Pumpkin Cheesecake

Okay, hear me out. I like pumpkin pie. I like it even better made with pumpkin puree from a roasted pumpkin. But what if it was ALSO a cheesecake? This year, cheesecake seemed to me the best possible variation on this Thanksgiving tradition, so I made one for our practice dinner last week. The addition of pumpkin makes it less sweet overall than regular cheesecake. I'm liking it a lot.

For the crust:
1 box store brand ginger snaps, minus 12 cookies
6 tablespoons melted butter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Pulse the ginger snaps in a food processor until they are reduced to crumbs. Combine with butter and press into the bottom and about 1/2 inch up the sides of a springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove.

For the filling: 

3 8-oz packages cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1/4 cup honey
4 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Blend the cream cheese and the brown sugar until completely mixed and very light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the remaining ingredients until well blended. Mix both parts together and blend well. Pour the filling into the partially baked crust and bake for one hour. After one hour, turn off the oven and prop the door a little bit open by inserting a wooden spoon. Let slowly cool for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate for several hours, or over night. Serve cold with whipped cream, maybe.

Apple Cranberry Pie

 

This is a beautiful pie that I first tried last year, but I felt it was too thick. This year's version is more to my liking. It is colorful and tart, and sets up well without being heavy. This might become a new favorite!

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup butter

50g coconut oil

1/4 cup ice cold water

Pulse flour, sugar, butter, and coconut oil in a food processor until it's crumbly. Add the water all at once and then mix, pulsing now and then, until is starts to come together in a ball. Turn out on a piece of wax paper, gather into a ball, and let rest 10 minutes in the fridge. Repeat. (The second one is for the lattice top.)

For the filling:

6 cups apples, peeled and sliced

4 cups fresh cranberries

juice of 1/2 lemon

zest of a small orange

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons butter, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Stir the fruit with the lemon juice and orange zest. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and spices thoroughly and then stir into the fruit. Let it macerate while you roll out the bottom crust and line a deep dish pie pan. Dip your finger into some cold water and run it all the way around the crust dough on the rim of the pie. This will help the lattice pieces stick to it. Pour the fruit mixture into the bottom crust, dot with the diced butter, and then roll out the second crust. Cut the second crust into ten to fourteen strips and weave into the top...

My technique is to lay down half the strips evenly across the pie. Then fold back every other strip half way and lay the longest cross strip across the middle. Replace the folded strips and fold back the other ones and lay down a new strip. Repeat to the edge of the pan and do the other side. Fold up the bottom crust to enclose all the ends of the lattice strips and then pinch all around the edge to seal.

Beat one egg in a small bowl and use a BBQ basting brush to paint the egg wash all over the top crust. Sprinkle the whole thing with cinnamon sugar. Use strips of foil or a pie crust shield to cover the edge of the crust to keep it from burning. Bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the foil or pie shield and turn down the oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 2 hours.

This pie is delicious with Breyer's Natural Vanilla (the one true ice-cream for pie). We also thought its flavors paired well with homemade fresh ginger ice-cream.

Fettuccini Alfredo

I feel like several people have asked about this recipe, and I made it again recently and have a picture of the result so I thought I'd post it here. This is a very basic recipe that I first learned on a camping trip with friends, on an island in Boston Harbor in 1991. Someone made it for one of our evening meals, and I said "PLEASE, teach me how to make this!" I think you will like it too.

I'll tell you how I made the dish in the picture, and then in the notes I'll talk about some other variations I've tried. This recipe is made for playing with it and creating your own dishes. Have fun!

First thing to do is prepare to cook 8 oz of pasta, in this example I used fusilli, but anything works. Fill a pot with water and generously salt the water. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions.

For the sauce:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

several shakes each of salt, pepper, and nutmeg

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter on low-medium heat with the cream. When the butter is melted, add the cheese and stir until the cheese is completely melted. Season to taste.

When the pasta is cooked, drain off all the water and add the drained pasta to the sauce. Stir to coat. For this dish I had a deli chicken in the fridge, so I chopped up about 1 1/2 cups of the meat and stirred it up in a pan with some butter and crushed garlic. I steamed a bunch of broccolini over the pasta for the last three minutes of cooking and put that on top as well.

NOTES:

Another thing different about this particular batch is that I did not have enough parmesan cheese on hand. I grated up some of my manchego to make up the difference. It was delicious!

I have made this sauce with cheddar cheese for homemade mac & cheese. When I use cheddar, I usually use sharp, and I substitute dry mustard for the nutmeg. The cheddar version is excellent poured over a head of steamed cauliflower.

This sauce also works with swiss cheese, (or Ementaler or Gruyere if you're fancy) which I particularly like with spaetzle.