Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick melted salted butter
Filling:
8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
15-ounces pureed pumpkin
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:
In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Pumpkin Crazy

The moment I saw pumpkins at the grocery store is the moment I went pumpkin crazy. I bought 3 of them, one for each of us. They sat on my front step for a couple of weeks and then instead ofcarving mine, I cut it in half, scraped out all the guts and then baked the pumpkin halves in order to get myself some pumpkin to cook with. I made the usual, pumpkin break, pumpkin dip, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cookies... But this year I tried a few new things.

I made pumpkin butter a few times... I couldnt find a very good recipe for making this, so I made it a few times. It's a good thing I had lots of pumpkin to get rid of and another good thign that I have lots of friends and family who are willing to take some home with them! The 3rd batch was indeed the best, but it's still not "THE" best. I added the recipes to my cook book and made notes. I will attempt this again next year.

I made pumpkin Chili! This chili was some of the best chili that I've ever tasted! I know it sounds weird, but ask anyone who came over that day and they will tell you that it was delicious! I won the chili cookoff with this chili and I will definitly make it again! Perhaps I will make it again tonight? I used ground beef and black beans for this chili, however soemone suggested that I might try ground turkey and white beans which actually doesn't sound like a bad idea! I will post and share this recipe soon...

And then I made pumpkin cheesecake! I actually made 4 of them! The first two that I made were gone pretty quickly. The mention of pumpkin cheesecake the first time had people running over for a taste. I made another 2 last night and I'm pretty sure that they will be gone by tomorrow. PS: I've only had 1 piece for myself!

Leftovers

This house is horrible about eating leftovers. It just sits in the fridge until it's bad and then we dump it. The best leftovers though are Holiday leftovers! Turkey for sandwiches or soups or casseroles... Yum! Anyways, last night we had enchiladas and white rice. The rice gets hard and nasty when you save it, so we usually don't. But we had so much of it that I decided to make some Rice Pudding out of it. So I saved it and made some tonight. It was very tastey! Here is the recipe that I used:

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 cups milk, divided
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup golden raisins (optional)

In a saucepan, combine cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg, cinnamon (and raisins if you wish.) Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Serve warm.

Coconut Cream Pie

Below is the original recipe that I used today for our coconut cream pies. I made several changes to the recipe to make it my own. First of all, I did not use half and half. I used 1 1/2 cups of coconut milk and 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream. Instead of the all purpose flour, I used corn startch and instead of toasted coconut flakes on the inside of the pie, I used non toasted. I toasted the flakes for the top only. I also make my own whipped cream for the topping! YUM! :)

INGREDIENTS
3 cups half-and-half
2 eggs
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) pie shell, baked
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

DIRECTIONS
In a medium saucepan, combine half-and-half, eggs, sugar, flour and salt. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in 3/4 cup of the coconut and the vanilla extract. Pour into pie shell and chill 2 to 4 hours, or until firm.
Top with whipped topping, and with remaining 1/4 cup of coconut.

Note: To toast coconut, spread it in an ungreased pan and bake in a 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for 5 to 7 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

For Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or coconut extract for this recipe)
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

Put a large bowl and the beaters or wisk into the freezer for 10 minutes. Whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

Pie Adventures

For the last few days, Marcus and I have shared the jeep wrangler since we dropped my jeep off for repairs. For the most part, the boys and I have been home bound from our daily activities with friends. Today we had plans to celebrate National Pie Day by bringing a pie to share, however we could not attend. I was bummed to not be able to make it because I love pie! So, this morning we got up and walked tot he grocery store with the wagon that we got for Christmas.

The boys enjoyed it and it wasn't too cold out today. (We are supposedly having a heat wave... temps are int he 50's) I still bundled them up in coats and blankets. Anyways, we grabbed some things from the grocery store and headed home to make our pie. We made a coconut cream pie from scratch! Even the whipped cream is home made. It's chilling now, but I will post the recipe and pictures when it's done! :)

Sweet Potato Au Gratin

So we started a little baking competition/pot luck in our moms group. It's sort of like Top Chef in that we choose 1 ingredient and then bake something with that 1 ingredient. We tried apples at first which was awesome! Today we are doing sweet potato's. I made a Sweet Potato Au Gratin that I learned how to make from a co worker of mine about 4 years ago. She had invited a bunch of us to her house for a Christmas lunch and she had a whole spread of all sorts of yummy foods! I asked her for the recipe to this and she had gotten it from a Wegmans magazine that she got from the Fairfax location. This is that recipe:

• 2-3 uncooked sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 egg
• 2 cups whipping cream
• nutmeg & cinnamon
• salt & peeper to taste
• parmesan cheese

Place potatoes in greased 8-inch baking pan.
In separate bowl, beat eggs
add rest of ingredients except cheese and mix well.
Pour over potatoes and sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 375°F for 45 minutes or until tender.

Snack Week

This week is Caleb's week to bring snack in for his class. His teacher tried to give each student the week of their birthday so that we could bring in a birthday treat to share with the class. Caleb shares his birthday with someone, so we got the week before his birthday, and his classmate has next week! So, today we woke up and baked some cupcakes for Caleb to take into class. He's super excited to celebrate his birthday with his classmates today!

Of course the best part is licking the beaters... Ha ha!