Happy Thanksgiving

Pumpkin cheesecake with homemade graham cracker crust
No, I didn't serve a slice this size. This is at least three servings.
I went ahead and filled some croissants with chocolate...just because.
This is what you get after ten years practise making croissants. Still not perfect, but pretty darned good. They came up feather light, with thin, beautiful, flaky layers.


My sleep-deprived brain had me up before dawn rolling a block of chilled butter into dough. It was after the third turn that I happened to catch the end of a Pillsbury commercial on the television.

"Oh no. I was supposed to make crescents, not croissants."

I think I like the idea of Thanksgiving better than the actual execution of the meal. Thankfully, no one expected turkey.

Three days ago I prepared the graham crackers for the pumpkin cheesecake base. I baked it yesterday, and today I held my breath as I removed the ring from the springform. With 32 ounces of cream cheese and five large eggs, I didn't want to have to toss the entire thing into the dustbin. It came out beautifully.

I had extra batter that wouldn't fit in the pan yesterday, so I baked it in a small bowl along with the larger cake. Then, I formed it into balls, inserted a popsicle stick and froze them. Then, I dipped them in white chocolate and returned them to the freezer. I was very pleased with my discovery, but somewhat frightened at just how easy it is to turn leftover cheesecake into a frozen dessert bar. I think this almost has a Faustian element to it, I mean, it ain't base metals into gold exactly, but cheesecake into a frozen bar is a sort of alchemy. Sort of. You know how it is, the Devil offers you cheesecake at the ready and it sounds so great until you wake up weighing 500 lbs. one morning...stupid Faustian bargains with the Devil with their stupid catches. Anyway, don't say I didn't warn you about the frozen cheesecake thing.

I'll get the recipes up tomorrow, since it is already too late if you were planning to make anything.

Thank you again for a wonderful year of your visits and comments and friendship.