones that you add whip cream too. The Pumpkin Brulee Cheesecake was just that...heavenly "hallelujah" good. 


We had a blast making our marathon FoodNetwork.com pies! It's beginning to feel a lot like Thanksgiving. See our pie making in action here.
Wishing you a fun in the kitchen baking with your family...maybe you'll say "hallelujah" to a FoodNetwork.com pie too!  
Happy Thanksgiving! xx


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Veterans Day: A Day to Remember


This Eisenhower photo with Snoopy ran in 1998. Read what Charles Schulz says about this particular D-Day strip:

"Of all my D-Day cartoons, this Sunday page created the most interest from readers, who remarked that it was often the only reference to that momentous day of June 6, 1944, in their newspapers. Most gratifyingly, I heard from those in the picture and still with us, family members, and friends of the men talking with General Eisenhower."

The photograph itself was taken just before these men of the 101st Airborne Division parachuted into Normandy. 

My great uncle, John Edward Shaughnessy, is the man at the far right in this famous picture. His children and the rest of our family are very proud to know that his service to our country was memorialized in such an iconic image that gave hope and pride to so many Americans at home. 



Amelia Earhart: 5 Things You Might Not Know

Best known for being the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) is America's most famous female pilot. Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24th to Edwin (a lawyer) and Amy Earhart (daughter of a wealthy judge). 

Amelia was eleven-years old in 1908 when she saw her first airplane. She wrote that..."It was a thing of rusty wire and wood...not at all interesting." Later in 1921, Amelia had her first flying lesson. She said, "As soon as I left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly."

Before she was lost, Amelia wrote to her husband, "I am quite aware of the hazards...I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failures must be but a challenge to others." 

There have been many theories about Amelia's disappearance...that she was on a secret mission for the United States government to spy on Pacific islands held by the Japanese, that she was held a prisoner of the Japanese until after WWII and brought back in secret to the United States, that Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, lived as a cast-aways on Nikumaroro islandNo one knows for sure...The search for Amelia and Fred will continue in 2014.

1. Amelia's mother was the first woman to climb to the top of 14,110 foot high Pike's Peak in Colorado.

2. Ameila became a nurse's aide in Toronto, Ontario, Canada when she visited her sister, Muriel who was in school there. Some of the men she cared for were pilots. 

3. In 1926, she was a social worker at Denison House in Boston. She taught English to immigrant children. 

4. She bought her first airplane, the Canary, for her birthday. She paid for lessons and the yellow airplane with money she earned working for the Los Angeles telephone company and with money given and loaned to her by her mother and sister Muriel. 

5. She helped to start a woman's pilot club called the Ninety-Nines. It was called the Ninety-Nines because it had ninety-nine founding members. 

Amelia continues to inspire young girls to dream...including my daughter who chose Amelia Earhart for her "Famous American" report. Amelia said, "To enjoy doing something, to concentrate all your energy on it--that is not only the surest guarantee of its success. It is also being true to yourself." 

After all, if we truly want to inspire our youth to have success, isn't that one of the best messages we can give?

My daughter dressed up as Amelia Earhart