Shiver Fall Fest 2010

Ok, so Miles thinks "Fall Fest" needs a new name. I agree but can't think of one. Angela's Awesome Autumn Extravaganza? That was vetoed as well. Suggestions welcome!! But anyway, last weekend was it. Miles and I started this tradition the first year we were married & living in our tiny apartment in Chicago. Hot caramel apple cider... carving pumpkins... halloween movie, you get the idea! Now that the boys are growing up we really want to nail down our tradition, and this year was the first year Miles V could enjoy it with us. It was a (delicious) blast!! :)

Friday night Miles and I decided to make this amazing pumpkin cheesecake. It turned out FANTASTIC! Here is a link to the recipe...

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/pumpkin-cheesecake-with-pecan-praline-topping

The only problem we ran into is that we didn't start it until the boys went to bed about 8pm. As we were reading the recipe, we realized it had to bake for THREE hours (and that was AFTER the pumpkin puree had to "drain" for TWO HOURS!!!) Good thing we have alarms or else we would have had a very burned cheesecake!

Below are a few pictures to document the occasion:
The Crust


The Ingredients



The Mixing...


And apparently I never took a picture of the finished product :( but here is it before it went into the oven. It was AMAZING!!!



The weekend also had lots of other fun things. We went swimming Friday night (not unique to Fall Fest but fun nonetheless...) Saturday morning we took the boys to free craft making at Lowe's where Miles V made a bat, which he proceeded to call an "owl" all weekend (which is fine by me... if you know me you know how terrified I am of bats!!). We carved pumpkins, watched Elmo's Halloween Special, and ate TONS of other good food (Baked Apple Doughnuts, Homemade Caramel Corn, Homemade Broccoli and Cheese Soup in breadbowls...) mmmm delish. Lets just say that previous post about eating well and working out kinda went out the window last weekend. But it was worth every minute with our sweet boys!!

Here are a few more pictures of the weekend. Enjoy, and watch for a Halloween post soon!!!

Making the "owl"


CREEEEPY!!!