easy pumpkin cheesecake

If you are looking for a simple and tasty Thanksgiving dessert, here is one to try.

I followed the recipe except for two things. I made my own crust because I didn’t want to go buy a crust, and I accidently baked the cheesecake for 20 minutes longer than I was supposed to. 

I burned two batches of cookies that way this week too. I need to start setting timers, even if someone is taking a nap.

Anyways, even with the extra oven time it still seemed to be perfect, and disappeared very quickly.

I got this recipe from the Kraft website. Go here for the original.

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

2 Pkgs. (8 oz) cream cheese softened (I used reduced fat)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Dash of ground cloves

Dash of ground nutmeg

1 graham cracker crust

 

Preheat oven to 325. Beat cream cheese sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on a medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended.

Remove one cup of batter. Stir in pumpkin and spices.

Pour remaining batter into crust. Top with pumpkin batter.

Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Top with some whipped cream and enjoy!

lucky number seven

Kimi just turned seven! (She is not a cake person, and chose cherry birthday-pie which we all heartily endorsed.)

She had an exciting day, and thought she was the luckiest girl ever because she got to see both sets of grandparents in one day.

To celebrate we took a little family trip to Mars. (via the planetarium)

Good thing they can hold their breath.

That’s one small step for Ian…

don’t judge a soup by it’s color

I thought I should throw in a healthy recipe with all the unhealthy ones I’ve posted lately.  This soup is one of those few comfort foods that I can love and not feel guilty eating. A half a cup has 198 calories, 11 g of fiber, 15 g of protein, and only a trace of saturated fat.

I could happily add this soup to my menu weekly, but so far Kimi and Scott are my only soup-loving converts so I only get to rotate it through occasionally. I’m not going to tell you what Ian calls it. One of these days I'll win the rest of them over. Until then, it's just more leftovers for me.

This brings the question to my mind, “how on earth did Mom get us to love soup like this?”  I guess since I was a kid who refused to eat macaroni and cheese I am getting my just desserts of picky eaters.


Hearty Split Pea Soup
(recipe from The Taste of Home Cookbook)
Prep: 15 minutes CookTime: 1 1/2 hours
1 package (16 ounces) split peas
8 cups water
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 cups cubed fully cooked lean ham or cooked corned beef
1/2 cup chopped celery
5 teaspoons reduced-sodium chicken bullion granules
1 teaspoon dried majoram
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1/2 - 1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
In a large Dutch oven or soup kettle, combine all ingredients; bring to boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until peas and vegetables are tender.
Yield: 12 servings (3 quarts)
(This reheats very well and I can eat it for lunch all week.)

more fall fun

Just because we had some of this going on over the weekend, doesn’t mean I’m ready for it.
Not that long ago, when we heard Jack Frost was on his way, we were outside doing this:

Natalie was happy to finally be given full freedom to pick any “mato” she could find.

And there were leaves just waiting to be played in.

They’re still are actually. Snow makes it hard to rake.

I am ready to declare Fall my favorite season. At least until Spring comes back around.

PIE night idea and a scrumptious pie

We have a little monthly tradition at our house called “PIE Night” that I wanted to share with you guys.
A few years ago, within a short period of time, I heard repeatedly the counsel and read about the fathers of the home doing regular personal interviews with the children. When I hear something that many times I figure there is a reason.
The suggestions were also to start with young children so that it would be established before they hit the more difficult years where they will need to be able to talk to us.
In an Ensign I saw the suggestion for “PIE Night.” The woman who wrote about it said they had come up with an monthly night, where they had Personal Interviews for Everyone (PIE) with Dad,  while Mom and kids could make a pie to enjoy as a family.
The idea included baking so that’s all it took for me.
So we picked every fast Sunday to have a PIE night. The kids look forward to it, and wouldn’t let us forget if we tried. It’s not just the dessert though, they also like getting individual time with Dad. For now he just keeps it simple and asks about what’s going on in their lives. They love it.
We’ve also tried many baked pies, cream pies, ice cream pies, and have called anything baked in a pie plate, a pie (like brownies.) I have also been known to buy a frozen pie or two. We’re not picky.
So anyways, this has become something fun at our house, and hopefully it’s one more thing we can do help our kids make it in this world.

Now about this particular pie:

The pie pictured about is Crunchy Caramel Apple pie that I first tried making a few years ago. Some woman won the a Good Morning America pie bake-off with it and its not hard to see why.
The crunchy-buttery topping on the pie is wonderful, and the rest of the pie is good too.  I have made it with bottled pie filling, and with fresh apples. The fresh apples were better, but the bottled was definitely a good shortcut if you are short on time.
Also, if you put the nuts on when there is about 10-20 minutes left of bake time they get a great roasted flavor.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

(I originally took this from the Good Morning America website)
For Pie:
pastry for single crust pie
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples
 
Crumb Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
 
Final Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
 
1. Prepare pie dough as directed. Place in pie plate & crimp edge
2. In large mixing bowl stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, & salt
3. Add apple slices & gently toss until they are coated well
4. Transfer mixture to pie crust
5. For Crumb Topping; stir together brown sugar, flour, and oats
6. Cut in butter until the topping resembles coarse crumbs
7. Sprinkle over pie
8. Cover edges with foil
9. Bake in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes, remove foil, bake an additional 25-30 minutes
10. Remove from oven, sprinkle with nuts & drizzle with caramel
11. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm or room temperature.

pumpkin cookies

This is one of my very favorite recipes, and one of my favorite cookies. It is probably also one of the healthiest cookie recipes I have.

I originally got this recipe off of my sister-in-law, Tiffany’s, blog a few years ago. We’ve tried variations of this recipe with chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, raisins, and cream cheese frosting.

I think the chocolate chip is the best combination.

Ian likes sprinkles with some frosting.

pumpkin cookies

(This recipe makes about 3 dozen. It can be doubled or halved successfully. That has come in handy when I am just using up canned pumpkin. If you half it, just use a whole egg.)

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

1 egg

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 bag of chocolate chips

Mix first five ingredients together.

In a separate bowl, combine next 6 ingredients.

Mix pumpkin mixture with flour mixture.

Fold in chocolate chips. (or something else, or leave them out and frost the cookies later)

Drop teaspoonful's of the the batter onto greased cookie sheets

Bake 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes.

halloweening

Every sister dreams of doing stuff like this to her little sister. Usually they aren’t so compliant though.

Not that I would know. (Elizabeth, you don’t have to comment about that. )

We had trunk-or-treating, Halloween parades, class parties, and then the actual trick-or-treating. It was one fun-filled couple of days.

Can I just say that I find bobbing-for-apples completely disgusting? That didn’t stop my kids from doing it over, and over, and over.

Then I found Natalie over at a bowl just lapping up the water like a dog. I guess she needed something to help wash her doughnut down. Yummy.

Ian changed his mind many times over the month and at the last minute put on the costume I wanted in the first place. Sigh. I also wish I would have gotten pictures of him in all the other costumes he had been wearing over the weeks.  He wanted me to put dots on his face so he would be a convincing Indiana Jones. He looked good with stubble.

Then the kids were ready to go. Especially the fairy who wouldn’t stop flitting for a picture.

We couldn’t have a asked for a better fall night. It was a perfect Halloween.

punkins

Pumpkin may be my favorite fruit. They are good to eat, and lots of fun.

This year we decorated, carved, glittered, and lit them.

Natalie and Ian got to decorate some with friends. Natalie REALLY liked the glitter.

At our house, Cali and Kimi did their pumpkins without help and I was quite impressed.

Ian and I worked together on his. He’s good at supervising.

Ian (I) did the ghosts, Cali did the “welcome” and kitty-bat, and Kimi did the ghoul coming out of a coffin.

national candy corn day

Happy National Candy Corn Day!

I bet you have all been counting down to this day. Or maybe not.

Seems like people either love or hate this tri-colored confection.

I grew up thinking it was only useful for breaking off the white tips and sticking them on my teeth as fangs.

Alas, I have developed a fondness for this stuff and am munching on some as I write. (It is a holiday after all.)

Go to this article if you want to read some more fun facts, or watch a funny video about this misunderstood candy.  Like this quote from Erin Zimmer at Serious Eats:

“If you drank a bottle of Karo Syrup and ate a candle, that’s what candy corn would taste like.”

So which camp do you fall in? Love or hate?

(Don’t worry, we can still be friends if you don’t like it.)

what are you watching on halloween?

I like to watch a movie on Halloween after the kids are in bed.

(Someone has to stay up and go through all that candy to make sure it is tasty safe.)

But here is my problem:  I don’t like movies that are too scary, evil, gory, gross, adult, and/or stupid. That definitely limits things.

A google search of clean, scary movies gave me a quite laughable list (the Exorcist?) and I guess it should have because the two adjectives are kind of in opposition of each other. But I would still like to see something new.

Anyways, here are some movies on my list of Halloween movies past, and if anyone else wants to suggest one worth watching let me know.

So this is the classic that I grew up watching on Halloween. It still creeps me out, and I always feel like writing “Narek” on steamy windows and mirrors.

This is another classic from my Halloweens past. Alfred Hitchcock knows how to scare me without freaking me out.

This is what I have watched the last couple years. Plenty of comic relief, but it does make me watch my neighbors a little more closely.

This movie is just scary enough for me, a little too scary for my younger children.

So this is another classic that I LOVE. It is in black and white, but Cary Grant looks even more handsome that way. It is a great funny/scary movie about cute little murdering aunts and a completely psychotic murdering brother. Who knew the two could mix so well.

On the other end of the spectrum:  I HATE THIS MOVIE! I am not even sure why, but maybe it creeped me out during some too impressionable years.

My list of movies I hated would probably be pretty long, now that I think about it, so I had better just leave it at that.

So do you have one that you love or hate to watch?

fall soccer

We finished up with Fall soccer recently, and it was Kimi’s first time playing. We decided to rotate seasonally and Cali gets to play in the Springs.

I didn’t know how excited she was for it until I heard her mentioning it in family prayers. That is where I know I am getting the truth.

She had a good time, but the most excitement seemed to come from what snack they got after the game.

She’s definitely my daughter.

a fall favorite

I know I didn’t get the best picture, but I had to snap one before there was nothing to take pictures of anymore. This is one of my favorite things to eat, but this is also not one of my healthy recipes so it doesn’t get to come out of my recipe files more than once a year.

This is just a great doctored cake mix recipe that is moist and yummy.  I love pumpkin, and have a few more of my favorite pumpkin recipes to share.

This is also my favorite recipe for cream cheese frosting, which, as I have stated before, could probably get me to eat a brick if it was slathered on.

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

1 package Yellow cake mix

1 package (4 serving size) vanilla pudding

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup water

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ground Cloves

(You can substitute 1 Tbsp of pumpkin pie spice for the cinnamon and cloves, but it does make the flavor slightly different. I prefer it because I like nutmeg.)

Preheat oven to 350

Beat all ingredients together in large bowl with electric mixer on low speed just until moist, scraping the sides of the bowl frequently.

Beat on medium speed for two minutes.

Pour into a greased pan.

Bake 9x13 for 30-35 minutes or a Bundt pan for 50-55 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

Spread with Cream Cheese Frosting when completely cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened (butter is better)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

4 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and almond extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended.

Add sugar, gradually beating until well blended after each addition.

(The frosting is soft when warm, and easier to spread, but sets up in the fridge.)

girly-girl

I took this picture one day in commemoration of Natalie sitting still long enough for me to give her pig-tails for the first time.
Today she sang me a little song about the colors of the rainbow, but her song  went a little something like this,
“Red, yellow, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink, pink.”
Can you guess her favorite color?
(Ian guessed blue.)

farewell to tino

So, Tino has actually been an official sister-missionary for over a month now, but I just found these pictures on my memory card, and didn’t think she would mind. Plus, it was probably good to wait to stick a giant picture of her in my post until she couldn’t comment about it.

The pictures made me remember how good it is to go back to my homeland in the summertime.

And I remembered how good it is to see some of our favorite cousins.

And I remembered how much we wish we could see them all more.

And I remembered how good that ice cream tasted.

And I remembered how much this girl makes me smile.

(Cheese!)

We appreciate Tino for going on a mission so that we could have that little get-together.