Cheesecake and Gratitude

Pumpkin Hazelnut Cheesecake,Thanksgiving Eve Dinner, 2012.
Food Prep, Styling, and Photo by The Madwoman.

We’re about to hit the road for holiday fun and feasting with pals up the I95 corridor, so I can’t linger here on the interwebs, but it wouldn’t feel like Thanksgiving if I didn’t pop in with a recipe and a word or two of thanks for the finest bunch of readers on dog’s earth. Thanks to everybody who made the journey from the old blog to the new blog this year, and thanks to the newbies who stumbled upon a Madwoman in the course of their restless roving through cyberspace and decided to give her a click. We are grateful for your eyeballs, your pithy/thoughtful comments, and your big, beautiful hearts.

The Woman Formerly Known as Goose and I are breaking with Thanksgiving tradition this year in traveling rather than hosting (blame it on San Juan), but we had a swelegant little fete last night to celebrate with the hometown crew. Dessert was the smooth as silk pumpkin hazelnut cheesecake featured in the photo above. It’s a new recipe from Food Porn for the Conscientious, and I was delighted with how it turned out. The chorus of oohs and aahs around the table suggests that the guests were pleased, too. The recipe calls for hazelnut flour, which I couldn’t find, so I used almond flour instead. I also subbed almond extract for vanilla (because we were out), and that worked fine. I was especially pleased with how the hazelnut brittle sitting atop each slice came out. I am not terribly adventurous as a baker and don’t go for fussy ornamental details, but this was easy and impressive. Oh, and tasty! Turns out I like hazelnut brittle. Who knew?

Gotta run, darlings, or WFKG will start grousing at me for holding up the Thanksgiving parade. If you’re in need of a last-minute appetizer guaranteed to please your guests and keep them sober by soaking up a lot of booze, run over to the old blog and pick up the recipe for Janie’s olives. My beloved grandmother knew that what the world needs now is love and a bunch of olives wrapped in cheddar cheese dough. It’s a formula that has worked well for me, so I’m happy to pass it along to you.

Have a glorious day, little pilgrims and anti-pilgrims. Eat well. Laugh loudly. Focus on the good stuff. Repeat, with gusto.