Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Turtle Bread

Jen and Robert inspired our pumpkin carving party and I wanted to have treats that were around the theme so I went to a wonderful website that I found called Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. Every picture makes my mouth water and makes me want to run into the kitchen and be a chef.

Here are a list of changes I made either because I was lazy or I didn't plan properly -

• I didn't sift the dry ingredients
• I only had olive oil in the house so I used that
• Didn't have enough brown sugar for the pumpkin bread so topped it off with Baker's sugar
• Lyle's Golden Syrup - couldn't find it in my little neck of the woods so used Karo Syrup
• Mini loaf pans were too small so they overflowed

Despite all of the little changes the bread tasted great!!

Pumpkin Bread:
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup pumpkin puree(plain, not the already made pumpkin pie kind)

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup canola oil

2 large eggs

¾ cup granulated sugar(Baker's sugar (superfine) recommended)

¾ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed

Caramel Cheesecake Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

¼ cup brown sugar, tightly packed

2 TBSP Lyle’s Golden Syrup

2 TBSP Caramel Sauce (store bought or homemade)

1 TBSP all-purpose flour

1 large egg

Topping:

Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows)

Caramel Sauce (store bought or homemade)

1 cup pecans, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 325F.

Lightly grease and flour three mini loaf pans (3 ½ -x- 5 inch).

Using a stand mixer (or a medium bowl and electric beaters) with the paddle attachment, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, syrup and caramel sauce for about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add egg and beat for another minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl and add flour. Beat flour into mixture until fully incorporated. If using stand mixer, transfer cheesecake filling to a separate bowl. Set aside. If using the stand mixer, clean and dry the bowl to use again.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

Using a stand mixer (or a medium bowl and electric beaters) with the paddle attachment, place pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, and sugars into the bowl and beat for about 1 minute.Add flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix just until combined. This is a quick bread so you don’t want to over mix.

Pour half of the pumpkin bread batter evenly into the three prepared loaf pans (I find it best to use an ice cream scoop. I like to use 2 scoops for the bottom). Spread the batter out evenly.

Spoon cheesecake mixture on top of pumpkin batter layer, a little less than 2/3 of a cup.

Scoop the remaining batter on top of the cheesecake layer, again about 2 ice cream scoops worth.

If you don’t want to bother with the layering you can just spoon some pumpkin batter, then cheesecake, then pumpkin batter again and use a knife to make swirls in the bread. Tastes just as good.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes. Remove bread from pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Let breads cool completely before glazing.

Pour chocolate glaze over breads, about 1/3 cup each. Sprinkle pecans on top of the glaze. Followed by extra caramel sauce if desired (but really, why wouldn’t you want it ).

Chocolate Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

¼ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

2-4 TBSP milk (depending on how thick you want your glaze)

In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and 2 TBSP of milk until smooth and glossy. If you want a thinner glaze add more milk, 1 TBSP at a time.

Spicy Rice & Beef

Last night I prepared Organic Harvest Medley, a gourmet blend of four uniquely aromatic California rices, and it had absolutely no flavor. We had to use a lot of salt, pepper, almonds and green onions to be able to eat it and I had prepared extra for leftovers. I didn't want to waste it so I had to come up with a recipe to use up the remainder. Steve loved it so much he told me that I had to post it on the blog so that we could make it again.


1 quart Tomato Soup
1 pint Salsa
1 lb. Ground Beef
Salt
Pepper
Frank's Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
Rice, precooked


Combine tomato soup, salsa, uncooked ground beef, salt and pepper. Cook on high for 4 hours. Stir in rice and add cayenne pepper sauce to taste. Cook for an additional 1/2 hour or until warmed through.

Crockpot Chicken Stew

After two weddings in the family within a week I have been neglecting my house and everything else so I thought I would throw something in the crockpot to help with dinner. I didn't measure anything I just cut up what was in the house and threw it in.

Chicken, boneless breast

Celery

Onion

Carrots

Green Beans

Potatoes

Salt

Pepper

Poultry Seasoning

2 cans Chicken Broth

Cornstarch

Put everything except the cornstarch into the crockpot first thing in the morning and cook on low. One half hour before serving mix cornstarch and water together then stir into stew to thicken.

Jen's Chicken Tortilla Soup

For Lisa's wedding we left the corn out, used two cans of beans and used one 12.5 oz. can of chicken and we did not drain it. With our portions it made 3 quarts.

November 2 - Omitted the can of water and used the soup, salsa, corn, beans and 12.5 oz. can of chicken. Added crushed red pepper and 10 shakes of Frank's Red Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce. This made for a thicker and spicer soup. ~ Cheryl

1 (26 oz.) family size can Campbell's Chicken and Rice soup
1 (26 oz.) can of water
1 16 oz. jar of your favorite salsa
1 (15 1/4 oz.) can corn (undrained).....we left this out
1 can Texas Style Ranch Beans (undrained)
2-4 chicken breasts, cooked and diced......we use canned chicken, the cannery chicken is perfect
Cilantro (if desired)

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and simmer.

Place the following items on the table for each person to add individually as they like:
Shredded cheese
Sour cream
Tortilla chips
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole