Thankful for Grandma Hunt

Friday was Grandma's birthday! I don't think she would mind my saying she turned a very young 62 years old! How many 62 year olds can give a very active 2-year-old a run for his money on the days they watch them?.... Or right - that would be my awesome Mommy!

The festivites included her going Black Friday shopping (I even offered to go with her, but she declined as she likes to go solo. FINE BY ME! Zzzzzzzzzzzzz!) A quick doctors appointment, breakfast with my dad, some more shopping and probably an afternoon nap in there. Then we all headed into my brother's house for a yummy family dinner!

We decided on lasagna, broccoli, apple/walnut salad and french bread. I volunteered to make a homemade lasagna! Laying in bed Thursday night I realized we forgot dessert and since cheesecake is my mom's favorite I thought I would make a New York Style cheesecake. Note to self: if I choose to make this again - I need to make it a day ahead of time. Not the late morning on the day of the event! OOPS! More on that later.

The lasagna recipe I choose to try was Joy Behar's Lasagna Recipe from The View. I must say this was YUUUUUUUUMMY!! Like seriously - a.ma.zing! I will say the recipe was not proof read when it was posted and the list of ingredients forgets the tomato sauce and oregeno listed in the directions below. (I used a small size can of tomato sauce and would suggest using more and also I forgot to buy fresh oregeno so I used a little dried. Also - Meijer was out of garlic so I didn't use any, but did put some garlic powder in the sauce.)

So the lasagna was fan-freakin-tastic if I do say so myself... the cheesecake. Not. So. Much. It had good flavor, but poor texture. It didn't have enough time to set up so the outer two thirds was set up and was quite nice, but the inner third was not! oops! Oh well... this is the recipe I tried. The flavors were good, but I would probably skip the lemon/orange zest and just stay straight cheesecake. I also made a raspberry puree... Wolfgang Puck Style. It was quite good, but I probably could use less fresh lemon juice.

We had such a lovely time celebrating and watching the kids play and have a good time (for the most part.)

We are very blessed people to have such an amazing woman like my mom in our family. I can't wait until this Saturday when my sister-in-law take my mom out for manicures and dinner! FUN!

Logan loves when my mom puts his belly on her head and shakes her head back and forth... leads to much laughter and screaming on both sides! ha! Love you Mom!!

Next up: Cookie Baking Day... 18 different kinds and over 50 dozen cookies. EEK!