Family, food and football

This past weekend I had the pleasure of hosting my mother's side of the family for a reunion dinner.  The day was in a word perfect.  The weather was warm but not too hot.  We gathered at my house in the afternoon and the event ended late into the night.  We laughed, shared photos, watched a video, cried, and of course we ate.

After all, this is a southern family and that is what we do - we eat and watch football.  So in the afternoon the appetizers were out with everything from Buffalo Chicken Dip to Artichoke Dip with lots of crackers and chips.  Drinks were aplenty and there was a fair amount of sweet tea to be had.

Our son smoked pork loins on apple wood with his special rub for flavor and let me tell you they would melt in your mouth.  We had deep fried chickens that had been injected with flavor the night before.  And of course everyone brought a dish.  That is the fun of an event like this, you get to sample some home cooking from your family.  Green beans, baked beans, casseroles, potato salad, slaw, tossed salad, oriental salad, macaroni and cheese, bread.  Then the desserts!  Rum cake, Dump Cake - two of those.  Blueberry and Cherry.  Brownies, Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert (I made that and will share the recipe).  Pecan Pie, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Cake and Red Velvet Cake.  Oh My!!

There was a bonfire in the yard late in the evening, football games on two TVs and lots and lots of catching up and photos taken.  We missed those we have lost and reminisced about them.  My grandmother's birthday is today and that made the weekend special - she would have loved being in the midst of all that attention.  One amazing thing is I have a hydrangea that belonged to her and this past weekend it had blooms on it.  She was telling us how happy she was we were together.

Through it all I was smiling.  I kept thinking about my grape vine and how family is like a bunch of grapes.  Stay with me...We come from one trunk which is rooted deep and is strong. Like the people in the photo, my grandparents.  Then there are branches everywhere.  On those branches are clusters which hang together.  That is the individual families.  The clusters of fruit vary in size - some have many and some are just a few.  There are sweet and sour grapes in the same cluster (sounds like families).  But, the one thing I know is that until you pick the fruit they remain together in that cluster - and that is the way family should be.  That is what I want our family to be.

I know I want to do this again and hope all that attended our dinner feel the same.  So God willing we will plan another dinner in the near future and in the meantime we will remember the good time we shared at this one.


ICE CREAM SANDWICH CAKE

For a single layer in a 9 x 13 pan use the following:
12 ice cream sandwiches
8 oz. cool whip or whipped cream
1/2 jar caramel ice cream topping
peanut butter cups chopped, or any candy topping you like - toffee bits, nuts, snickers, rolos, etc.

Line the bottom of the pan with the ice cream sandwiches, spread the top with cool whip, drizzle caramel topping over that and top with chopped candies and nuts of your choice.  Cover and freeze several hours before serving.  

If you want to make two layers double all the ingredients.  Instead I doubled it and made two single layer cakes.  Both were gone!