Welcome back!  Today, we have a delicious Thanksgiving treat: Pumpkin Cheesecake! Pumpkin is a wonderful seasonal ingredient that works well in many contexts, and since we had already made a Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake , we decided to incorporate pumpkin in a more traditional-style cheesecake this year. This cheesecake features a spiced, nutty crust in addition to the smooth, creamy filling for a rich blend of flavors and textures. Pumpkin Cheesecake Makes a 7" cheesecake Ingredients: Crust: 30 grams pecans 70 grams cookies such as Biscoff or Speculoos 3 tablespoons melted butter 1/4 teaspoon salt Filling: 2 boxes (16 ounces) cream cheese, softened 300 grams steamed pumpkin (we used a kabocha pumpkin) 2 eggs 40 grams Greek yogurt 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon corn starch 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon salt Directions: Prepare the crust: Add the pecans and cookies into a large food processor or...

 Welcome back!  Today, we have another pumpkin variation: this time with bread pudding ! Bread pudding is a dish that is highly customizable, and so it was easy to adapt it for a seasonal, Thanksgiving version. This recipe uses pumpkin butter, which is a bit of a deceiving name, as there's no butter or any sort of dairy involved in this ingredient. In fact, it's really just pumpkin with some sugar, honey, and spices, but it functions incredibly well in adding flavor and sweetness to the dish! Pumpkin Butter Bread Pudding Makes 8 ramekins Ingredients: 8 slices bread, cubed into about 1" cubes 6 eggs 2 cups milk 1/2 cup heavy cream (or more milk if you want) 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup spiced pumpkin butter (just add 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice if your pumpkin butter is not spiced) Chopped pecans Turbinado sugar Directions: Crack the eggs in a bowl and beat them evenly. One at a time, mix in the milk, heavy cream, vanilla, and pumpkin butter until you get one even mixture. Evenl...

Welcome back!  Today, we have a fun seasonal variation on the Basque Cheesecake , featuring pumpkin! It's similar to the original, with the burnt-looking top and the rugged edges all there, but it has its own differences that make it really unique.  Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake Makes a 7 inch cheesecake Ingredients: 1 box (8 ounces) cream cheese 200 grams pumpkin, peeled, seeded, and steamed (we used kabocha pumpkins) 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tablespoon flour 1/4 cup heavy cream 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Spices (you can substitute for 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice): 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder 1/8 teaspoon ginger powder 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon allspice Directions: After peeling, seeding, and steaming, mash the pumpkin with a fork. If you want an even smoother texture, you can pass the pumpkin mash through a sieve to press out the large chunks. Add the cream cheese and pumpkin into the food processor and pulse a few times to mix the two ingredi...

Welcome back!  Today, we have another classic holiday feast side: stuffing! Traditionally, this is stuffed in the turkey to fill up the insides, which helps the turkey retain moisture and enhances the flavor. However, since we didn't cook a whole turkey at once, there was no turkey to stuff, so instead of making stuffing to stuff the turkey with, we decided that this stuffing would just be to stuff our bellies with. Stuffing Ingredients: 1 pound cornbread 1/2 pound baguette or sourdough bread 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons butter 1 medium onion (1 cup), chopped 3 stalks celery (1/2 cup), chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves 1/4 cup parsley, chopped 1 egg 1 3/4 cup broth 1/3 cup white wine Directions: Cut the cornbread and bread into cubes. You should have about 7 cups of bread. Bake these in the oven at 325°F for about 20-30 minutes to dry them. In a pan, saute the onion, celery, and garlic with the olive oil and ...

Welcome back!  Today, we have a recipe for a casserole that's commonly featured as a side dish for Thanksgiving feasts: Green Bean Casserole! It was first created by a Campbell's Soup worker, featuring their cream of mushroom soup. Nowadays, a large portion of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup sales go towards the making of this casserole, which is quite interesting. However, since we wanted to make something as fresh and gourmet as possible, we didn't use the canned soup and instead made our own "soup" to go with the beans. Green Bean Casserole Ingredients: 1 pound green beans, trimmed and cut 1 shallot, chopped 1 clove garlic, chopped 3 slices of bacon, chopped 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 2 cup half & half 1/2 cup cheddar cheese (optional) French fried onions Salt and pepper to taste Directions: In a pot of salt water, blanch the green beans for 6 minutes until fork tender. Once done, take these out and rinse them ...

Welcome back!  Today, we have the Thanksgiving staple: Turkey! Even though it's past Thanksgiving, this is a great turkey recipe that you could use for Christmas or whenever you want to eat turkey! This recipe really brings out the natural flavor of the turkey as it doesn't add too many additional seasonings or spices. Plus, it's quick to make compared to cooking a whole turkey, and you don't need to prepare the whole turkey at once, making it better for smaller meals. Instant Pot Turkey Breast Plus the whole Thanksgiving spread! Ingredients: 1 bone-in turkey breast (about 5 pounds) 1 1/2 cup broth 1/2 cup white wine Salt and pepper to taste Herbs and spices of your choice Chopped vegetables like onions, celery, or carrot to put in the broth Directions: Thaw the turkey. Once thawed, prepare the turkey by rubbing with salt, pepper, and whatever herbs and spices you like. Let this rest overnight. The next day, you can cook the turkey. Pour the broth and white wine into th...

Welcome back!  Today, we have a key Thanksgiving dish: Cranberry Sauce! Cranberries really are interesting; they aren't the most appetizing when they're raw, so almost all cranberries harvested go towards the production of cranberry juice. Then, the only time they're actually eaten is in dried cranberries or in cranberry sauce, which is restricted to Thanksgiving and Christmas times. That makes it seem like it's not that good, but we actually enjoy the nice, tart flavor. Cranberry Sauce/Preserves Ingredients: 12 ounces cranberries 3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup orange juice A pinch of salt For preserves, you don't need water or orange juice. Directions: In a pot, add in the water, orange juice, sugar, and salt. Heat this and stir so the sugar and salt is evenly dissolved. Skip this step for the preserves since there's no water/orange juice. Just combine the sugar and salt with the cranberries. Add in the cranberries and mix. Cook this until the cranberries ...

Welcome back!  Today, we have a recipe for a delicious pecan pie! This pie is very popular is the Southern US, as pecans are native to the region, but it is eaten widely across the country during holiday season. Traditionally, pecan pies don’t necessarily have chocolate; the filling is actually just eggs, butter, and sugar. We decided to make the filling a little more like a brownie, so we included several other flavorings. It's also less gooey than traditional pecan pies because we used honey instead of corn syrup, and there's less than there is traditionally. Chocolate Pecan Pie Makes a 9-10" pie Ingredients: 1 Basic Pie Crust 1 - 1 1/2 cup pecans 4 ounces chocolate 4 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 teaspoon espresso powder 1/2 cup honey 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons bourbon 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 eggs Directions: In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter. Take the pot with the chocolate and butter off and mix in the co...

Welcome back!  Today, we have another delicious soup! Seeing that it's Thanksgiving season and thus pumpkin season, we decided to make this. This is actually a good way to get people who don't really like pumpkin to eat some (along with pumpkin pie, of course) because it's mixed in so well with the other parts of the soup, though it still is the main ingredient. So, it's a nice, accessible dish that's also pretty easy to prepare! Pumpkin Soup Makes 4 servings Ingredients: 600 grams pumpkin, cut, skinned, and seeded (we used kabocha pumpkin) 1 shallot, chopped 3 cups chicken broth 1 cup heavy cream Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Steam the pumpkin (make sure you've cut, skinned, and seeded it first!). Saute the shallot.  Mix the pumpkin, shallots, and chicken broth. Put this in a blender and blend. Put it back in a pot and on the stove. Add the heavy cream (you can substitute with milk or just chicken broth to make it lighter). Stir occasionally until it is ...