My family celebrated early since three family members (Paul, Tim, and Ashley) have fall birthdays. We met up in Escondido for the event. Naturally we needed three desserts. There was a Lime Cheesecake, Chocolate Brownies and Pumpkin Parfaits.
The table was artfully decorated with a rubber rat for the toddlers and dead twigs for a centerpiece and we twisted wire "ribbons" for napkin rings. A few of the guests opened their napkins and used the "ribbon" as body jewelry.
The final desserts were pumpkin parfaits- a recipe from the November issue of Food and Wine magazine. Pumpkin puree was combined with sweetened mascarpone cheese for the first layer. The second layer consisted of heavy cream, mascarpone, and powdered sugar. The third layer was simply crushed chocolate wafers. The layers were then repeated with the cream piped on.