Snow cometh

After Scotland and the northeast of England have been hammered by the winter weather for the last week, southeast England is now starting to see the white stuff.

The flakes were only lightly falling this morning when the bus collected dear son for school.  Now the flakes are coming down thick and heavy, and I'm supposed to pick up my son from school this afternoon. Usually, snow driving is left to hubby, who just happens to be in Moscow on business! My silly car is only rear-wheel drive, which is useless in snow and ice. I'm contemplating using hubby's car, which fortunately has front-wheel drive. Caveat: I've only driven it twice before and it's currently covered by a pile of snow.

Snow is pretty but it sure can be a hassle, too.

In the meantime, my border collie Sophie is totally oblivious to the conditions. Should I say that she's actually enjoying the weather?

For our friends and relatives in Scotland, I hope that you are all managing in this thick white stuff and staying nice and toasty.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

We had a fantastic time yesterday during stamping class making Christmas Cards. Everyone brought some lovely food items to share during lunch. I made a pumpkin cheesecake as my contribution, and some of you asked for the recipe.

Notes: My recipe does not have (or need) a crust, but you can use a graham cracker crust base if you wish.

In England, I can usually only find the containers of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese, which are 300g each, or about 10-11 ounces. You can use three 8-ounce bricks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese if you wish.

• 2    300g Containers of Philadelphia Cream Cheese 
• 1    cup sugar
• 4    eggs
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1    can pumpkin or 16 ounces or 500g of freshly pureed pumpkin or winter squash
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1    teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
• 1    teaspoon vanilla

Use a mixer or food processor to whip the Philly Cream Cheese until soft. Add in the cup of sugar and continue to mix. 

Slowly add in each of the eggs, one at a time.

Add in rest of ingredients and continue to mix until completely smooth and creamy. Pour into your square baking pan or round pie pan. I particularly like using my Pampered Chef square baker.

Cook  at 165 C or 325 F for about an hour or until a knife comes out clean.

If you don't like pumpkin, you can make this recipe without the pumpkin; just reduce the sugar to 3/4 cup and leave out the pumpkin spice.