Happy Thanksgiving, 2011

This used to be one of Daniel's favorite holidays. He used to like playing computer games with his brothers while we cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Then later that day, he enjoyed lots of turkey, carrots, cauliflower, brussel sprouts,broccoli, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls etc. He liked baked sweet potatoes, not the candied variety and he also liked cranberry sauce. He liked cheese sauce on both his broccoli and his mashed potatoes. He also liked "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" on his roll, rather than butter. He would say that he liked it because of the taste, and not because Fabio endorsed it. The mere mention of "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" would prompt him to do an entire scene as done by the Alice character on BBC's "The Vicar of Dibley". Later in the day, he would share saved treats for each of the animals, all the way from the alpacas to the dogs, and then to the chickens and ducks because it was not fair for us to have a holiday and not to share it with them. When Thanksgiving was cleared away, he would help me decorate for Christmas. Of all our kids, he was the one who appreciated the holidays and time spent together, the most. Our Thankgivings tended to be just our family, my husband and I and the kids. From the time that our daughter developed juvenile diabetes, and we took sugar out of most things, people gradually decided that they would rather do their own. Christmas was more the time on which we got together. For dessert on Thanksgiving, we would make a "No Sugar Added" apple pie, and Daniel's favorite dessert.





Version 2 of Daniel's Favorite Dessert (Rich enough to eat once a year !
Ingredients or maybe even twice)

Crust Ingredients:
1 cup white flour
1 cup finely chopped walnuts {or pecans}
1/2 stick of butter
1st Layer Ingredients:
8 ounce package of cream cheese
1 cup of Cool Whip {buy the large size because you will use more for the top layer}
2nd Layer Ingredients:
1 package of instant chocolate pudding {3 ounces}
1 package of instant vanilla pudding {3 ounces}
4 cups of Milk
Large Cadbury's Dairy Milk Bar for topping

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325, use a Pyrex dish.

For the Crust:

Finely chop the walnuts and put them in a mixing bowl.
On a cutting board cut up the butter into super small pieces. Pour the flour over the top of the butter.
Now continue chopping the butter into the flour.
Add the flower and butter to the chopped walnuts and stir together.
Put the mixture in the bottom of your cake pan. Use size 10×13 pan. Use the palm of your hand to firmly pack the mixture into a thin crust on the bottom of the pan.
Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Bake at 325 if you are using a glass pan.

For the Cream Cheese Layer:

Combine the cream cheese, and cool whip. Mix until creamy and fluffy {about 1-2 minutes}.
Spread the cream cheese layer over the COOLED crust.

For the Chocolate Pudding Layer:

Combine the instant chocolate pudding and the vanilla pudding. Follow the directions on the box for the puddings.
Spread the pudding mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer.
Now spread the remaining Cool Whip over the top. Be sure the Cool Whip is melted enough to spread easily.
Use a potato peeler to shave the chocolate bar in to pretty pieces, and spread evenly over the Cool Whip layer. Enjoy!

This can be made for diabetics using the sugar free cool whip, sugar free puddings, very few Cadbury's shavings on top, and in lieu of the crust, placing some walnuts at the bottom of the dessert, and skipping the baking part entirely. I actually prefer the sugar free one.

 

The male singer featured in this Katharine McPhee video is Zachary Levi who plays "Chuck" in the TV series of the same name.  Daniel enjoyed this show very much.  Tonight we honor one of Daniel's favorites in a new endeavor.