This Will Make People Like You

Cindarella will be in Peru for Thanksgiving, so she did what any other rational and reasonable person would do: planned a full, over the top Thanksgiving dinner for her friends. The two best cooks in my life are Cindarella and Aunt LifeSaver, so I consider myself extremely lucky that I get to have a meal prepared by each this year. The only thing better than Thanksgiving is two Thanksgivings.

Just like last year, I was put on gravy duty. Cindarella considers the gravy to be her white whale, so for the second year in a row, I was summoned by her to the kitchen and handed a whisk. While stirring away, I was quickly reminded of the infamous gravy incident of last year. I had consumed an entire pitcher of sangria as I helped Cindarella out in the kitchen; it is a mortal weakness of mine and I just cannot pass up sangria. As I prepared a huge vessel of gravy in a bubbling roasting pan, I dropped my whisk into the molten liquid. Without a seconds thought, I plunged my hand into the pan and grabbed my whisk. Cindarella stood by, mouth agape, and suggested that maybe I should lay off the sauce while cooking. I obliged, but I don’t think that was what our forefathers would have wanted.

(Another memory from last Thanksgiving that makes me feel warm and tingly inside: an understandably angry ex-Vet hitting on me, raging about the war in Iraq and insistently showing me his chest, which was adorned with the two scariest clown tattoos I have ever seen. This was not the Thanksgiving of my youth.)

Luckily, I had more to contribute to this years (pre) Thanksgiving than drunken shenanigans and gravy. I have been promising a pumpkin cheesecake recipe to my Aunt Carol and this was the perfect time to take one for a test drive. This is an adapted version of one circulating on the interwebs claiming to be “the Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake”. I changed the crust recipe, amped up the spices and added ginger, and topped with pecans. I must admit; it was incredible. The steps may seem daunting, but it is not complicated to put this together. The results will make you the most loved member of your Thanksgiving party. Well, I may have loved Cindarella’s bourbon sweet potatoes a little more, but still, make this. I implore you.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Adapted from RecipeZaar

Crust:

1 1/2 cups cinnamon graham crackers, made into crumbs

5 1/2 Tbsp. butter, melted

2 tsp. sugar

Filling:

3- 8oz.pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. allspice

½ cup halved pecans

Homemade whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Make the crust by combining the graham cracker crumbs with the melted butter and 1 T sugar in a medium bowl.
3. Stir well enough to coat all of the crumbs with the butter, but not so much as to turn the mixture into paste. Keep it crumbly.
4. Put foil partway up the outside part of an 8-inch springform pan.
5. Press the crumbs onto the bottom and about two-thirds of the way up the sides of the springform pan. You don’t want the crust to form all of the way up the back of each slice of cheesecake.
6. Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then set aside until you are ready to fill it.
7. Boil a kettle of water.
8. In a large mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, 1 C sugar, and vanilla.
9. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.
10. Add the pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
11. Pour the filling into the pan.
12. Put boiled water in a pan and put on the rack below the cake pan. (this prevents excessive cracking of the cake, though I usually get one crack.)
13. Bake for 60-70 minutes. The top will turn a bit darker at this point.
14. Remove from the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool.
15. After it has cooled about 20 minutes, press pecan halves around the edges.
16. When the cheesecake has come to room temperature, put it into the refrigerator. (this took about 2.5 hours)
17. When the cheesecake has chilled, remove the pan sides and cut the cake into 8 equal pieces.
18. Serve with a generous portion of whipped cream on top.

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