Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

prep time: 45 min.

Crust:
1 c. finely chopped pecans
½ c. all-purpose flour
½ c. brown sugar
¼ c. graham cracker crumbs
2 tbs. unsalted butter, softened
1 egg yolk

Filling:
1 ½ c. pumpkin puree
½ c. brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp. each ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt
1 ½ pounds deli-style cream cheese
½ c. maple syrup
2 tbs. bourbon
2 tbs. sour cream

Topping:
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. bourbon
1 tsp. granulated sugar

1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch spring form pan and line bottom and sides with parchment paper.
2. Combine all ingredients for crust in a bowl. Press mixture evenly on bottom of pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool and reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
3. Mix pumpkin puree, brown sugar, egg, spices and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat remaining filling ingredients until smooth. Combine with pumpkin mixture and pour over pre-baked crust. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until centre shows little to no movement when pan is tapped. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
5. Return oven temperature to 350°F. Mix topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Spread over cooled cheesecake and return to the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before refrigerating for a minimum of 3 hours.
6. Remove from spring form pan and peel away parchment paper before serving.

Serves 12.

I acquired this recipe from a magazine I'd never heard of before called Wish. A friend was looking at it at craft night and I saw it and had to have it. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure I will before long. I looks and sounds so yummy!

I've been tagged...

I've been thinking about this for a few days but can't come up with anything creative at the moment. So I will use dishes I have served over the years to family and friends.

The concept: to serve a welcome meal to those who read my blog. So here it goes...

We'd start with appies: Well actually I can't remember the name of these we made them one year for the Music Festival, it's mini bagels smeared with goat cheese and topped with red onion and Spinach balls.

Next would be Spinach Salad w/ strawberries and red onion.

Main Course would be Beef ribs with blueberry sauce, roasted veggies and mushroom wild rice. Alernate meat would be Bake Salmon Fillet.

For dessert I would serve your choice of Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake or Triple Layer Banana Fudge Cake.

My invitees, hmmm definitely Jen who tagged me with this meme. I've known her online for years and would love to met her in person.

Of course I'd invite Cyndi too even though I know her already, for ummm 18 years. Crazy.

I'm not sure who else to invite, so I'll invite all my readers because it would be a blast to put a real face to some of the names. There are a bunch of great women out there.

Dinner last night...

Was scrumptiuos. I'v never tried this before. Someone on one of my boards suggest tomatoes and feta as a stuffing for chicken because I had said I was in the mood for chicken. My hubby has been in the mood for bruschetta, so I opted to put tha mix in chicken.

Ingredients:

5 chicken breast halves
2 fresh tomatoes, diced
1 cup of crumbled feta
1/4 c. green onions
1 tsp. minced garlic

Pound chicken flat with a mallet. Put a spoon of mixture over chicken. Wrap chicken around mixture and fasten with tooth picks. Put remaining topping on top of chicken. Cook at 375°F for 25 minutes.

Pumpkin Fudge

I made this yesterday after seeing a post on somethingaboutapony. It is great. It turned out perfectly and set without putting in the fridge. I'm so proud of them.

Pumpkin Fudge
Submitted by: GingerRated: 4 out of 5 by 51 members
Yields: 36 servings
"Using the same method as is used in making traditional fudge, pumpkin is substituted for chocolate in this seasonal recipe for a corn syrup based treat."
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
(optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1.
Butter or grease one 8x8 inch pan.
2.
In a 3 quart saucepan, mix together sugar, milk, corn syrup, pumpkin and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling. Do not stir.
3.
When mixture registers 232 degrees F (110 degrees C) on candy thermometer, or forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water, remove pan from heat. Stir in pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, butter and nuts. Cool to lukewarm (110 degrees F or 43 degrees C on candy thermometer).
4.
Beat mixture until it is very thick and loses some of its gloss. Quickly pour into a greased eight-inch pan. When firm cut into 36 squares.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2005 Allrecipes.com

Whole Wheat Honey Banana Muffins

24 muffins
35 min 20 min prep
3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2/3 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1 cup honey
4 eggs (I substitute 1 cup of pumpkin puree)
2 cups mashed bananas
1/2 cup hot water
1. Stir together dry ingredients.
2. Beat oil and honey together; add eggs and beat well.
3. Add bananas and beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with hot water; mix well after each addition.
5. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups; bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done.
Remove from oven and cool on rack.

I had a bunch of bananas and I had put in a request for some banana recipes at a couple of my boards and they came through as always but I hadn't printed any of them, so I quickly looked through my recipe book with my handwritten favorites and found this one, I had forgotten about it. It's such a good and yummy recipe. It's from Recipe zaar. But now I have to get more brown bananas so I can try all the new banana recipes that were given. Yummy work in the future.

Harvest Pictures (some)

Stress Reliever...

My garden. As long as I can remember my dad has had a garden. It's gone from a 20 ft x 15 ft garden at our old home where I grew up to about 15- 20ft boxes by 4 feet at their new home as well as the green house. What I remember and dread about gardening is weeding. My brother and I always had to do this chore and I hated it but it didnt' stop me from wanting my own garden.

I think I equat having a garden with having a home. I almost felt lost the years I was out on my own and no garden in sight. So this is my sedon year with my two boxes to grow to my hearts content. This year proved more bountiful that the last. I think I am gaining some experience from my father's constant teachings. I think he gets a kick out of the fact that I want to garden and he helps me to accomplish this.

So this year I grew things I did last years. My tomatoes yielded quite a few of it's fruit while last years I got not a single one. My sweet peppers did a little better this year by giving me three small peppers. They didn't even have leaves last year.

I got lot's of zucchini, both regular and round. I got one round cucumber and about four lemon cucumbers.

I got maybe 40lb of potatoes from my 8 plants. 4 broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Lot's of green onion. Not as many peas, as I didn't plant as many this year. I need them in a different box I think. Beets were also plenty and my carrots actually grew to a few inches but still tiny. I'm very proud of all the food I grew for my family this year, especially my pototaes. I didn't expect to get so much but I'm happy.

I'll post some pictures when I get a chance to sit down at my computer at home.