Giving Thanks

One of my favorite times of the year is Thanksgiving, I love the cooler weather, family and friends coming together and of course the desserts!  This year Adam and I will be celebrating our first Thanksgiving together at my parents house in Tampa, FL.  It is this time of year that we start to really appreciate and be grateful for all we have in life.  Really though we should be giving thanks and gratitude in our daily lives.   I was reminded today that when you feel entitled you can not feel grateful and we are not entitled to anything.  We are not guaranteed nor do we deserve things in life  so we should be thankful for everything that we do get blessed with. We are not looking forward to the 12 hour drive but we are grateful to get to spend the week with my family, friends and of course see my love nugget, Diesel!

My handsome son Diesel -  A face only a mother could love!

The "Robinson Bake Off" is a tradition that was started a few years ago is also the highlight of Thanksgiving.   Each year family and friends submit a home made entry into the bake off and is judged by everyone in attendance.  The winning entry gets a wonderful medal and of course the bragging rights for the best baked good for the year to come!  As the reigning champion I feel a lot of pressure to come up with the very best dessert to defend my title.  Yesterday I did a run though with two recipes that I found in Southern Living that from the pictures looked very tasty. Thank goodness for that run though, because neither possibility would have been worthy of the win.  Here are the two recipes that I tried:

Banana Foster Upside Down Cake

Pumpkin-Pecan Cheesecake with Praline Topping

So since neither recipe is going to be my entry the search for the prize winning dessert is still on!  Usually I know what I am making and have done a trial run though of my entry by now, this year I am seriously behind schedule.  Whatever I come up with I am sure it will be delisious, and hopefully award winning!