Today is the day… Happy Thanksgiving!
Now I’m not one to test out a new recipe before serving it … and it’s not so much that I’m THAT confident. I usually just run out of time. BUT THIS YEAR I couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving to try some drink and dessert recipes I planned to make for the holiday. They were just too enticing and with a late Thanksgiving this year, I couldn’t wait so I decided to host a pre-Thanksgiving holiday meal… and I sure am THANKFUL I did!
It started with a really yummy sounding vanilla cider vodka martini recipe swirling around Facebook (and even though I’ve stayed away from vodka martinis for a few years now, this was tempting enough for me to think about treating myself to some vodka once again!) So I was planning to put that together. And THEN a friend of mine was telling me about a pear martini and a pumpkin martini recipe she was planning to make. I was driving while she was telling me about it and I REALLY WOULD HAVE gone straight to the store to get the necessary ingredients if I hadn’t had an appointment to get to! All this on top of a caramel pumpkin cheesecake recipe in Better Homes and Gardens…NO WAY could I wait for a late Thanksgiving!!! So…let‘s talk cheesecake and martinis!
It all starts with the trip to the grocery store. I can still hear my son… and that small voice in my own head questioning my decision as I picked up the store brand cream cheese that was half the price of the Philadelphia brand… We all know the cream cheese is critical to making a good cheesecake and for some reason I made the significant mistake of not spending $4 more for the “good kind” … AND it surely did make a difference! I don’t know why I did this because I did the same thing once before and typically I’m one who learns from mistakes (THANKFULLY). So, the cheesecake was fine. It was on the mild side, not too sweet, which one of my guests really appreciated. I think it was over baked a little, due to my convection oven temp being higher than it should have been and my inattentiveness to one thing at a time. The ginger snap/nut crust was actually a little too crisp, which also could be due to being left in the oven too long. I used caramel sauce because I couldn’t find real caramels to melt on my shopping trip. And that was fine, too. But in my palatial world the word “fine” to describe a food experience just isn’t good enough! I considered not even making it for the real Thanksgiving dessert, but I had to try it again with the superior cream cheese just to be sure that’s what made the difference. So, for today’s Thanskgiving dessert I baked it at a lower temperature, took it out sooner and added cinnamon graham crackers to the crust ingredients to soften it up a little bit. It’s chilling now and already looks better! I can’t wait to taste it! Here’s the official recipe: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/pumpkin-caramel-pecan-cheesecake-151682.aspx.
Now, on to the martinis! I actually haven’t completely made the ones I mentioned above so I guess I’m back to my normal mode of not trying things ahead of time! I INTENDED to make the pear martini and pumpkin martini…what I ended up making was the pumpkin martini with milk instead of heavy cream! And it was good! What happened was …I couldn’t find the pear nectar on the one and only shopping trip I had time for (hint: look in the organic section of your local grocery store) and when my husband made a pre-dinner trip to the store for beer, I forgot to ask him to get heavy cream…so I did the best I could with what I had, (which in general is just a good life practice). PIctured is what we ended up with and ENJOYED!
For today, however, I’m fully prepared and will be making the pear martini and pumpkin martini just as the recipes say to!