PIE PARTY!: A Great Start to the Holidays

One of my awesome aunts hosts a Pie Party after Thanksgiving every year. Everyone just brings all of their leftover pies and we eat until they are all gone. It is such a fun idea that we decided we wanted to throw one this year. We are spending Thanksgiving in Idaho, so we decided to have the Pie Party before Thanksgiving with Jonathon's family and the O. family.

I have wanted to try to make pumpkin cheesecake for a long time, so I decided that cheesecake is similar enough to pie that it would fit in well. We ended up with two huge cheesecakes.... one with chocolate shortbread crust and one with regular shortbread crust. They turned out BEAUTIFUL!  I preferred the regular shortbread, but both were good. Cheesecake is a little tricky, but Alton Brown's (from the Food Network) youtube video and water-bath suggestion helped it bake perfectly with no cracking. We also did a special gluten-free coconut cream pie for Jonathon's mom. I have never tasted coconut cream before, but it was delicious. Jonathon and I ate the leftover pie-filling straight from the bowl.

 Recipes here and here

Our guests brought 4 other delicious pies (banana cream, key lime, apple, and a regular coconut cream). It was delicious and a lot of fun. Bring on Thanksgiving!

The Spread. YUMMY!