Thanksgiving Week

We had such a great Thanksgiving break. Dan had to work a good part of the week so the girls and I headed to Long beach and hung out with all the cousins for Thanksgiving dinner and black Friday shopping. Then we drove over to my brothers house who lives there as well and hung out till' Saturday. Lots of good food, family and of course crazy black Friday deals.

Dan got off Saturday so we headed up to Big Bear for dinner, and good family time. It was like 25 degrees and beautiful up there.

Morgan took this one for us.

We stopped in this little cafe and I tried their sipping chocolate. It was this tiny little China cup that was like $5 but OH MY GOSH! It was like getting a chocolate high for the next 6 months. Dan and the girls were cracking up as I was drinking it (bathing in it) because my mouth was covered in chocolate.

Dan said there was no way to be classy about it and really I wasn't trying. ;)

The girls loved looking in all the store windows, especially the one where the lady was making baked goodies. :)

No pictures of Graph "in" the snow. She was freezing!

I read, organized, shopped and planned out what I would make for Thanksgiving for two weeks prior. I was trying to make sure Ryanne and I didn't get to left out when it came to good eats on Thanksgiving since we can't have gluten or dairy. I made this Coconut-pumpkin pie and it was a hit.

I also made this Pear-Apple cobbler and I swear you could not tell it was gluten and dairy free. even the skeptics of the group seemed to love it. :) I forgot to take a picture of my stuffing but it rocked as well! I have NEVER made stuffing so it was a challenge to begin with. I am so excited to make it again for Christmas. I am quickly learning how to cook and bake really good stuff completely dairy and gluten free just by making my own flour blends. I got tired of paying $5 for 4 muffins or $6 for a bag of cookies when I could do it myself and make way more. It's more work in the end but there are so many good GF & DF resources out there that it really is fun to try and figure it all out. I picked up this great book this weekend called Baby Cakes and it is all GF, DF and mostly Vegan desserts. YAHHOOOO! Christmas baking here I come!