SPICED PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE with ORANGE-GINGERSNAP CRUST

Mr Cardinal, what do you think of my pumpkin cheesecake?  Is it rich, sweet and moist, with a velvety cream cheese softness and with pumpkin and cinnamon-spice overtones?  Is it all that and more, is it exactly what a pumpkin cheesecake should look and taste like?  I think Mr Cardinal is saying yes. 

  

Last year this recipe came out kind of mushy. Good taste but mushy texture. Lovely topping, lovely crust, but the pumpkin and cheese part secretly wanted to be soup and were only pretending at being a cheesecake. I learned a valuable lesson: don't rush when baking! Give the cheesecake enough time to cool down. And if you make pumpkin cheesecake only once a year, like I do, rely on your notes for the recipe and don't try to wing it. Because if a year has gone by since you last made this, chances are you won't remember what you're supposed to be winging.

  

Ah, the joy a two-year-old brings to one's life...  Gracie and dad Joe opening up Christmas presents!

Our Layla celebrates her birthday on December 26th.  That's one of the several cakes she got for her 17th birthday.  And my nephew, Alex, would not let go of the Bauer hockey stick I gave him for Christmas. He taped it right away and wanted to use it right away. His dad (my brother) had to hide it so that we could all sit down to dinner.

Starting as early as late August, a large variety of pumpkin flavoured foods begin to make their appearance. There's pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin ice cream, and I've even run into pumpkin-and-spice flavoured almonds. But in my estimation, when it comes to pumpkin, nothing beats the comforting taste of pumpkin cheesecake. I make one either at Thanksgiving or Christmas, both being perfect holidays to enjoy the taste of pumpkin. The recipe I use is one I've stayed with for a long time because it makes a sumptuous, rich, and magnificent cheesecake! It has a smooth and velvety texture into which is incorporated the subtle flavour of pumpkin. Complementary spices and an orange flavoured gingersnap crust harmonise together to enhance the taste of this cheesecake. The topping is made with vanilla-scented sour cream. What could be better? Here's the recipe:

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Orange-Gingersnap Crust

    For the crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup crushed good quality gingersnap cookies
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

    For the pumpkin cheesecake filling:
2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not seasoned pie filling)
2 tablespoons unflavoured gelatine
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
3 (8-ounce) packets of cream cheese
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
6 large eggs
2  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    For the sour cream topping:  
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

    To make the crust:

• Have all the ingredients ready and at room temperature. Place the rack in the centre of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.  Keep the oven on while making the cake. 
• Grease a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the outside well, using 2 layers of heavy-duty aluminium foil.  
• In a medium-sized bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, crushed ginger cookies, and melted butter.  (If you like, save about 2 tablespoons of the mixture to use as decoration for the top of the cheesecake). 
• Press the crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and sides of the pan.  Bake for 10 minutes, until the crust is almost firm when pressed. Transfer to a wire rack to let cool while the filling is being prepared.

To make the filling:

• Wrap the springform pan base with aluminium foil; the cheesecake will be baked in a water bath, therefore the foil will keep water from entering the pan. 
• Remove the excess moisture from the pumpkin: line a large colander with several layers of paper towels. Spoon the pumpkin onto the towels. Top with more layers of paper towels and press down to squeeze as much liquid as possible from the pumpkin. Repeat until the pumpkin resembles a paste. 
• In a microwave-safe bowl add the water and over it sprinkle the gelatine. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and microwave for 1 minute. Make sure the gelatine is completely dissolved. Stir again and set aside.
• In the bowl of a mixer combine the cream cheese, the sugars, the ginger, the cinnamon and the allspice. Beat on low, gradually increasing the speed to medium. Beat for 5 minutes, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is smooth.   
• Add the pumpkin, beating until incorporated. 
• Beat in the vanilla and the cream-gelatine mixture.  Keep beating until everything is mixed well.   
• Pour the filling into the crust, spreading it evenly. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles. Place in a roasting pan and transfer into the preheated oven. Add hot water to the roasting pan, enough so that it comes about 1 inch up the sides of the (foil covered) springform pan.  
• Bake for half an hour. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F and continue baking about 60 minutes longer or until the filling barely jiggles in the centre and springs back when the surface is tapped. 
• Turn off the oven and transfer the cake to a wire rack.  For safety, don't remove the pan from the hot water until the water has cooled down. 
• Once removed from the water, let the cheesecake stand for 15 minutes and then run a paring knife around its circumference to loosen it from the sides of the pan.  This will help prevent the cheesecake from cracking.  Cover it and let it cool overnight.  

It's Christmas morning, and it's time to put some makeup on this cheesecake!

• Remove from the springform pan and spread the sour cream topping over the cheesecake. (Recipe for the topping is below). Additional decorations can be used, such as pecans or cookie crumbs. 

    To make the sour cream topping:

In a small bowl add the sour cream, the brown sugar and the vanilla.  Mix thoroughly, until the sugar has dissolved and the topping is well blended.

This recipe is based on one from "The All American Dessert Book," by Nancy Baggett © 2005 (pp. 80-82).

CORNBREAD TURKEYS FOR THANKSGIVING!!!

Cute.  That's the word for it.  Really cute.  Such a jolly thing to have at the Thanksgiving table!  It's cornbread baked inside a turkey-shaped mould. One corny turkey! I found this recipe in a Thanksgiving issue of Martha Stewart's magazine, and since I am too, too corny myself, I had to make it. First off I needed to buy a mould. I had no idea which store to visit that would still be selling one, considering we were really close to Thanksgiving. I thought of checking Amazon.com, and there it was! Amazon had the exact mould I needed! I ordered it and it arrived in three days, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  

Here is a link to the pan I ordered: Nordic Ware 3D Turkey Cake Pan

It's a sturdy, heavy pan, no problem to deal with, and the cornbread did not stick to it at all. When the turkeys were made, I was able to easily stand both halves on their own, and they stayed that way, decorating the buffet table until the time came to eat them. 

Cute, very decorative, and very easy to make. Martha Stewart's recipe is wonderful! This is the best cornbread, with actual corns kernels in it, with chopped sweet peppers, buttermilk and cheddar cheese and thankfully, with very little sugar; I love the sweetness of corn muffins but dislike sweet cornbread. Here's a prerfect cornbread:

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups corn kernels
2 shallots minced
1 red sweet Italian pepper, minced 
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal 
1 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cups buttermilk, well shaken
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350.  Coat the pans with cooking spray.  Melt one stick of butter and let cool.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet.  Cook the corn, shallots and peppers, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 6 minutes.

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, black pepper, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the eggs. Whisk the eggs into the flour mixture.  

Whisk together the melted butter and buttermilk and then stir it into the flour mixture, along with the corn mixture and the cheddar cheese.  Mix until well combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.  Smooth the tops and place in the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Insert a cake tester into the centre and make sure it comes out clean before taking the cornbread turkeys out of the oven.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  

I'll say it again: Cute! And one more thing: Delicious!

GREEK STYLE GREEN BEANS BRAISED IN TOMATO SAUCE. FASOLAKIA YIAHNI, A TADITIONAL RECIPE AND IT'S VEGAN, TOO!!!

It's around 11:30 pm, on Thanksgiving Eve and I am taking some time off from cooking. Just enough time to begin writing down my recipe for fasolakia. You see, I decided that there should be very little cooking left to do tomorrow, Thanksgiving day. This way I can mingle with family, and as most of the cooking will have already been done, Thanksgiving Day will unfold smoother and less hurried for us all. I'm going for simple and delicious this year. Uncomplicated recipes, easy to make, tasty to eat. Okay, now I have to trot into the kitchen, do one final thing (finish cooking the fasolakia), and then I'll be ready for tomorrow. Be right back.

Fosolakia is a popular Greek recipe, very easy to make and most often enjoyed in summer when green beans come fresh from the farm. Our Thanksgiving dinner is comprised of all the traditional fare, but it also contains this recipe as a remembrance of our roots. I make it with flat Italian green beans, which taste great and are similar to the varieties found in Greece. This time of year I buy the frozen kind because these green beans are not available fresh in November.

The dried oregano and parsley are a must in this recipe, and a touch of thyme and rosemary are popular add-ons. While cooking, I hum the amazing Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, by Simon and Garfunkel. The formal title of the song is Scarborough Fair. How I love Art Garfunkel's voice!!! And I love Paul Simon's counterpoint as he sings the ant-war Canticle. 

Simon & Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair/Canticle

It's good company, this song. 

 

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup chopped onions

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 pounds flat Italian green beans, frozen

1 can (28-ounces/800gr) San Marzano whole tomatoes

salt to taste 

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
some sage

a sprig of rosemary
a few sprigs of thyme

1 cup vegetable broth or water (plus more as needed)

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté until soft. Halfway through cooking the onions add the garlic and mix.
• Add all of the other ingredients and mix well. 
• The liquid should almost cover the green beans. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover and cook for about one hour, until the green beans are soft and fork-tender.
• If the liquid evaporates before cooking is finished, you will need to add just a little bit more to the pan. You can use vegetable broth or water. The end result should have the green beans look juicy but not floating in liquid. Serve them with the pan juices, and enjoy them. 
• This recipe can be used as a side dish and makes enough to feed a crowd but it can be cut in half and served as a main meal for about four people.

I didn't make it back to my computer on Thanksgiving Eve. Too tired! This entry was left to be finished and posted today, late at night, long after Thanksgiving was over. What can I say? The green beans came out really tasty. However, I can't write that all went well on Thanksgiving Day. 

My father, 87 years old and suffering from dementia, was having a difficult time of it and that sent the whole house into an uproar. So much for a smooth and unhurried Thanksgiving. It turned out to be very stressful. 

Over and over in my mind, I think of the famous words the poet Robert Burns set down in 1785. How true they still ring today, in 2010:

"The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often askew,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!
Still you are blest, compared with me!

The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!"

(excerpt from "To a Mouse," by Robert Burns, Standard English Translation)

THE LOST TURKEY NAMED BOB, by ALEX

Alex, my eight-year-old nephew who is in the third grade, wrote an essay as a class assignment. It's about Bob, a turkey who escaped from the truck that was transporting him to Washington DC. I suppose Bob didn't want to join all the other turkeys that inhabit our fair capital. Good for him! You will see after reading the story, that Bob found better accommodations.

After we assembled around the table for Thanksgiving dinner, my brother read to us "The lost turkey named Bob." Alex, the author of the piece was too bashful to read it to us himself. We listened, we applauded, and filled with mirth we began our dinner. I am thankful for my family and friends and I wish that each Thanksgiving I spend on this earth finds me just a bit wiser than the one before.

And now, here is the story of...

"The Lost Turkey Named Bob:"
written by Alex, who is in the 3rd grade.

     ON a nice November night a turkey named Bob was wandering in the very creepy woods. Bob did not know what was in the woods. But one day he found a house. The owner's name was ALEX. "Gobble, Gobble," said Bob. Alex let him in.

Meanwhile at a base somewhere in Canada...

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

"A turkey has escaped!"

"Where is it?" asked the commander. "How did it escape?" "Did it climb out of the truck?" "NOW WHAT DO WE DO?!"

Back at Alex's house the turkey was asleep safe and sound. The agents in Canada were planning what to do. "Okay does anyone know where Bob is?"

No one had any idea!

Bob was on his way to Washington D.C. to be the guest of honor at the White House when he jumped from the back of the truck. Alex was happy to have him in his house instead. Alex was a great host. The agents searched. They never found Alex's house.

It's lucky Alex only eats chicken.

The END.

When he is not playing host to Bob the turkey, Alex loves to play ice hockey.

Alex at summer ice hockey camp, with New Jersey Devils goaltender Marty Brodeur.

Summer 2009, Alex and dad Tasos, at hockey camp, post-practice.

Bob went on to have kids! 

CRANBERRY SALAD GELATINE MOULD

Experiment with different shapes of moulds. You can also use a Bundt cake mould. 

I'm going retro with this recipe, but I am hoping that one day it will come back into style. When I first made cranberry salad mould, it was still au courant, but that was a while ago. Since then it has become an absolute staple at our Thanksgiving table. It's both sweet and tart, it's crunchy, and above all, it's really, really fruity. It reminds me of a Waldorf salad with cranberries. It's very retro! It's also very colourful, and it's very much requested by family come Thanksgiving. I discovered the recipe in a magazine many years ago, and I made it by following the recipe precisely. Well, as the years went by I changed a bit of this, I added a bit of that, and then I went ahead and lost the original recipe. So I guess the current version is half borrowed, half invented and half taken from someplace else. Yes, in my world of mathematics there can sometimes exist three halves to one whole. Anyway, everyone loves this cranberry mould, and every Thanksgiving folks make sure I'll be making it. Sometimes, someone asks for the recipe. My reply is usually a perplexed smile, not because I don't want to give away any archival recipe secrets, but because I don't have a specific cranberry mould recipe written down. So now that I have my very own blog, and now that Thanksgiving is upon us, and now that I am getting ready to make my cranberry mould for the big day, I've decided to get the ingredients together and to write down the recipe while I am making it. This is a really good idea. After all, I am getting older, and who knows, I might start forgetting things. What would happen to Thanksgiving if I couldn't remember how to make a decent cranberry mould? People would be sad. No one will love me during the holidays. The stress would be unbearable. Here's the recipe, written down and saved for posterity.

Ingredients:

2 (14 ounces each) cans of whole berry cranberry sauce
2 cups pure cranberry juice, no sugar 
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 (3 ounces each) packages of raspberry flavoured Jell-O
2 tablespoons of unflavoured gelatine
1/2 cup fresh pineapple cut up into small pieces 
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1medium apple peeled, cored, and chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup of celery

Directions:

• Buy that nice, really tart organic cranberry juice that contains nothing but cranberries. That one is the best!  
• In a large saucepan combine the cranberry juice with the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the Jell-O and the gelatine, stirring with a whisk until they completely dissolve into the juice.
• To this add the cranberry sauce and keep stirring until it breaks up and mixes well with the warm liquid. Pour into a large glass container and place in the refrigerator. Keep an eye on it, and take it out of the refrigerator when it's almost set. 

• Now comes the time to mix with the rest of the ingredients. They must be mixed in when the sauce is almost set. This way they will adhere to the gelatine, and they will be evenly distributed. If you add them when the sauce is still in its liquid state, they will float to the top and stay there.
• Fold the pineapple into the cold cranberry sauce, gently mixing it well.  Add a little of the pineapple juice, not all of it.
• Add all the other ingredients one by one until they are well incorporated into that beautiful red mush.
• After everything is mixed well, pour it into a nice mould and place it back in the refrigerator.  Allow it to set completely.  It should be left in overnight.
• When you are ready to serve it, take the mould out of the refrigerator and let it rest in a warm bath for just a few minutes and only a few minutes. This will allow the gelatine to loosen easily from the mould. If it stays in the hot water a little too long, it will begin to liquefy.  
• Place a serving plate on top of the mould and carefully invert the salad onto the plate. It will look beautiful! You can decorate your serving plate with some greens or with additional fruit.  If you do not serve this right away, you can plate it a short while before dinner and then place it back in the refrigerator until it's time to bring it to the table. 
• The ingredients listed here fill my mould plus allow for a bit to be leftover. I cool that portion in a plain container and save it for later. What you see plated here tends to disappear quickly.

 I decorated with mums from my garden and with kumquats.  I used one of my favourite colours for mums, white with a blush of purple! Beautiful! The blush of purple didn't quite come through in the photo, but trust me, it looked wonderful; a beautiful variety of mum!