Thanksgiving Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chantilly
We had a simple Thanksgiving. Kevin had to work on Thanksgiving Day because, well, the Brazilians don't celebrate that holiday! We met the other ex-pats for lunch, including the Germans. As a side note, I'd like to mention that I think it's great the Harald and Silvia celebrate our holidays with us. In about a month, another German man will be moving to Horizontina to work with Deere. I'm afraid we're going to have to start celebrating the German holidays now:) Lunch was short and sweet, but it was fun to see our "family" away from home. Because of the time difference, it was evening here before we talked to our families! I spent two hours on Skype, talking to all my siblings (or at least a spouse of a sibling). I'm loving Skype lately because it's actually working well and not dropping calls all the time! It was really fun for me to say hello to everyone. I could hear the lovely chaos in the background and I almost imagined myself sitting in my sister's living room, surrounded by family. It was harder for me to miss the gathering this year than it was last year. I was really sad. We have a sister's gift exchange each year that I wanted to be a part of and I think Emma would have really enjoyed playing with her cousins and so many other things. My heart is always blessed by a few conversations that happen with some of my family members and I missed time with them. Kevin even mentioned some of my siblings and in-laws that he really would have liked to have spent time with. Maybe next year. . .
We were able to video Skype with Kevin's family so it was great to actually see them. Again, I was bummed that we couldn't be with them, even though we don't normally see his family around this time. We were just sad to miss out on family time this year.
Mollie and I got together the Friday night after Thanksgiving and created the most amazing dessert: Pumpkin Cheesecake!!! (The only reason it was possible is because Barbara had gone to the States in October and returned with two cans of pumpkin for us. I suppose we could have cooked a few pumpkins and made our own filling, but I wasn't in the mood.) So we slaved away in the kitchen and a few hours later, our cheesecake was done. It took a lot of self-control not to dig into it on Saturday! Sunday, all the Americans (pictured above) went to Santa Rosa for lunch at Casa do Marques. They have a buffet with incredible food but they also bring around several different kinds of meats (lamb, pork, beef, chicken) on skewers as well as several types of pastas. It's one of our favorite restaurants in this area and totally worth the 45-minute drive! Kevin was the only one who chose to eat dessert at the restaurant. The rest of us chose to wait on the cheesecake! We drove back to our house, make a pot of Starbuck's coffee and some chantilly (homemade cool whip), and sat down to enjoy our cheesecake. (It was SO worth the wait and the five miles Mollie and I had run that morning! As we were finishing up our run, I kept chanting cheesecake, cheesecake, cheesecake, in my head. We finished well:) Our Thanksgiving was tainted with a little bit of sadness because it was really our last meal with Stan and Barbara. Barbara left a few days later to return to the States and Stan will leave next week. They moved here about two weeks after we did, so it's hard to believe their time here is already over. They had a different assignment contract and we knew they would probably leave before us, but it's just unbelievable that time has passed so quickly! We're really thankful for the time we had with them and sad to see them go! It was great to spend one last afternoon with them and Mollie. Our ex-pat family is dwindling:(
We had plenty of leftover cheesecake, so I took a few slices to Harald and Silvia the next day. Even after I gave a few more slices to Stan and Barbara, there was a huge chunk leftover for Kevin and me to share. I had dessert after breakfast the next day. I ate it after lunch. I even took a few bites after supper. I savored every little crumb, not knowing when I would ever eat pumpkin cheesecake again. Well, the day before Barbara left, she cleaned out her fridge and sent me home with seven packages of cream cheese. Seven. Why she had seven packages of cream cheese in her fridge is beyond me, but I'm thankful that I was the recipient! Then, two days ago, a runner from the U.S. came with gifts from my mother-in-law (more on that later). Imagine my shock when I saw two cans of pumpkin in one of the bags!! Oh, I know exactly what I'm going to do with those cans of pumpkin and the cream cheese!!
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too!
