recipe: spicy roasted pumpkin seeds

after the carving up & roasting a pumpkin for my pumpkin muffin puree, i had a little treasure trove of seeds left. i went with the spicy roasted pumpkin seeds recipe from Natasha Sanz Caballero -- they came out crispy and spicy, exactly what you'd hope for. considering they were almost zero effort, they were a great lil snack. 

photo from Natasha Sanz Caballero

ingredient list:
- 2 cups pumpkin seeds
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (decrease this if you don't love spicy)
- 1/2 tsp Spanish paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt  

to make: 
preheat oven to 350 degrees F. heat olive oil in small pan, and add the spices. mix well. add the pumpkin seeds and stir to coat, cooking over medium heat for 4-5 minutes. 

transfer the seeds to a baking dish or cookie sheet, spread out in a thin layer, and roast for about 15 minutes. serve at room temp.

pumpkin coffee

finally tried pumpkin coffee for the FIRST time (ever) this fall. it seemed like a quintessential part of the season based on all the rants & raves i always hear about it, from everyone. after tasting it for the first time, i pretty much lost respect for... everyone. YUCK!

i had brewed a cup of coffee in my head before getting to Dunkin Donuts and had my idealized flavor before my first sip of the real deal... a robust coffee with a rich undertone of pumpkin and a few touches of cinnamon. what i was accosted with at first sip was a cup of sugar water with an aftertaste of funky nutmeg. i HATE sweet coffee. pumpkins are naturally a little sweet... fine. but THIS. this was NOT coffee. i could not taste any coffee. my tongue was lambasted with sugar sweet nutmeg funk... AAACK. i think i was dreaming if i thought maybe they could do -flavor- without -sweet shit-. 

sticking to Fresh Market flavored beans... Almond Amaretto, Creme Brulee... rich coffee, subtle undertone of a flavor. the type of coffee that does not get poured down the drain after driving 2 hours at 6am and still only being able force down only a few sips... bah humbug! 

recipe: pumpkin ale cheesecake

so i'm a big fan of The Beeroness blog, however i have had yet to try anything from her site. her Pumpkin Ale Cheesecake with Beer Pecan Caramel Sauce suuuper caught my eye for Thanksgiving baking. mother of mother. it was a fun desert and even though i'm not huge on pumpkin pies, i def enjoyed this. 

ingredients list:
cheesecake:
- 9 standard sized graham crackers
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 16 oz cream cheese, softened
- 4 eggs, room temp
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmet
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 & 1/4 cup pumpkin ale (i used Blue Moon Pumpkin)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour

caramel sauce:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup pumpkin ale
- 1/4 cup corn syrup
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup cream
- 1/3 cup pecans

to make: prep a spring form pan with parchment/grease and set aside. in a food processor, add the graham crackers and brown sugar, and crush until it becomes all crumbs. add melted butter and process until it resembles wet sand. dump into the bottom of the prepared spring form pan, and press down until it is firmly compacted. set aside.

preheat oven to 350F degrees. in a large bowl, add the brown sugar, white sugar, and cream cheese and mix until well combined. one at a time, add the eggs and vanilla, carefully mixing until well combined. 

in a separate bowl, mix the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt, and mix until combined. add pumpkin puree mixture to sugar/cream cheese mixture and stir gently until fully combined. add the beer until combined (note: the batter will be VERY liquidy at this point). sprinkle the flour over the bowl, then stir until just combined. pour batter over the prepared crust.

bake at 350F, adding a water bath if desired,  for about 1 hour or until the center no longer jiggles when you shake the rack the cheesecake sits on (be very careful not to over bake). chill until set, about 3 hours. for best results, chill cheesecake overnight before serving. 

to make caramel sauce, add the sugar, beer, and corn syrup to a saucepan and stir over medium high heat for about 1 minute. reduce heat to low and allow to boil about 10 minutes with a temp around 230F on a candy thermometer. add the butter, pecans, and the cream, and stir until combined. allow to cool to room temperature before serving. 

iHop, uHop, weHop

the consensus was iHop for breakfast today (translation: double gym session). i didn't give a damn because all i wanted was delicious pancakes in my tum tum, whether we cooked them or bought em. usually when we end up in iHop we're hungover and it's "so bright in here, ugh". today i was on the up and up... turns out it's ACTUALLY just that bright in there. duly noted.

i ordered the pumpkin pancakes. odd choice, since i don't like pumpkin and all. but i've done blueberry/apple so much lately figure why not live a little, it is the iHo of pancakes.

now, the first thing i notice when i'm served that these cakes must have been poured from a guy standing on a 12-ft ladder. LOOK at those splatter marks. these are pankcakes in motion - they have a story to tell, and i only wish they could talk. they can't tho. so i eat them (after schmearing the whipped cream off... i just don't do pancakes + whipped cream, period). i have to wiggle my fork a little extra when cutting through them... uh-oh... somebunny has gotten the bottom of a pile of pre-cooked cakes in waiting. nbd, i've been in this situation before. i shrug it off and focus my attention to the sweet pumpkin cinnamon party flavors before me. cinnamon is delicious as per usual. pumpkin flavor is very mild. since i don't like pumpkin, i'm relieved, but at the same time a little disappointed as i was kinda curious. it did definitely make them more moist (i hate that word but can't think of another), and all in all, they would be on the up and up if i was eating a fresh stack of them.

my cakes came with bacon & eggs, and hashbrowns which were a surprise addition. bacon was delicious as per usual. eggs... well i don't think they were eggs at all. definite egg substitute, kinda scared of how many ingredients were involved, and can't figure out what's in them that's giving them an almost slimy finish (way too many jokes that can be made here haha). i only eat half, knowing these are probably more bad than good. next up hash browns. i'm usually a cube-hashbrown lover, but these little shredded effers had a sneak attack of onion that was just delicious. almost had a tangy hint of sour cream, but it was no where in sight. what was in sight was a massive pool of butter which was a bit unnecessary. i had to call it quits mid-serving (it was big enough for 2 anyway) as i just can't justify the calories. if i was able to ring out the butter, they'd probably go from good to great.

all in all 4 stars **** (note: this is rated on a sit down/chain QSR scale, not a standard restaurant scale). it's down & dirty breakfast food, and this one was cooked from a ladder - it doesn't get more authentic than that.