The Original Reason for My Hiatus...

...was that I was doing a site design. This one:

 Heaven's Pavement is a promotional web site for the book of the same title. I coded it from scratch, and spent quite a bit of time with the site's owner getting the art just right and making the layout perfect. We went live right around Veterans' Day.

I didn't want to take time out from the design process to edit and post anything. Things began to gather. I got intimidated. I put it off a couple of weeks, with the very best of intentions.

And then, it was the Thanksgiving holiday. As everyone with small children knows, school holidays are not holidays at all for parents. For us, it was a full week of nonstop parenting and turkey wrangling, the latter of which went very well indeed, for my very first turkeybird  in over 16 years, and the very first I have cooked with my spouse.

I also made my usual pumpkin "pie" in a springform pan. This year, due to developing food sensitivities, it was eggless. It came out quite well, except that Eggless Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie needs about 48 hours, rather than 24, for the spice flavors to develop properly. It was great the day after Turkey Day and even better the third day.

Recipe for Eggless Pumpkin Cheesecake "Pie"


Ahead of time: 
Prepare and bake your favorite baked pastry crust in a 9" springform pan. I make a recipe for an 8" double crust pie , then put the crust bottom in and cut strips the same width as the pan is deep. Set them in the pan, sealing the seam with a little water, and crimp lightly close to the top. Line with aluminum foil folded lengthwise into a strip as deep as the vertical wall to prevent slumping and prick the bottom or weight. Pre-bake according to your crust recipe. Cool before using.

Ingredients:

• 3.5 cups cooked pumpkin
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 3 tbsp cornstarch + 1 tbsp of egg replacer (or 4 tbsp cornstarch)
• 1 tbsp soy lecithin
• 1 package cream cheese
• 1/3 cup powdered milk
• 1tsp "pie spice"
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• pinches of ginger, nutmeg mace to taste
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup brown sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Mix all dry ingredients, then beat in all wet ingredients.
3. Pour into your pre-baked shell, and set it on a cookie sheet.
4. Place in oven, and bake for 25 minutes at 450 degrees F. 
5. Turn oven down to 350 degrees F for an hour and a half. Pie is done when a toothpick can be inserted and pulled out fairly cleanly.
6. Cool on the counter in pan.
7. Cover and refrigerate 48 hours.

Serve with whipped cream.

After that, I was just out of the groove. I have a couple dozen posts queued up, and partially edited, but I had let everything slide. Excuses aside, I think I'm back now!