Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake

After spending the first few hours of my Saturday morning reading alone on the couch(not complaining), I got a call from my mom wondering what I was up to. After quickly realizing I didn't want to spend the day couped up alone in my apartment, my mom and I decided to use the weekend to cook and bake together (pretty much my favorite kind of weekend). Thirty minutes later, I was off to Arlington.
A few weeks ago, my dad found a cheesecake recipe in the new Sunset magazine. Once he read the words 'salted caramel' he HAD to have it, and has been desperate for my mom and I to make it ever since. I'm pretty sure I saw drool on the pages when he handed us the recipe. (It happens to the best of us).
When we got home from the grocery store, after getting everything we needed for the weekend, I suggested that we have a glass of wine while we bake. My mom simply replied, "Well, YEAH. You think Julia never drank wine while SHE baked? Come on! You've heard her voice in some of those videos!"
..insert mine and mom's imitations of Julia's voice here...
Alright, so I've come to a few conclusions. Either Julia never really drank while she baked OR she holds a glass of wine much better than we I do.
We had a few mishaps. No big deal.
So I may have forgot to set the cream cheese and eggs at room temperature before we got everything started. That's okay. We just put everything on pause for thirty minutes or so and drank more wine.
So I almost forgot to add the pumpkin to our pumpkin cheesecake. Meh. I caught it just in time! (Mom told me no more wine til' dinner.)
So my mom wrapped the baking pan in foil far before she was supposed to. Didn't matter!
Because our cheesecake turned out beautiful and perfect and beautiful!
Tis' the season! The decadent holiday baking has commenced!

Elysian Brewing Great Pumpkin Beer Festival

What better way to celebrate the fall season and end our ULTIMATE Beer Weekend Extravaganza than by attending the highly anticipated Pumpkin Beer Festival put on by local Elysian Brewing? No better way! Plus, after Saturday my beer belly was in full bloom, so why not add to the inevitible growth? (I will do something about it THIS week, seriously.)



So what is this beer festival all about, anyway? Dressing up festively (oh yes we did!) to celebrate beer and try crazy-unique seasonal concoctions!
For those of us who are nuts about pumpkin (ME!), this festival offered around 50 different pumpkin brews: from Porters and Stouts, to Malt Liquor and ciders or Hefeweizens, this place had it all! Our entry fee included six tasting tickets, but Eric and I got away with seven since a few stations didn't seem to be interested in taking our tickets. SCORE!



My number one choice from the day was Russian River's Sour Pumpkin 2010. "100% Brett fermented, barrel aged sour pumpkin ale." I tried my first sour ale at Kiss Cafe, Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour, and sours have since become my personal preference. I sampled a total of four sour pumpkin ales at the festival, but Russian River's blew the others out of the water. However, I must give credit to Jolly Pumpkin's La Parcela 2008, as it was also fab.

Runner up is definitely Iron Hill's Ichabod Imperial Belgian Pumpkin Ale. "This extra strong spicy Belgian is filled with flavors of harvest including clove, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg with hints of roasted pumpkin and caramel." Eric loved this one, too.



Due to the massive crowd of people trying to push and shove their way to the center of the grounds, the highlight of the festival seemed to be the tapping of the "Great Pumpkin" itself. This huge pumpkin was filled with still-fermenting beer, sealed with wax from candles and allowed to condition until the tapping at 4:00pm on each day of the festival. Our pumpkin was filled with the sweet and cinnamony Dark o' the Moon and everyone gathered around and waited for a taste from the coveted squash.

Overall, MY punkin and I thoroughly enjoyed the festivities and brewskies.
Basically, this sums it all up:


I need to detox. And diet.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

I love/adore/go completely crazy over fall. It's my absolute favorite season. I love the holidays, the colors, the smells, the flavors, the crisp air, the cozy days and nights. Fall is gorgeous and tastes amazing.
I just bought Eric and I tickets the Elysian Brewing's 7th Annual Great Pumpkin Beer Festival in Seattle. I am SO stoked! Pumpkin beers (some of them actually brewed INSIDE of a pumpkin), local food trucks (major YUM!), adorable souvenir pumpkin glasses, and everyone dresses in pumpkin attire! I need to go find something orange, stat!




(Photos courtesy of Beer Festival website - Elysian Brewing)

On another exciting fall note, my two favorite cupcake places in Seattle have some fantastic-sounding flavors of the month I can't wait to try. Trophy Cupcakes: "We're celebrating Washington's Apple Harvest and National Caramel Month with our newest seasonal flavor, Caramel Apple! The cake boasts local, organic granny smith apples and warm fall spices topped with housemade caramel infused buttercream, toasted pecans, and a drizzle more of homemade caramel." I'm kind of freaking out that sounds so amazing.
I'm sitting on the couch right now all bundled up in a blanket, drinking hot spiced tea and thinking about gorging on the PUMPKIN PIE BARS that I just pulled out of the oven. Does it get any more fall than that? Oh, did I mention a pumpkin spice candle is burning on the coffee table in front of me? Told you I'm obsessed.
Back to pumpkin pie bars.
Um, yummy heaven, right?
Growing up, pumpkin desserts, especially pumpkin pie, never really appealed to me. I think it's because I have vivid memories of my mother baking a pumpkin pie every year for Thanksgiving, taking big bites and chewing a few times, and then before swallowing, she'd show me her lovely colored mouthful of chewed up pumpkin pie and say, "Look! Baby poop!" Yup...
Well, I believe enough time has passed now for me to get over that trauma, because I can never wait until pumpkin season arrives. Bring me a pumpkin dessert and we'll be best friends for life. Thank you.
This recipe is, once again, from my homegirl Joy the Baker..and she's done it again. Total success. AND! I used my new and beautiful standup mixer! Double success!

Pumpkin Pie Bars

1-1/3 cups flour (I use unbleached all purpose white flour)
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided (organic, brown granulated sugar)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) cold butter or margarine (unsalted)
1 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats, uncooked
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened (I used fat free)
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) pure pumpkin
1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons bourbon (optional)

HEAT oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; grease foil. Mix flour, 1/4 granulated sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats and nuts.

RESERVE 1 cup oat mixture; press remaining onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 min. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla, bourbon, pumpkin and spice with mixer until well blended. Pour over crust; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

BAKE 25 min.; cool 10 min. Use foil to transfer dessert from pan to wire rack; cool completely.