Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin

(DISCLAIMER: Thursday night Shaina & Beth would not go to Meijer with me...I had to go all by myself. This has nothing to do with my blog.)

Ah, pumpkins. I've always been a fan of pumpkin pie, but I decided to do something different this year. First up: pumpkin soup. It's actually supposed to be pumpkin and shrimp soup, but does anyone else think that sounds icky? Maybe I'll try it yet. But anyway, here are my suggestions:
- my recipe called for sauteed carrots, onions and garlic to be pureed and added to the canned pumpkin & milk. I would sautee twice as many veggies and only puree half. If you don't like shrimp with your soup it lacks substance.
- possible meat alternatives: bacon or pork or ham.
- if you don't have all spice, add extra ginger, some nutmeg and cinammon.
- it's very good with a nice piece of whole grain toast.

And my newest experiment - pumpkin cheesecake! Woo hoo!! Some GENIEUS found a way to combine pumpkin pie and cheesecake! Again, here are my ideas:
- when it calls for cream cheese to be room temperature it really means about 70 degrees. if your house is only 64 (such as mine) the cheese isn't quite soft enough. you may want to nuke it a bit for a nicer consistency (otherwise it looks like there is cottage cheese in the cake, but its still good!!)
- 1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs does NOT equal 20 squares (no matter what the recipe says). For the record, 20 squares yields about 2 1/2 cups of crumbs, so you will have too much crust (and no, I didn't put it all in there, but I did forget to add extra butter)
- try not to think about what's in it...it'll just ruin the experience.

If I get any more great pumpking ideas, I'll let you know, k?? (Oh...don't forget the pumpkin pancakes!!!)