Pumpkin Cheesecake

Every Thanksgiving, and sometimes Christmas, I make Pumpkin Cheesecake. The basis for the recipe I use is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe:

Crust:
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Cheeesecake
2 8-ounce pkgs cream cheese, softened
1 cup half and half
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs


Step 1:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. For your crust mix graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup sugar and melted butter until well combined. Press in to the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9 inch springform pan. Place springform pan on a cookie sheet and place in the oven for 5 minutes.

Step 2:
Place all remaining ingredients, except eggs, into mixing bowl and beat until smooth. (Start slow with this as the half and half may splash, once it starts to get mixed up you can up the speed.) Once it is looking smooth and well combined, add eggs all at once and beat on low only until combined. If you overbeat the eggs in the mixture the top of your cheesecake will crack as it bakes.

Step 3:
Spoon filling into the crust. Place in the oven for 1 hour, the center should appear nearly set when gently shaken.

Cooling:
 This is the most time consuming part of making a cheesecake. Once removed from the oven place the springform pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Then loosen crust from the side of the pan with a rubber/silicone scraper and let sit 30 minutes more. After that, remove the sides of your springform pan and let sit for 1 hour. Finally, put the sides back on and cover and chill for at least 4 hours (I usually make this the night before I need it so I don't feel rushed).

Enjoy!!

Here's wishing you time to enjoy tasty treats this holiday season.

New Bed Reveal!

I hinted a while back at a project that I was excited to complete. It started out super easy and ended with my dad welding extentions onto the bed frame so we could fit the mattress between the headboard and footboard. Thanks Dad!!

Before:

 

 

 During:

After:

 

 

Here's wishing you sweet dreams!



Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving! We enjoyed spending time with family and playing in the beautiful, warm weather. The food was delicious, the sweets were yummy, and we are all ready to put on our comfy clothes and relax for the evening.

Here are a few snapshots of our day:

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Pumpkin Cheesecake





Let the game of Hide-and-go-Seek begin.

Counting with cousin Chase.
 

Working on seeking strategy with cousin Morgan.

Looks like cousin Kevin found a good hiding place.

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving, may you find many reasons to be thankful this upcoming holiday season!

Wednesday Pinterest Top 5

OK, I have fallen behind on blogging the past couple of weeks. We have been playing hosts to ear infections, nasty coughs and otherwise yuckiness in our household since right after Halloween. We are all now on the mend and hopefully will be back to normal before the holidays get into full swing (knock on wood).

Here is this weeks top 5:

This is a pin that I completed recently, and I am very happy with how it turned out. I got the frame on sale and with a coupon at Michael's for $15, and just printed the letters out on regular paper with my color printer. (I was going to have 4x6 pictures printed of the letters, but tested it out on paper first and results were pretty good.) Here is the link to my previous post about where to find the letters.




Organized t-shirts - I did this with both boys' t-shirts and it is awesome!! Not only is it easier to get all their shirts in their drawers and close them, but now they can see all of the shirts they have without digging through the drawers and making a big mess.




Cable Control - I just saw this one today and I can't wait to do it. I have been storing (i.e. tossing) all our charging cables for the laptop, camera, phones, ipods, etc. in just an empty shoe box. This is so much prettier to look at, now to decide on what paper to use!



Drawing Starter - This is a way too easy drawing project for the boys. Glue a couple of eyes onto a piece of paper and let them got to town creating their own creatures. We will definitely be giving this a try.



I thought I would go through my "Words of Wisdom" board and see what kind of goodies I had saved there. I found that I had pinned a few quotes more than once, I guess they are the ones that really speak to me the most. This one is from a favorite movie and I think it makes a good point. We could all use a reminder to slow down and enjoy life a little more.

Here's wishing you time to slow down and enjoy life, but be sure to have some fun along the way!

Trick or Treat

 

This Halloween both boys were very excited for their school parties and to go trick-or-treating with friends. They couldn't wait to get their costumes on and also to see what exciting costumes their classmates and friends had chosen this year.

In our house this year we had Julian disguised as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Leonardo to be exact) and Kaleb was stealthily costumed as none other than Spiderman.

 

 

 

Here are a few highlights from Julian's class party:

 

And, highlights from Kaleb's party:

 

 

Here's wishing you buckets full of excitement (and candy too)!!