my aunt called me Wednesday morning at work, and told me she was going to make her pineapple upside down cake, and i told her i was going to make the salad and another dessert. we were going to make more food than was probably needed but it was Thanksgiving, people could take food home.
in light of an audible needing to be called for the Thanksgiving dessert, i had kind of decided on a chocolate/hazelnut tart, but then my friend Brandi let me know about this caramel pumpkin cheesecake. i looked at the pictures and the recipe, and thought it looked really good. the tart, from the reviews i read, seemed like a love it or hate it recipe, and the cheesecake looked more difficult. i went ahead with plans to make the cheesecake (FROM SCRATCH!). i left work a little early on Wednesday so i could go to the gym (no CGG!) and then go to the store and get home in time to make at least the cheesecake. i had plans to run in the Turkey Day Race in NOLA on Thursday morning, but i was going to make it home with enough time to throw the salad together. my dad called me about the race, and asked if he could go, so i told him to meet me at my house at 7:15 figuring i’d be getting to bed by midnight.
i went to the store after the gym and after going to walmart the previous day, i wanted to get all of my ingredients for both dishes at Rouses, without having to go to walmart. i was able to find almost everything, including the same brands on the gingersnaps and pumpkin, i was on a roll. i called Brandi (she was also making the cheesecake) to get her opinion on using fat free cream cheese (we thought using half FF half regular would be okay). all i had left to get was the caramel sauce and green onions. THERE WAS NO CARAMEL SAUCE! all i could find was the shell stuff, which was not going to work for a cheesecake. i went to the other store (same chain) in town to get the green onions for the salad, and hoped they had caramel sauce. they did not. i was going to have to go to walmart.
i went home and dropped off all my stuff, then grabbed some 20% coupons to BBB and headed off. the caramel sauce at walmart was right where it was supposed to be, with the chocolate syrups. i again called Brandi to get advice on sugar free caramel and then probably said other things but the 2nd call was a blur but i do remember talking to her as i searched in vain for a hand mixer (i could not find any, i’m sure they had some, but i didn’t have time). i went over to BBB and got a mixer and a springform pan set. i finally got home about 8:45 pm i think, ate dinner, and the cheesecake making was going to commence.
the cheesecake called for crushing 3/4 of the bag of gingersnaps, however, for me that proved to be more difficult. i have no food processor, so my first course of action was to step on the bag of gingersnaps. that didn’t really work as well, so i got out my ice cream scoop and pounded the bag. again, not exactly working. then i thought i could use my blender, unfortunately 30 min after i started. the blender worked like a champ.
i failed to think of the blender also after chopping the pecans. chopping nuts is one of the most maddening things to do and i had to do it TWICE, once for the cheesecake and once for the salad. i tried to combine all of the ingredients for the crust in the blender, but the blender did not work for that. it’s a cheap blender and probably decided after the gingersnap performance that the crust was going to be too much work. so i used a bowl and a spoon to make the crust. that worked out fine, and then i molded the crust into the springform pan. at first i dumped all of the crust into the pan, but then after realizing that would not work, i added crust as i needed it to mold to the pan. i didn’t get the crust as high up on the sides as i would have liked, but hoped that wouldn’t matter.
once the crust was done it was onto the filling. i got out the new mixer and the biggest pyrex bowl i had. in went the sugar and cream cheese. mix mix mix. i mixed at the slowest setting possible and still managed to fling cream cheese onto my shirt. the cream cheese got to light and fluffy.
in went the pumpkin. the canned pumpkin was pretty dry in the can, which was a little unexpected, however, it was good because it didn’t add anything to the already rising level of filling in the bowl. mix mix mix.
in go the eggs one at a time with mixing in between. mix mix mix. in goes the heavy cream.
mix mix mix. thankfully i didn’t have to add anything more to the filling because it was almost overflowing the bowl. i poured the filling into the crust and put it in the oven about midnight. i was thinking i may have to call my dad in the morning and tell him i wasn’t doing the Turkey Day run. i was going to try though to do EVERYTHING, so i ended up setting my phone to go off 70 or so minutes later so i could sleep while the cheesecake was in the oven. i grabbed a blanket and slept on the couch. the phone went off about 1:20 and i got up and took the cheesecake out. the cracks did not bother me, because Pioneer Woman’s (where the recipe came from) cracked also, so i figured i was doing everything right.
i had to let it cool for 30 min, so i set the phone again and slept on the couch. phone went off and i kind of hit the snooze. i got up about 2:30 or so and put the caramel sauce on, then put it in the fridge. i actually got in my bed a little before 3 am. i got up around 6:45 for the run, and was ready for 7:15. my dad was of course early getting to my house, but we were able to leave in time to make it down to the race. there were so many people there, way more than the race i ran the day after Halloween. i heard someone say on the loudspeaker than over 1000 people signed up the day of the race (including my dad and i). i ran the race in 48:16, which was good considering all that had happened in the previous 12 hours. i waited on my dad to finish, and we left. i got home about 11 and had 2 hours to shower, make the salad, and get over to my aunt and uncle’s for Thanksgiving.
Comments