Thanksgiving Review!

Hi there!  I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as it could potentially be, as mine definitely was.  We invited a few friends (a family of four and a friend, Michael, whom I met through a charity organization) to our Thanksgiving dinner, and although my mom was a bit stressed out earlier during the day in preparations (she was afraid at first that she wouldn't be able to get all of the dishes completed by dinner time), it all turned out great in the end.  We basically have no turkey left - can you believe that?  My mom made a turkey with a stuffing that I've grown up with, but was brand new for our guests - it consisted of shiitake mushrooms and sticky rice with soy sauce and steamed.  It's a Taiwanese dish, and although the literal translation means "oil rice," there really isn't any extra added oil in the dish (except to maybe slightly sautee the shiitake mushrooms).  It was really good and flavorful, and added a nice texture balance to the turkey.  My mom also made two vegetarian dishes, two vegetarian cold dishes, a soup, and her friend brought over this other type of soup with napa cabbage, mushrooms, and thinly sliced daikon and a red bean soup dessert.  There was so much food - and we barely have any left (although we gave away a lot of leftovers, especially to my friend, since he lives by himself and doesn't really have time to cook any meals).  My pecan pie bars were gone by the end of the night (the younger guests treated themselves to 3 pecan pie bars, each), and so were half of the cheesecake bars.  In the end, we were pretty much left with a cup and a half of the spiced pecans, two cheesecake bars, and some of the vegetarian dishes that my mom made.  We went to bed extremely late that night and therefore, did not engage in any of the exciting Black Friday shopping (although I was awakened at 5 AM by my friend who decided he wanted some company while waiting in line at Toys 'R Us - thanks a lot, A).  However, my mom and I did head on over to Bed, Bath & Beyond Friday night and bought a hand mixer from KitchenAid (I had been using the same mixer from when I was five years old) and I got my mom her Christmas presents early (a HoMedics Shitasu Massager Chair and a HoMedics Shitasu Massager Pillow - she's been suffering from headaches, lately, which have me quite worried), and I was glad to learn that her headaches have subsided today.  

Enough rambling.

So I promised the cheesecake bar recipes.  Here they are:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

For the bar crust:

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup flour
2. 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3. 4 Tablespoons Earth Balance spread
4. Some finely chopped nuts, if desired.

Instructions:

1. Preheat to 350.  
2. Combine flour and brown sugar.
3. Cut in the balance until mixture is crumbly.  If preferred, may stir in nuts.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

For the pumpkin cheesecake filling:

Ingredients:

1. 3 containers of Tofutti Cream Cheese (plain)
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
4. Preferred egg replacement; equal to 2 eggs.
5. 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
6. 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
7. 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
8. 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Note:  May use pumpkin pie spice instead of ingredients 6, 7, and 8.

Instructions:

1. Lower oven temp to 325 degrees.
2. Blend cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, egg replacement until smooth.  Remove 1 cup (or so) of mixture and spread onto cooled bar crust.  
3. Combine the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg (or pumpkin spice) in with the remaining cream cheese mixture, and mix until well combined.  Spread mixture on top of the cream cheese mixture on the bar crusts.  
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until center is almost set (shake pan slightly to test).  Let cool, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour (I refrigerated mine overnight).  

There ya go!  Please note:  this recipe definitely tastes more like a cheesecake than a pumpkin pie - the adorable guinea pigs (my loving family) prefers cheesecake over pumpkin pie, so this recipe only has a subtle undertone of pumpkin - it's just enough to tell that it's there!

Anyways, due to my various experiments on desserts and the adjusting of recipe sizes, I ended up with leftover pumpkin stored in my fridge.  I wanted to make a pumpkin loaf today to get rid of the extra pumpkin, and discovered absolutely the most moist, slightly sweet, dense cake-like bread that I've ever tasted in my life.  It is so incredibly moist that you seriously could eat it without any accompanying drink.  It's rich and dense like a moist pound cake, but it's a loaf!  

Anyways, here's a quick picture I shot of it before I gave away half to my neighbor:

Will post the recipe soon!  Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend!