Well, this was just fantastic.

Betsy and I went to a very fun birthday party a few weeks ago that was a fondue party – great idea for a party. A few people were in charge of bringing large quantities of cheese and everyone else brought booze or things to dip in the cheese.

The standard fondue recipe is normally based on Gruyere or some other swiss cheese mixed with white wine and cooked until melted and smooth. It’s very good, but also a bit on the pricey side.

So, I thought it would be fun to try to come up with a fondue-ish dish that’s a bit easier on the wallet but still delivers in the flavor department.

The secret: Port wine cheese.

The second secret: Stout.

Port Wine Cheese Fondue

Yield: Serves 8-10.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

24 ounces port wine cheese
1 12 ounce stout beer
1/2 teaspoon fresh nutmeg, grated
Crusty bread for dipping

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane

Directions:

1) Pour stout into a medium pan and heat over medium heat.

2) Once stout is steaming, start whisking in port wine cheese in 3 batches. Once one batch is melted, add the next one.

3) Whisk the cheese regularly. It might look as if it is separating but eventually it will melt together with the stout and form a smooth dip.

4) Add nutmeg and turn heat down to medium-low.

5) Continue to simmer until fondue thickens, about 10 more minutes. Serve immediately with cubes of crusty bread. It reheats really well also.

Port Wine What?

Port wine cheese is not the most popular of cheeses and this is a huge travesty in my mind. Granted, it’s a bit on the processed side, but the ingredients aren’t all that bad.

It has things like cheddar cheese, cream, and yes… even port wine in it.

Really just two things.

Normally, you just eat it at room temperature because it’s spreadable, but I figured it would be just as good melted in a big pot.

I made a bunch of this, but you could easily half the recipe.

Just for cost comparison, 8 ounces of port wine cheese will run you about $4 while 8 ounces of Gruyere will run you about A MORTGAGE PAYMENT.

Processed.

Doing the Fondue

This can barely be called a recipe. Basically you just toss all the ingredients in a pot and whisk them until they are smooth and melted. Done.

I used a whole bottle of good stout. You’re saving some money on the cheese. Don’t use Miller Lite to make this.

Action shot!

Put this over medium heat and just start adding the port wine cheese in chunks until it’s melted.

A whisk helps to stir everything well.

As your port wine cheese melts, it will go through this phase where it looks like maybe it’s separating. Don’t fret. Just keep whisking and eventually it will combine with the stout and be smooth and delicious.

Melt and whisk and repeat.

The only other ingredient in this fondue besides cheese and beer is fresh nutmeg. It adds a nice, subtle spice flavor to the fondue.

I guess it’s optional, but if you happen to have some, grate it in.

Always good in fondue.

That’s pretty much all there is too it. Once your nutmeg is in, just keep simmering the cheese sauce until it’s the thickness that you want.

I simmered mine for probably ten minutes, whisking pretty regularly, and then called it good.

You can serve this with lots of stuff to dip, but cubes of good crusty bread were my personal favorite.

This makes a lot.

The nice thing about this fondue is that since you start with spreadable cheese, the fondue is actually useable even at room temperature.

This is not true for traditional fondue which turns into a big block of cheese if you take it off the burner for a few minutes.

Dip. Eat. Repeat.

I’m a huge fan of traditional fondue, but this was a really delicious (and cheap) alternative.

Even if you’re not a Wall Street Executive, now you too can enjoy the fun of dipping things in melted cheese!

BAM.

My Mom wanted to do something slightly different for the holidays this year. Instead of a huge hunk of meat like a roast or ham or something for Christmas Eve dinner, she wanted to do a bunch of smaller plates in courses.

I’m almost positive that my loving mother chose this style of meal because it forces people to sit around the table and actually talk for a longer period of time.

Luckily, I like talking and eating and cooking, so I was happy to help her plan the feast.

We settled on Italian food because it’s pretty normal for that to be served in courses. Most of the courses were very straightforward and pretty simple to make, but I was particularly proud of the pasta course. I made some delicious homemade squash ravioli that turned out better than I was expecting.

I’m far from a ravioli expert and only a quarter Italian, but after making these I feel at least a third Italian.

Winter Squash Ravioli

Yield: Serves 4 as a meal.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

Homemade Pasta:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
A pinch of salt

Filling:
1 butternut squash, roasted (~4 cups of squash)
2 shallots (about 1/3 of a cup), diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of salt and pepper

Sage Butter Sauce:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons fresh sage (about 5 leaves), minced
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons pasta water

Helpful Equipment:
Pasta Maker (or KitchenAid attachment)
Ravioli cutter

Directions:

To make Pasta:
1) Mix salt and flour and make a well on a clean counter.

2) Whisk together eggs and yolks and add them to the well.

3) Use a fork to slowly incorporate the flour with the eggs. The goal is to add just enough flour to pull the dough together. Ideally, you'll end up with a ball of dough in the middle of a well of flour as you won't need all the flour to finish the dough.

4) Knead the dough gently for a few minutes, adding more flour if it's sticky or loose. Then let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

5) Continue kneading the dough for a another 5 minutes or so, incorporating more flour as needed.

6) Wrap the dough tightly in plastic and let it rest for an hour.

To Make Filling:

1) Roast squash in a 350 degree oven for about an hour until they are fork tender.

2) In a large pan, add olive oil and cook diced shallots over medium heat. When shallots are soft, add in squash flesh. It should be very soft.

3) Cook the filling for a few minutes, mashing the squash together with the shallots.

4) Add cream, cheese, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.

5) Let filling cool before filling ravioli.

Making Ravioli:
1) Cut pasta dough into quarters and work with one quarter at a time. Pass dough through pasta maker a few times on widest setting, making sure to flour it well.

2) Crank down pasta roller and keep passing through dough until it's on the second to thinnest setting (normally 7).

3) If you have a long counter, spread the pasta sheet out and flour it heavily on the bottom so it doesn't stick to the counter. I cut my sheet in half to make it easier to work with.

4) Add a large teaspoon of squash filling spaced about an inch a part on the lower 1/3 of the pasta sheet. You should get 12-14 for a full sheet of pasta.

5) Use a roller cutter to cut up the ravioli into individual pieces.

6) Working with one ravioli at a time, dip your finger in water and run it around the edges of the ravioli filling. Then fold the dough over and press out all the air. Press down to seal the edges. Repeat with all the raviolis.

7) Use a decorative ravioli cutter to cut around the edges of each ravioli. This will help seal them completely and also make them pretty.

8) Toss ravioli on a baking sheet with some flour. Repeat with all the pasta dough.

9) Before cooking ravioli, freeze them for a few minutes so they firm up.

10) Cook ravioli in salted, boiling water for about 3-4 minutes. When they all float, they are done.

For Butter Sauce:
1) When you put your ravioli in to cook, start sauce. Add butter and herbs to a small saucepan. Melt over medium heat.

2) When butter is just starting to brown slightly, add a few spoonfuls of pasta water which will thicken the sauce a bit. Swirl it around to mix the water and butter.

3) Drain raviolis and add to plate.

4) Drizzle butter sauce over ravioli and serve with extra cheese.

Making the Filling

I kept this filling pretty simple and while I used butternut squash for it, I think you could use almost any winter squash. You want about 4 cups of roasted squash so that might mean you need to roast more than one squash if you’re using a smaller one.

One large butternut squash is plenty though.

Pretty straightforward

Roast this bad boy for about an hour at 350 degrees until it’s very tender.

In a medium pot, add the olive oil and shallots and cook for a minute or two over medium heat. Then add in the roasted squash flesh and mash everything together. It’s okay if there are some lumps.

Stir in the cream, cheese, nutmeg, and salt and pepper and your filling is done!

Be sure to let this cool completely before filling your ravioli.

A bit chunky is fine.

Making The Pasta

My pasta making has come a long way. If you go way back to my first attempt at making pasta, you’ll notice that I had no freakin’ idea what I was doing.

I still only have a vague idea as to what I’m doing, but it seems to work for me these days so I’m just letting it happen.

Basically, I just mix together my flour and salt and then make a big well on the counter. Then I pour in my eggs which I’ve lightly beaten (upper right).

Next, I use a fork to just slowly incorporate flour into the egg mixture. After a few minutes of this, the eggs will form a loose dough. Then you can start gently kneading it (bottom left).

As you knead it, the dough will get sticky and you’ll want to work in more flour which is convenient because you will be kneading the dough in a big pile of flour.

After maybe 8 minutes of kneading, you’ll have a nice firm ball of dough and probably plenty of flour left over, which is fine (bottom right).

Once your dough is made, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest for about an hour (conveniently the time it takes to make the filling).

Now you can make some pasta!

Making pasta is pretty straightforward assuming you have a decent pasta roller. Work with a quarter of your dough at a time just to make it easier.

Feed it through the pasta roller a few times on the widest setting and then start cranking it down until it gets to the second-to-smallest setting (normally 7).

The key to making pasta that I’ve found is to really flour it up. It’s pretty hard to use too much flour because extra flour will just fall off.

This is some pretty perfect looking pasta if you ask me.

Artsy pasta shot.

Making the Ravioli

Assuming you have a long counter, you can just stretch the finished pasta sheet out in one long piece. I cut my pasta sheet in half though just to make it easier to work with.

Again, use a lot of flour on the bottom of the sheet so it doesn’t stick as you make the ravioli.

Then just dollop out large teaspoon sized lumps of filling on the pasta sheet. Make sure that you leave about an inch between the ravioli and also put the filling in the bottom third of the ravioli since we are going to fold them over.

A good teaspoon will help.

At this point, use a ravioli cutter to slice up the ravioli into individual pieces. It’s actually important to slice them before you seal them I’ve found because it lets you get a better seal on each ravioli.

Then, work with one ravioli at a time. Dip your fingers in some water and wet around the filling. Then fold the pasta over and seal it up! Try to press out as much air from the filling as possible.

These are looking really good.

Lookin' good.

Then take your ravioli cutter and run it around the edge of each ravioli. This will make the ravioli pretty, but will also make it really sealed well.

This is an optional step, but I think it helps.

The Important Part

The important part about making ravioli (I think) is to not freak out about them. Unless you’re working in a professional kitchen and people are paying $20 to eat 6 of your ravioli, they don’t need to be perfect.

They won’t be perfect. As long as they are sealed though, they will cook fine and still be delicious.

I graded myself on my first batch of ravioli. Even my “F” ravioli tasted delicious.

By the way, it is important to toss them in flour as you finish them just to make sure they don’t stick.

 A Quick Salad

A quick interlude on the ravioli thing. I just wanted to show you guys this delicious spinach salad that we served before the ravioli. Super simple ingredients: spinach, goat cheese, pomegranate seeds, and toasted walnuts. I also whisked together a quick apple cider vinaigrette that we served with this that was just out of this world.

No big deal.

Back to Ravioli

Once your ravioli are made, you can either cook them now or freeze them for later. Even if you are cooking them now, I recommend freezing them for a few minutes just to firm them up a bit.

When you are ready to cook the ravioli, just toss them in salted boiling water for about 3-4 minutes. When all the ravioli are floating, they are done.

Meanwhile you can work on the sauce which is just a few ingredients: butter, sage, red pepper flakes.

Hard to go wrong here...

As the ravioli cook, melt the butter down over medium heat and swirl all these ingredients together. I like to add in a few spoonfuls of the pasta water also which thickens the sauce a bit.

Drain the ravioli well, put a few on a plate, and drizzle the butter sauce over the top.

This is about as good as it gets if you ask me.

CHOMP!

People are intimidated by ravioli and I get that. They seem complicated. You have to make the dough, fill each individual thing, seal them up, and worry about presentation.

It’s a lot, but the key thing to remember is that they don’t have to be perfect. Once your guests try that first bite, they won’t care what they look like.

They will be delicious.

The other nice thing about ravioli is that you can make them way in advance. In fact, when I made these for our Christmas Eve feast, I made them the day before and just froze them until I needed them.

Are you a homemade ravioli fan? Have you ever made it yourself? Leave a comment!

A mess of awesome.

Have you ever had something that you know you should be doing regularly but you just can’t find time to get to it? I call this my procrastithing. I have many of them.

I think most people would say their procrastithing is something like going to the gym.

I have a bunch, but one of my procrastithings these days is listening to The Splendid Table podcast. That might sound ridiculous, but as a food blogger, it’s something that I should really be listening to every week. For some reason though, I have a hard time finding the time.

Of course, every time I do listen to it, I freakin’ love it. They talk about everything I want to hear about. I especially like the part of every show where listeners call in with super-random food or cooking questions and the host, Lynn, always has an amazing answer for every problem.

Recently, a guy called in and said something like, “I’m cooking brunch for 50 people. It needs to be filling, fast, hot, and all that good stuff.” It was a tough one. Her answer was something I had never thought of: Savory bread pudding.

As soon as the words came out of my speakers, I knew I had to make it.

Savory Bread Pudding

Yield: 8x8 dish.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + Chill Time

Ingredients:

4-5 pieces of stale bread, torn into large pieces
1.5-2 cups various cheeses, I used cheddar and goat cheese
1-2 cups vegetables, I used a roasted red pepper and 1/2 an onion
4 large eggs
2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon butter, for dish
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Butter an 8x8 baking dish. Tear pieces of stale bread into large chunks and layer them in the buttered dish. If you don't have any really stale bread, toast your bread for 10 minutes in a 300 degree oven to dry it out.

2) Add any sort of grated or crumbled cheese to the top of the bread until it just barely covers the bread. Two cups will be more than enough. I used a mix of cheddar and goat cheese.

3) Add a few handfuls of leftover veggies (or meat) to the dish. You can use almost any fresh vegetable. I used a roasted red pepper and 1/2 an onion.

4) In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs and milk and pour the mixture over the bread and vegetables.

5) Cover the dish and let it rest for at least 15 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.

6) Season the dish with salt and pepper and a tiny pinch of ground nutmeg.

7) Bake the dish at 350 degrees covered for 20 minutes and then uncovered for 30 minutes. The dish is done when the custard in the center are set.

8) Let cool for a minute or two and then serve immediately!

Recipe adapted from a Splendid Table recipe.

What the Custard?

Just like any bread pudding, you need a good custard. Depending on the size of your dish and how much bread you have on hand, you might need more or less custard than the recipe above.

Always shoot for two eggs for every one cup of milk. That’ll make for a really good custard.

Just milk and eggs, baby.

Just whisk the eggs with the milk and set it aside until you need it.

The Pudding Parts

The best part about this recipe is its flexibility. I’ve only made it once, but I could tell immediately that you can put almost anything in it. You can use almost any kind of bread, any kind of cheese, and any kind of vegetable.

It’s the perfect leftover dish.

The one key to the dish is to make sure you have really stale bread. This will make sure that the bread can absorb a lot of the custard mixture. If you don’t have stale bread, no big deal. Just stick your bread in a 300 degree oven for about 10 minutes and it’ll dry it out quickly.

Then just break your bread into pieces and layer it into the bottom of a buttered baking dish.

Then cover the bread with whatever cheese you’re using. I went with cheddar and some goat cheese I have left over from my macaroni and (goat) cheese recipe.

Toast that bread if it isn't really stale.

The Vegetables

As I mentioned, you can shove almost any veggies you have around (cooked or raw) in this dish. I went with 1/2 an onion and a roasted red pepper. I’m having a hard time thinking of something you couldn’t put in this though. Almost anything goes.

Just dice up whatever veggies you want to use and toss them on.

You can use almost any veggie.

Then just pour your custard mixture right into your dish!

Action shot!

Give it a Rest

It’s very important to let this dish sit for at least 15 minutes, but ideally an hour, before baking it. You could make it the night before you needed it and just stick it in the fridge overnight. That would be fantastic.

When you are ready to bake it, season it well with salt and pepper and a pinch of ground nutmeg. The nutmeg will really bring out the cheese flavors. It works well, trust me.

Nutmeg is a secret ingredient.

Baking the Dish

Bake this awesome thing at 350 degrees. I recommend baking it for 20 minutes covered in foil and then uncovered for about 30 minutes or until the custard is set in the middle. It should get slightly crusty and browned around the edges.

This will make your house smell awesome!

Let this rest for a few minutes once it comes out of the oven and then scoop into it.

It’s absolutely packed with flavor.

This is a really great dish.

I could easily see how you could feed a bunch of people with this method. Just make these the day before the event and toss them all in the oven.

Done deal.

Does anyone else listen to The Splendid Table podcast? They do good work!

Two of my favorite things!

My Mother-in-Law was in town for a visit last weekend. Unlike the standard mother-in-law stereotype, we actually get along very well and I think we all had a great weekend. We did some hiking in Moab and around the Grand Junction area, took Porter for many walks, and most importantly, ate our faces off.

She’s a pretty serious Macheesmo reader so I thought she’d like to try something experimental that I was hoping would be good enough to post.

These pancakes fit the bill just fine. I’ve done a number of pancake recipes over the years, but these were up there on the list for me.

Carrot Cake Pancakes

Yield: 8 pancakes

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 1/4 Cups milk
1/4 Cup (half a stick) unsalted butter, melted (plus some for cooking)
2 Cups carrots, grated
1/4 Teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 Teaspoon ground cloves
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Peel and Grate carrots.

2) Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add spices and carrots and stir.

3) Mix in wet ingredients including melted butter in a separate bowl.

4) Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until a batter forms. A thinner batter will make for thinner pancakes. Thicker batter for thicker cakes.

5) Heat a griddle or skillet over medium heat and add a dab of butter.

6) Ladle out 1/3-1/2 Cup of batter per pancake.

7) Cook until bubbles form on the top of the cake, then flip, about 2-3 minutes per side.

8) Pancakes should be golden brown on both sides, but not soggy in the middle.

9) Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Making the Batter

I used my basic pancake batter for this recipe. The only real substitution I made to the recipe itself was to use brown sugar instead of regular sugar.

Standard pancake fare.

But, of course, I added in a few key ingredients to make this like carrot cake.

For starters, obviously, we need some carrots. I used three medium carrots that I peeled and grated. It worked out to almost exactly two cups of grated carrots.

Good for ya!

I also added a whole bunch of spices that are pretty common in carrot cakes.

You don’t want to overdo the spices though. I used a very small amount of each one, but they add a nice little flavor kick to the pancakes. I would say the only essential ones are vanilla, cinnamon and ginger. If you don’t have cloves or nutmeg, you can go without.

While there are whole cloves pictured below, you should use ground cloves obviously. Finding a whole clove in a pancake wouldn’t be fun.

Standard carrot cake stuff

I mixed up all my dry ingredients first, then added in my spices and carrots. Mix the wet ingredients separately and finally stirr them into the dry ingredients.

Pancake batter is a personal preference thing. The thicker the batter, the thicker the pancakes will be.

I like my batter relatively thin so the pancakes aren’t like 1/2 inch thick.

Feel free to go heavy on the carrots

Cooking the pancakes

When it comes to pancakes, always remember two things:

1) Do a test run. Then adjust the batter if you need to by adding more milk or more flour. Typically, I tend to make my batter too thick, then I’ll do a test and decide to thin it out a bit.

2) Assume you’ll mess up the first one. This recipe makes 8 pretty good sized pancakes, but count on 6-7 pancakes that are serve-able unless you are a pancake wizard.

When you’re ready to cook add some butter to a skillet or griddle and ladle out about 1/3-1/2 cup of batter for each cake.

When the cakes start to bubble on top, it’s time to flip!

On the griddle!

The cakes should be golden brown on both sides and cooked all the way through. I usually keep my heat on about medium for pancakes to avoid scorching them and it works out to about 2-3 minutes per side.

For some reason I was in a groove on this day (I usually perform best under pressure), so all my pancakes turned out really nicely.

They look like normal pancakes from a distance, but then if you take a bite you find…

Chomp!

Serve these guys with some butter and maple syrup and a few strips of bacon and you’ll have one good brunch on your hands.

This is the kind of brunch that can impress in-laws folks.

That’s gotta count for something!

Administrative Note: While I normally do new posts on Monday, I’m taking this Monday off for Memorial Day. If this upsets you, then you are spending too much time on the Internet! Get outside during the long weekend!

Lots of apple going on here!

If you’re reading this than one of three things went down today:

1) The rapture is upon us. You have not been saved, like me, and will be forced to suffer on this Earth until it ends five months from now.
2) The rapture is upon us. You were saved (congrats) and they have Internet connectivity in Heaven (double congrats).
3) The rapture didn’t happen.

Whatever the outcome, I figured I would make muffins.

Because even unsaved humans like myself enjoy a good muffin now and then!

Triple Apple Muffins

Yield: 10-12 muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Cup rolled oats
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 Cup butter, melted
1 large egg
1 Cup apple sauce
1 Cup apple juice
1 Teaspoon vanilla
1 large apple (Gala works well), peeled, cored and diced
Raw sugar, optional topping

Directions:

1) Peel, core, and dice the apple.

2) Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl and fold in apple pieces.

3) Mix wet ingredients together in a separate bowl.

4) Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir to combine.

5) Spoon mixture into a buttered muffin tin. Fill up the muffins until they overflow slightly. They won't rise that much.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until they are cooked through.

7) Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Apple Packed!

Ok. Enough Rapture jokes. In reality, the idea for these muffins came to me because we had some extra apples laying around and I figured I’d add them to some muffins. Once I was thinking apples though, I realized that apples come in many different forms, so I can add it to muffins in multiple ways!

Three different ways to be exact.

Apples. Three ways!

I’m not sure why I photographed two apples in the above photo. I only used one for the recipe.

Start by mixing all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Once they are combined well, add in your apples. Definitely peel and core your apple for this recipe. I kept my apples in reasonably big chunks because I liked the idea of having some real apple pieces in the muffins.

Fold in the apples once the dry mixture is ready.

Nice apple chunks.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix together the apple juice, apple sauce, butter, egg, and vanilla.

You’ll end up with a kind of strange slurry mixture that, well, smells like apples.

Strange brew....

Mix the wet stuff into the dry stuff and your batter is ready to go!

All mixed up.

A Muffin Fail

Ok. You guys know that I’m always honest. The first time I made these muffins they didn’t work out. They were really bland and they didn’t really resemble muffins at all.

More like large hockey pucks. See?

Fail alert.

So I adjusted the recipe a bit and the one above is the good version.

When you’re ready to bake these guys, butter your muffin tin and fill them up until they overflow a bit. These muffins don’t rise as much as some.

So you can really fill up the tins.

Try it again...

Sprinkle on a bit of raw sugar if you want and bake these guys for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Let them cool for a few minutes when they come out.

Now these are more like it!

Could already tell these were better.

My second attempt of these muffins turned out ten times better.

For starters, they actually look like muffins!

One other angle...

These had a nice light flavor, but the apple flavor was pretty intense. I don’t think it would be possible to have a more apple-flavored muffin.

So, in short, if you’re an apple fan, then these are for you!

I like butter.

It’s not quite zucchini season yet. And what I mean by “zucchini season” is the point where you are hurling large zucchini out your car at passers by. Anything to get rid of the things.

If you really want to get rid of your zucchini this year though, what you can do is make these muffins. Then give these out. If someone has one of these bad boys, they’ll be chasing you down the street – begging for more.

I decided to not plant zucchini this year in my garden because I figure I can trade for whatever zucchini I need. And I’ll need some to make more of these as soon as possible.

Zucchini Walnut Muffins

Yield: 12-14 muffins

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup ground flax seed (optional, but if you skip it increase flour to 3 cups)
1 Cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 Cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla
2 Teaspoons baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
1 Teaspoon nutmeg
1 Cup Walnuts
2 small zucchini (or 1 large), shredded. Should be about 3 cups.

Directions:

1) Melt butter and add to a bowl along with brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Stir until combined well.

2) Add flour, baking soda and flax to the batter and stir until mixed well. Try not to over-mix the batter though.

3) Fold in shredded zucchini and walnuts.

4) Butter (or spray with nonstick spray) muffin tins.

5) Fill tins to the top with batter.

6) Bake muffins at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes until they are lightly browned and a tester comes out clean.

7) Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

Making the Batter

This is a pretty straightforward muffin batter to make. I’ll cite the obvious that this recipe has two whole sticks of butter in it. I think you could get away with a stick and a half if you want, but I don’t really recommend it. They are perfect just like this.

The basics.

Start by melting the butter and letting it cool slightly. Then add it to a large bowl along with the sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg. Stir this all together until the sugar is well-dissolved.

Then stir in your eggs, one at a time.

Then add your flax (if you’re using it) and flour and baking soda and stir to combine. Try not to over-mix it. Keep it nice and light.

Once your base batter is ready, stir in all of your shredded zucchini. It’ll look like a lot, but it works.

Zucchini livin' the dream!

Then fold in your walnuts and your batter is ready for baking!

I had to force myself to stop eating this...

Baking the muffins

To prepare your muffin tins, spray them with a bit of nonstick spray or give them a very light coating of butter. I’ll give you two guesses for what I did. The first one doesn’t count.

When you fill your muffin cups for these guys, you can fill them completely up. They won’t rise as much as some muffins because of all the add-ins.

Note: If you end up with an odd number of muffins, be sure to fill any empty muffin tins with water before baking.

Fill them to the top!

Bake these guys at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes until they are nicely browned on top. A testing skewer should come out clean.

Let them cool for a few minutes and then either serve them warm or let them cool completely. If you have some wire racks, they work best for cooling.

About as good as zucchini gets.

You do have to be careful with these muffins though.

You might get sued for serving people something that sounds healthy (zucchini, walnuts, flax) in what is essentially a delivery system for butter and brown sugar.

Good stuff!

I ran a test on Twitter last week that pretty much confirmed what I thought was true. I sent out a quick Tweet asking for people to send me their favorite granola ingredients. Here’s a quick sampling of the dozen or so responses I got:

- @jessicabair: Honey & Blueberries
– @lowrha: Maple syrup, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and dried strawberries.
– @gardenvarieties: coconut, dried fig & apricot, pecans.
– @outlawdiva: Sesame seeds, oats, flax seeds, walnuts, cashews, raisins (all colors), currants, honey, maple syrup.
– @onmaggiesfarm: Maple syrup, almonds, unsweetened coconut. I mix up the flavor with spices: cardamom, nutmeg, ginger.
– @melissamauk: Applesauce, pepitas, brown rice syrup and oats.

Honestly, it was probably my most responded to tweet ever. People have opinions about granola and all their opinions are different!

So I called my theory confirmed… my theory, of course, being that you can put almost anything in granola.

Because of this, it’s the perfect way to clean out your pantry and use up extra nuts, spices, and fruits. So let’s make some!

Kitchen Sink Granola

Yield: 9-10 Cups

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

6 Cups rolled oats
2 Cups of any nuts that you have on hand (I used peanuts, almonds, and pecans)
1 Cup Sweetener (maple syrup, honey, agave, rice syrup, etc)
1-2 Cups dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, cherries, etc)
1 Teaspoon cinnamon (always a good idea)
1 Teaspoon salt (necessary)
Up two 2 Teaspoons of other spices (cardamom, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, etc.)
Various seeds (poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds...)
Up to 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1) Grind any whole spices you are using and roughly chop nuts.

2) Add spices, seeds, and nuts to oats and mix well to combine.

3) Add sweetener to mixture and stir well.

4) Spread granola out onto two baking sheets. Make sure there is an even layer on both sheets.

5) Bake granola at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 3-5 minutes. Keep a really close eye on it.

6) Remove granola once it's golden brown and let it cool for a few minutes.

7) Add dried fruit to granola and let it cool completely.

8) Stir in a large plastic bag and serve with yogurt or milk.

Cleaning house

This might surprise you, but I have a pretty ridiculous pantry on any given day. Because I make a very wide range of dishes here on Macheesmo, I have a drawer full of almost any spice you could want, a full inventory of nuts and seeds, various dried fruits, and a ton of other random stuff.

And sometimes, I need to clean house. This is the perfect recipe for such a task. Out of all the things in my kitchen sink granola, I only bought two items: Oats and agave syrup. I had honey and maple syrup in my pantry also, but I wanted to try agave so I picked some up.

So I encourage you to use what you have for this recipe and not copy me exactly. It’ll be good. Trust me.

Go crazy.

The Method

While it isn’t really all that important what you put in your granola, it is important how you make it. You’re shooting for a nice crunchy granola that’s toasted, but not burned. It’s a very fine line.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, I needed to grind up some whole spices. If you have them, use them, otherwise don’t. I wouldn’t buy new spices just for this recipe frankly.

All are pretty optional.

Mix your oats with all the spices and seeds very well. I had a spice attack for this version!

Get it?

The Agave

I’ve never used agave syrup before and it’s becoming the talk of the town so I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon.

Since agave is the same stuff that Tequila is made from, I was pretty sure this syrup would make me puke and blackout, but it did nothing of the sort. Probably because it doesn’t have alcohol in it, but still. I was worried.

Really the only purchase I made...

In actuality, it’s a really good syrup. It has a very unique flavor and it isn’t quite as sweet as honey. I think it worked great for granola.

Once I had all my spices, nuts, and seeds mixed in with my oats, I added my agave and stirred it all together!

The sweet stuff.

Baking the granola

Ok. The tricky part is baking this stuff. Spoon out the granola mixture onto two baking sheets and try to make sure the granola is in a pretty even layer over the sheets. This will make sure it cooks evenly.

Nice and even.

Bake this stuff at 300 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Stir it every few minutes, five at the most. This is really important because the edges will cook slightly faster than the center and if you don’t stir it often, you’ll end up with burned edges.

As it gets closer to being done, check it very frequently, every three minutes or so. You definitely don’t want to burn the stuff, but you do want it to be golden brown. It’s a bit tricky, but as long as you keep an eye on it, you should be okay.

In short, this is not a recipe where you can walk away from the kitchen and do something else for 30 minutes and expect to come back to anything edible.

But if you keep an eye on it and stir it frequently, you’ll be well rewarded with some beautiful granola.

Careful not to burn it!

The Fruits

Once your granola comes out of the oven, let it cool for 5-10 minutes and then toss in any dried fruit that you want to add to it. Again, I added some dried cherries and cranberries because that’s what I had on hand.

Some dried fruit.

Once the granola is cooled completely you can store it in a large freezer bag.

This stuff will keep for weeks without a problem.

It blends in pretty well actually!

I like to eat mine with milk, but Betsy likes hers with yogurt.

It also happens that I made granola that almost exactly matches the counters in my kitchen.

Am I right or what?

I like it as a cereal.

If your pantries are looking slightly overrun these days or if you’re just sick of your normal breakfasts, this is a really good way to use stuff up and change stuff up!

So, I have to ask. What’s your favorite granola ingredients? Leave a comment!

Very delicious.

I’ve had this recipe in my back pocket for a while now and I finally got around to whipping it together. The first time I had this dish was when Betsy and I hosted a brunch a while ago for some of her law school friends. One of them brought this deliciously wonderful thing that I’d never had before (Hi Westra!) and I made a mental note to get the recipe from her.

Fast forward five months and I finally got around to A) getting the recipe and B) making it for you all.

There’s a few things I love about this dish beyond the amazing flavor. First, it’s dumb simple to make. Second, it keeps and reheats fantastically which means you can make it on a Sunday and eat it all week long for breakfast… assuming it lasts that long of course.

Baked Oatmeal

Yield: 8x8 dish

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour + overnight soak

Ingredients:

1/3 Cup butter, melted
2 large eggs
3/4 Cups brown sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla
1 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Teaspoon nutmeg
1 Cup + 2 Tablespoons milk
3 Cups rolled oats
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) Grease or butter a 9x9 baking pan and then whisk together your eggs and brown sugar in the pan.

2) Melt butter on LOW in the microwave and add it to the egg mixture with all the ingredients excep the oats. Whisk well to combine.

3) Stir in oats and make sure everything has an even consistency.

4) Cover and refrigerate overnight.

5) The next morning, bake the oatmeal at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until the center is set.

6) Let the oatmeal cool for a few minutes and then serve it with warm milk and, if you want, fun toppings like brown sugar, dried fruit, or nuts.

Planning is Important

This recipe is really easy, but it does require you to let the dish set in the fridge OVERNIGHT. This is non-negotiable people. Just plan accordingly. The good news is that it means you do all the work the night before so you don’t have to dirty any dishes the next morning.

The star of the show!

Most of the ingredients are pretty straightforward and you should have most of them if you have even a halfway stocked pantry. If you can, be sure to get fresh nutmeg and grate it yourself. It makes all the difference in the world.

Backup players.

Prepping the Oatmeal.

Grease or butter your pan really well and then add your eggs and brown sugar to the pan. Whisk them together until the brown sugar is evenly distributed and there aren’t a lot of lumps.

Healthy!

Melt your butter in the microwave on LOW so it doesn’t get too hot and then add it to the egg mixture along with all of your other ingredients except the oats.

Mix this all together in the same dish!

A whisk is your tool of choice here.

Finally, add your oats to the party. Make sure to stir everything together. It should have an nice and even consistency.

This is not rocket science.

This needs to chill overnight! Plan accordingly.

Cool it down

Cover this and let it chill out in your fridge overnight. This will give the oats plenty of time to start absorbing some of the moisture and flavor. Plus it lets you do the work the night before! If you have guests over the next morning, it’ll make you look like a magician!

Baking the Oatmeal

When you wake-up the next morning all you have to do is bake this dish at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes or until the center is set. I baked mine for 40 minutes on the dot and it turned out perfectly.

Yum.

Let it cool for a minute or two and then serve it up in a bowl. If you want to go crazy you could of course add all kinds of toppings to it like dried fruit, nuts, or even some more brown sugar (like me). The key part though is to warm some milk while your oatmeal is cooking and then pour the milk over your baked oatmeal.

It’s pretty heavenly.

The warm milk is really key.

Really delicious and simple recipe. Even though it’s an overnight recipe, the actual work involved is minutes. It re-heats great as well. It’ll store in the fridge for at least a week without a problem.

Or you could just slice off a cube of it cold and have yourself a dessert granola bar!

Just to show spanakopita who’s boss, I decided to make two different varieties: A larger spinach pie version and smaller individual spanakopitas that are easily frozen for later.

My results were much improved this time around!

A slice of pie!

Before I get down to business with this recipe, let me thank everyone who personally emailed me recipes. And who knew I had so many Greek readers! I got about 20 different spanakopita recipes. That’s pretty awesome stuff.

And I promptly decided to not follow any of them and instead try to meld them all into one master spanakopita recipe. So if you sent me a recipe, you’ll probably find little pieces that are yours, but it probably won’t look exactly like yours. But I would’ve never been able to get this far without all the recipes so thanks again spanakopita fiends.

Spanakopita: Two Ways

Yield: Makes a 9X9 pie and also 6 individual spanakopitas.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds spinach (I got this from 4 bunches of fresh spinach, but you could also use frozen spinach)
2 leeks, washed and chopped
1 bunch of scallions, chopped
4 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large egg
1/3 Cup chopped dill
1/2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 Cup ricotta cheese
1 pound feta cheese, well crumbled
Salt and pepper to taste
1 package phyllo dough or if you are making it, about 20 sheets
2/3 Cups of clarified butter or olive oil

Helpful Equipment:
Pastry brush! (Kind of a must have when working with phyllo dough)

Directions:

1) Make sure spinach is clean and then blanch for a minute in simmering salted water. Drain the spinach and move it to some paper towels. Let it cool briefly and then squeeze out as much moisture as possible from the spinach.

2) Then coarsely chop the spinach.

3) Chop leeks and scallions and saute them for a minute or two over medium-high heat with a drizzle of olive oil. You just want them to soften up a bit.

4) Add leeks to chopped spinach and stir in all other filling ingredients.

FOR THE PIE:

1) In a 9X9 baking dish, brush the bottom with a light coating of clarified butter and fit in your first layer of phyllo dough. If it rips a bit, that's fine! The additional layers will cover your problems.

2) After your first layer of dough, brush the surface well with butter and lay down your second piece perpendicular to the first - just to make sure the layers are even on the sides. I did 8 layers on the bottom, but I heard anywhere from 4-10 in the recipes I read.

3) After you build a firm, solid base, poke it with a fork a few times so steam can escape. Then fill the shell with a good amount of filling. I filled it about 1/2 an inch high.

4) Then add two more layers of phyllo dough.

5) Then another 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch of filling.

6) Finally add 4 more pieces of phyllo on top. Again, you always always brush with butter in between layers! When you're done, you can fold over the edges toward the center so they don't stick out too much. Also, you can pre-cut through all the layers to make it easier to get out. I just cut mine into 4 large pieces!

7) Bake this at 375 for about 35-40 minutes! It will be completely delicious.

FOR INDIVIDUAL PIES:

1) Take one sheet of dough and brush it well with butter.

2) Fold it in half horizontally and brush that surface with butter.

3) Add a few Tablespoons of filling to the bottom right corner of the phyllo.

4) Then fold the left corner over the filling to form a triangle!

5) Continue to fold triangle up to form a triangle of filled dough. Brush with more butter and add to a baking sheet.

6) Freeze the wraps or bake them for 25-30 minutes at 375.

Making the Filling

I used fresh spinach for this batch, but I’m fairly certain you wouldn’t lose much by using frozen spinach. I wouldn’t try canned though. Popeye can keep the stuff.

If you’re using fresh though, make sure your spinach is very clean and washed.

You could use frozen.

Then blanch it for a literally a minute, using a colander, in simmering salted water. When you pull it out of the water, set the hot spinach in a few paper towels. Bunch of the paper towels and (over the sink) squeeze out as much moisture as you can.

Then give the stuff a coarse chop!

Actually, this is a lot of spinach.

Once you’re spinach is done, chop up your leeks and scallions. Again, be sure to wash everything well. The leeks especially have a tendency to accumulate dirt between the layers. I like to split them down the middle and then wash them to get in all the layers.

Chopping leeks!

Some of the recipes I read called for the leeks and scallions (if they were used) to be raw, but I decided to saute them for just a minute or two to bring out the flavors and soften them a bit. I sauteed them along with the garlic in about 3 Tablespoons of olive oil.

Just a minute or two people.

Once those are cooked you can add them to the bowl with the chopped spinach.

Now let’s talk cheese. You could definitely use just feta for this and I think that would be just fine, but I decided to do some mixing and added a tiny portion of ricotta cheese.

That's right. Ricotta baby.

The filling is pretty easy to finish at this point. Just mix together your cheeses with your vegetables and then stir in your egg, spices, and salt and pepper.

The only thing to remember on the cheese is to make sure you crumble your feta up very well before adding it in. Spend a few minutes breaking it up into tiny pieces.

This stuff was delicious just like this!

Don't tell anyone... I snuck a few spoonfuls.

Dealing with Phyllo

Phyllo is fickle. The real problem with it is that because it’s so incredibly thin, it dries out very fast. So if you aren’t careful, by the end of your spanakopita adventure, your phyllo will be impossible to work with. It will just flake apart in your hands. Also, be sure to read the package to make sure your phyllo dough is thawed enough to work with!

The way to make sure it stays flexible is to keep your phyllo dough under a barely moist dish towel. Be careful to just barely get it wet (damp is the word that comes to mind) or it will fuse all your phyllo sheets together!

Making the pie

Basically, the spanakopita pie is layers of phyllo dough, brushed with butter or olive oil in between and packed full of spinach filling.

This was my method:

1) In a 9X9 baking dish, brush the bottom with a light coating of clarified butter and fit in your first layer of phyllo dough. If it rips a bit, that’s fine! The additional layers will cover your problems. (Top left)

2) After your first layer of dough, brush the surface well with butter and lay down your second piece perpendicular to the first – just to make sure the layers are even on the sides. I did 8 layers on the bottom, but I heard anywhere from 4-10 in the recipes I read. (Top right)

3) After you build a firm, solid base, poke it with a fork a few times so steam can escape. Then fill the shell with a good amount of filling. I filled it about 1/2 an inch high. (Mid left)

4) Then add two more layers of phyllo dough. (Mid right)

5) Then another 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch of filling. (Bottom left)

6) Finally add 4 more pieces of phyllo on top. Again, you always always brush with butter in between layers! When you’re done, you can fold over the edges toward the center so they don’t stick out too much. Also, you can pre-cut through all the layers to make it easier to get out. I just cut mine into 4 large pieces! (Bottom right)

Get it?

Bake this at 375 for about 35-40 minutes! It will be completely delicious.

Making individual Spanakopitas

Now for a different method.

1) Take one sheet of dough and brush it well with butter. (Top left)
2) Fold it in half horizontally and brush that surface with butter. (Top right)
3) Add a few Tablespoons of filling to the bottom right corner of the phyllo. (Bottom left)
4) Then fold the left corner over the filling to form a triangle! (Bottom right)

Perfect for snacking!

Then fold that formed triangle up and continue to fold up and over to make a nice-sized triangle of enclosed dough with filling! As you make these, brush them with yet more oil or butter and add them to a baking sheet.

These keep excellently in the freezer.

Stick these in the freezer to freeze completely through and then take them out and wrap them in foil or plastic wrap and stick them all in a large sealed plastic bag to prevent freezer burn. They will keep in the freezer for a long time!

I made my individual spanakopitas while my larger pie cooked. This was the finished flaky version:

So delicious.

On the individual guys, you don’t even need to thaw them before cooking. Just toss them in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes and they will puff up, crisp up, and be as delicious as on day one!

Nice.

So that’s it! That was a long post, but hopefully it was useful! Both of these versions were completely delicious and so much better than my original fail.

Thanks again to everyone who sent me recipe ideas!

Don’t get me wrong, I can do healthy, but if I’m going to make a pie or a tart or something, I generally want it to be delicious and not half-assed. So I’m very skeptical about light recipes, but it did look really good so I gave it a shot and tried to restrain myself from making too many adjustments to the recipe.

Not quite as light as the original recipe...

There were a few changes that I couldn’t help but make though. First, they call it a tart. To me, it’s a cheesecake. Semantics I guess. Second, I’m sorry but their crust recipe was just not going to work for me. I tried it and I couldn’t get it to stick together.

Also, I don’t believe in low fat cream cheese. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel!

Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

Yield: One Pie.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + cooling time

Ingredients:

Crust: (From How to Cook Everything)
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (about two sheets crumbled)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 Cup sugar

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons bourbon (plus some for drinkin'!)
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon ground allspice

Whipped Cream:
1/3 Cup cold heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Helpful Equipment:
Springform Pan

Directions:

1) Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

2) Start loading crust into springform pan. Use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together. Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

3) Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

4) For filling, beat together cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all other ingredients.

5) Once pie crust has cooled down, you can pour filling into crust!

6) Set pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pour 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven to create a water bath.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side.

8) Cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

9) Whisk all the whip cream ingredients together and then dollop it on top!

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Making the Crust

I really did try to make the crust from the original recipe and I couldn’t get it to work out. I didn’t want to risk it falling apart so I just used a recipe that I’ve used before. It’s pretty surefire.

A simple, normal graham cracker crust.

Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

Clumping is good.

Start loading it into your springform pan (or you can use a normal pie pan I guess). One trick I learned, I think from Alton Brown, is to use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together.

Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

Get it?

Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

Making the filling

I used nice bourbon for the recipe not because I think it’s necessarily important for the pie, but because I intend to drink the leftovers and so I bought the good stuff.

You’ll need a variety of other ingredients as well. The only other change, besides the crust, that I made to this recipe was to sub in real cream cheese. I don’t trust low fat cream cheese! Give me the real stuff please.

Filling ingredients.

Start by beating together your cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all your other ingredients.

It’s a pretty quick filling to pull together actually. I used whole spices and ground them up myself, but feel free to just use ground stuff if that’s what you have available.

Yum.

Once your pie crust has cooled down, you can pour your filling into your crust!

Don't worry. The filling is pretty runny at this point.

Baking the cheesecake

You need to bake this in a water bath to ensure that your filling sets and stays moist. I did this by setting my pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pouring 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven.

The water will form steam and help the pie set up nicely.

Water bath!

Bake this creation at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side. Again cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

Eating the Cheesecake!

Ok. There aren’t really any instructions on how to eat it. You know how to do that. What’s nice about the springform pan is that you can take out the entire cheesecake which makes it really easy to cut and serve.

Some tiny pieces of my crust fell off in the process, but in general it held together fine.

Spring form pans are pretty sweet.

If you are making your own whipped cream, just whisk all the above ingredients together and then dollop it on top! Honestly, the cheesecake is pretty good without the whipped cream also so if you’re looking to really save some calories that might be the place to do it.

How pretty is that?!

Ok… so I stayed pretty true to the recipe. I think my changes definitely improve the final product (especially the crust). Granted I didn’t taste them side by side, but I just have a feeling that my version is worth the few extra calories.

I can say this because, well, my version turned out delicious.

I think this would be a pretty great alternative to the classic pumpkin pie for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast.