WAH/WSH (Thanksgiving)

...And that, my friends, is what they call a break in blogging!  To be fair, Dad picked me up Tuesday night to head to Camp (sweet!) and I didn't get back home until Sunday around 5 p.m.  It was like a vacation!  That said, I had an ambitious plan to get lots done, and while it was still a productive few days, I wanted to do more.  Oh well. 


So without further ado, the list of things that happened over the holiday week/weekend. 
- Christmas Cards - done!
- Tasty lentil soup - made!
- Good wine - shared!
- Far too many Manhattans - drank!
- A lazy day of board games - played!
- Too much pumpkin pie - eaten!
- Oyster scald at Kamp Kerns - success!
- Ridiculous Cherpumple thing - constructed!
- Becket's Christmas Gift - started!


The things that did not get done:
- Any one else's Christmas gift - yikes!

Also, so we're all on the same page,  generally speaking, I won't share pictures of things crafted until after they have been made "public" (i.e. Christmas cards sent; people have opened their gifts, etc.)  Or if it's a home improvement project, I may share in phases, but only when there is tangible progress. 

So for some things, I didn't take pictures (lentil soup), for other's it's too early to share (Christmas cards), but the ridiculous Cherpumple?  Oh, I can share the details.

It all started with inspiration from a wacky TV personality/youtube video found here.  Known as the turducken of desserts, the cherpumple has been a funny to-do on my list for a couple of years now.  So I finally just did it.

Here's what you start with:

Ingredients: An apple pie, a pumpkin pie, a cherry pie, a yellow cake, a spice cake, a white cake, 3 tubs of cream cheese icing, nine eggs and some vegetable oil (to make the cake mixes), a beater, an oven, time and a sense of humor.

I bought McKay's bakery pies, when really I should have bought Sara Lee's frozen ones.  I bet they would have kept their structure a little better.  I could only find a 10" apple pie, so I used that and then an 8" pumpkin and a 8" cherry.  First up was the apple in yellow cake, which would be the base.

Since it was so large, cake batter overflowed in the oven (glad there was a piece of foil on the lower rack already in there!)  Here you can see the apple pie on the bottom rim.  It did not want to stay contained, but I just let it cool and hoped for the best.

One thing to note was that it took a while longer for the cake to cook fully through than the instructions called for (nearly double the time), so about half way through, the top was being cooked unevenly.  Which is when I stuck my gloved hand in the oven to turn the cake pan, and...

The oven got the better of my forearm.  Shoot!  (This picture of the burn was taken five days after the incident.)  Man, I hate being so ditsy sometimes.

Meanwhile, this is how peaceful the cove looked...

And there were lots of cousins having a ball outside the kitchen window...

And a big pre-oyster scald football game...

And then we went up to the Kerns' house, had some oysters, and cut into the final product:

A little closer?

Yeah...I don't know.  Truth be told, I didn't even have a bite!  But Marc said it was good and it does make me want to eat cake (but just cake, not cherpumple).

There was lots of hanging out, so lots of stories and fun things told, but maybe the biggest news of all was this:

Paul and Will got the Fleury family tat after years of planning this brotherly bonding permanent art.  It looks similar to this, although I know Paul spent a very long time on the specific design.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed the days before or after too!  I had a wonderful time with my family, immediate and extended -- although those who were busy hosting elsewhere or just taking some time off were very missed.