Pumpkin Bread

 

It's officially pumpkin week. Well not "officially", but I have decided that it is the week to celebrate everyone's favorite winter squash.

During the past seven days I have visited the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, made my own pumpkin puree, made pumpkin cheesecake and this pumpkin bread.

I didn't just start loving pumpkins recently. I was born in October, so from the start I was personally and deeply connected to pumpkins.

 Homemade pumpkin puree

I think the moment I fell in love with pumpkins was when I was a few weeks old and my parents stuck me in a hallowed out pumpkin for a photo. (Looking back it seems endearing, but when I did this to my puppy a few days ago my friends all looked at me like a was crazy...)

When I was seven years old I had my very own backyard pumpkin patch, as did my brother. He grew large pumpkins, some that got to be almost 50 pounds, and I grew the tiny ones. I have always loved tiny things.

The best thing about my patch in comparison to my brothers was that mine produced a far greater yield than his did. I had hundred of pumpkins by October.

With no idea of what to do with so many pumpkins I opened up a "pumpkin stand" in my driveway. It was similar to a lemonade stand except that it was freezing cold out and I was selling miniature pumpkins. Fifty cents each, or three for a dollar.

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake

I am about to share with you my favorite fall recipe of all time.

Get excited.

This pumpkin cheesecake is a modification of a recipe that has been in my family longer than I even have. My mom received the recipe for "company cheesecake" (don't ask me, I have no idea why it's called that) from a coworker about 30 years ago.

It was a recipe for plain cheesecake, but also had suggestions on how to spice it up, such as adding berries to the mixture.

It wasn't until about five years ago that I got the idea to use this recipe to make pumpkin cheesecake. I know, Brilliant, right? I love pumpkin, but don't love pumpkin pie. But I do love cheesecake. Thus, pumpkin cheesecake was born.

Every year the recipe is a little different as we can never seem to find where we wrote down the recipe the year before, but fortunately this cheesecake is very forgiving and you can add more or less or just about anything and it will state taste AMAZING.

Lucky for you, I made it my goal to finally decide on the perfect recipe once and for all. (Ok, maybe I did it more for myself, because now that's its on my blog I will always know where to find it!)

This cheesecake is probably the easiest dessert recipe you will ever find. All you do it add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor, mix, and pour into a crust. That's it! Well, you have to bake it too, of course.