Thanksgiving Recap

I'm finally getting around to my Thanksgiving recap...and recipe sharing! We had Brandon's side of the family over for dinner so there were 8 people in our little house. It actually went very well and the food was delicous!! Brandon did the turkey and I made pumpkin cheesecake bars and sweet potato casserole. We later went to visit his grandma at the nursing home. She's not doing very well and they've called in hospice so we wanted to see her since her days are probably numbered. Later that evening we went to my parent's house for supper. It was a nice day but very tiring...I don't know that I'd like to have holidays at my house every year.

Here's the 2 recipes you've been waiting for!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake
(Source: Kraft)

Ingredients
25 Nabisco Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1-1/2 cups) (I actually used some broken graham crackers...probably didn't taste the same)
1/2 cup finely chopped Planters Pecans
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
Dash ground cloves

Directions
Heat oven to 325°F

Mix crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 13x9-inch pan.
Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1-1/2 cups batter. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.
Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Repeat layers; swirl with knife.
Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

It's delicous!!

(sorry about the half eaten pic, I had just remembered I needed to take one)

I actually saw the recipe for sweet potato casserole from a girl on the Project Wedding website and decided I would try it. It's different because instead of putting marshamallows on top you make a pecan topping. Let me tell you, it's way better this way!! I'll never do the marshmallows again.

Sweet Potato Casserole
(Source: brianne2009)

Ingredients
Filling
3 c sweet potatoes
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1/4 c evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Topping
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1 c pecans
1/3 c softened butter

Directions
Preheat oven to 350
Blend filling ingredients together and spread in baking dish
Stir topping together and spread on top of filling.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes

Forgot to take pic of this. :(