The Pumpkin TAP

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Now is the time to give thanks. What to I give thanks for? Amongst other things: pumpkin, beer, and booze. Well now I need to give thank to Kegworks for the PUMPKIN TAP! Some of you may have seen it on your pinterests or facebooks, but how many of you have had the opportunity to USE it? The pumpkin tap comes in a few simple pieces that you screw together. Then, in three simple steps, you have a working pumpkin tap:

– Step 1: Hollow out pumpkin

– Step 2: casino online Cut small hole in bottom of the pumpkin & screw in the tap

– Step 3: Fill with boozy beverage of your choice

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Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

The Best Ever Pumpkin Cheesecake. Period.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

Are you scrambling to figure out the perfect dessert recipe for your Thanksgiving? Your problem is about to be 100% solved.

Last year was my first Texan Thanksgiving and first holiday with my boyfriend Rob’s family. They make a gigantic feast (feeding 30+ people) full of Thanksgiving favorites and traditional southern treats. I wanted to contribute by using my culinary skills to make a statement. A delicious statement. A statement that can only be made by the best pumpkin dessert I have ever found: Pumpkin Cheesecake with Marshmallow-Sour Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust.

I originally discovered this little slice of heaven through my food loving pal Chris, but it originated in Bon Appétit magazine a few years back. Usually I don’t like to share recipes I didn’t create myself, but there is no way I could top this cheesecake, so why bother? I promise it is the BEST. I’ve been making it for… oh, four years now, and every single person who tries it falls in love. People ask me about my pumpkin cheesecake year-round. Bring it to a holiday party and it will disappear before your eyes. Be warned, though, if you make this once, your friends and family will beg you to make it again and again every year.

And yes, that includes Rob’s mom, who asked me to bring the pumpkin cheesecake to Thanksgiving again this year. Stamp of approval from a Texan mother? Now that’s worth its weight in gold (or cream cheese).

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Marshmallow-Sour Cream Topping and Gingersnap Crust

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A Little Orange with Your Spuds?

Mashed Orange Juice Sweet Potatoes

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, every marketer and their mother is trying to sneak their products onto your holiday table. One of the most interesting press releases I received this year was from the folks at Florida Orange Juice. Their suggestion for how to add orange to the turkey day table? Whip it up with your sweet potatoes.

Is this a thing? Has anyone tried it? I’m unsure whether to be intrigued or appalled…

Mashed Orange Juice Sweet Potatoes

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Eat it, Sandra Lee: Homemade Pumpkin Pie

I confess: This Thanksgiving, I did not make the turkey.  I did not make the stuffing.  I did not make the cranberry sauce.

Here’s what I did do, though.  I make a pumpkin pie.  From scratch.  I made the crust, I baked a whole pumpkin, and with that pumpkin, I made the filling, with spices that came from individual spice jars, not a packet of “pumpkin pie spice”.  And guess what, Sandra?  It was damn good.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

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Eating Down the Fridge: Leftover Turkey Parmesan

I did not make a turkey this Thanksgiving.  I let someone else tackle that particular beast. And thus, my dear husband, suffering from leftover deprivation, cooked a whole gigantic turkey on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am not sure if it can even be called leftover turkey if it never hit the table in the first place, but in any case, come Monday, we had a whole fridge full of the stuff.  I am always trying to eat down the fridge, but I was particularly avid this time because there was no room in our itty-bitty freezer for 10 pounds of bird. If you need ideas because you’ve still got turkey sitting around yourself (or if you have the type of husband who makes a second turkey after Thanksgiving) here’s what I’ve been doing:

Round one (Monday):Barbecue Turkey Pizza.  The dough was homemade, the sauce was Sweet Baby Ray’s and the cheese was Aldi shredded mozzarella.  I promise not to judge you if you use Pillsbury crescent rolls in place of the homemade crust.

Round two (Tuesday):  Turkey Tacos. As you know, Tuesday around here is Taco Tuesday, and I would have hated to break with tradition.  For the meat, I shredded 2 c. of turkey, then put it in a pot with  1 T. chili powder, 1 T. cumin, 1 T. oregano and 1 t. salt + 1/2 c water.  Stir, simmer, enjoy with tortillas, etc.

Round three (Wednesday): Turkey Parmesan. This was the final day of the turkey takeover, not because we actually used it all, but because we just couldn’t take it any more.  What a way to end, though.

Leftover Turkey Parmesan

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Artsy Photo of the Day: Thanksgiving Leftover Nachos

Top some chips with your leftovers from Thanksgiving, (stuffing, turkey, green beans, etc…), and some cheeses and a cranberry sauce drizzle.  Your belly will thank you.

Where’s the Pumpkin?

This fall has been a rocky one for pumpkin loving people.  With the dawn of October came a Starbucks pumpkin latte shortage that left coffee fans reeling with deprivation.  With its whip cream poof and milky autumnal hue, the pumpkin spice latte has practically overtaken its ancestor (the pumpkin, lest you forget) as the national mascot of Fall.  Yet what exactly is pumpkin spice?  Homemade recipes include a tablespoon or two of actual canned pumpkin pie mixture, which presumably dissolves in hot milk and espresso to create the ghost of a gourd flavor.

However, gourd is one food group that I am not particularly keen to add to my coffee.   Cinnamon, cardamom, mint, chai—those are all semi-acceptable additions to spice up our daily mud.  But pumpkin?  Might as well be sweet potato, or butternut squash.

What, then, explains the pumpkin spice latte’s popularity?  After five seconds of sleuthing, the answer becomes clear.  The Starbucks pumpkin spice latte has no pumpkin!  Hence, “pumpkin spice.”  Pumpkin spice, according to Starbucks, consists of cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, the autumnal trifecta of spices.  In a neat twist of branding, the fall mascot is paraded in front of our eyes, cute and plump and vegetal, and then whisked away, never to be seen again.  Until Thanksgiving, that is, when “pumpkin spice” makes its encore appearance in pies, whose pumpkin content we traditionally make great effort in disguising.

If we read too deeply into the pumpkin’s plight, we can trace similarities between the New World squash and its indigenous cultivators.  But such a connection is perilous and academic, and, of course, not what anyone wants to be reminded of on the very day of celebration.  Instead, we’ll treasure our pumpkin-less lattes for a few sweet months before transitioning into the white wonderland of eggnog and peppermint, seeking snow in our beverages when it fails to appear elsewhere.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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