It turns out I have more to complain about.

1) Elizabeth has been in A Mood, although Paul points out that after two weeks we need to stop referring to it that way. She doesn’t like her clothes either on or off, she doesn’t want to be held or not held, she doesn’t like any food or drink and she doesn’t want us to take it away. She screams. And when she’s affectionate and happy, she expresses it by biting, and by lovingly slamming her skull into my face.

2) The baby is hurting me with all the moving around. Seriously, this is stupid: I have to make this baby INSIDE MY BODY? That’s ridiculous. What a stupid, stupid idea.

3) I need to eat something. There is nothing Good To Eat. If I don’t eat something good soon, I am going to LOSE IT.

4) This house smells like diaper pail. A stuffy diaper pail.

5) I finished the last disc of Sports Night. Now there are no more.

6) I’m going to have to put that car seat back into the car. I hate doing this. It’s going to be worse with the tum in the way.

7) Our new hospital co-pay is FOUR TIMES our old one: from $250 for just the mother, to $500 each for mother and newborn. I am reminding myself that $1000 for a c-section, 3-day hospital stay, and newborn care is a huge bargain, and we are very very lucky to have insurance. But we were even luckier when we had it for $250.

8) Rob’s regular teacher is out for a month for surgery, and didn’t come back as scheduled because her recovery hasn’t gone as quickly as hoped. Rob’s substitute teacher told the class that the reason she’s not back is because she won’t come back until they all understand fractions. Rob won’t believe me that it is a joke, and he wants his regular teacher back very badly, and he is getting upset with the classmates who don’t understand fractions. I think this is a poor joke for the substitute to make. I don’t know whether to send in a note about it, or just let it go since the regular teacher will be back soon.

9) I like Jif peanut butter, which costs more than twice as much as the store brand I make the children eat. Paul, because of some stupid reason like that “I didn’t tell him,” has been feeding my secret jar of Jif to the children. So when I went to get the jar just now, it had only teeny scrapings in it.

Okay! Onward!

I’m baking brownies. Do you know what I’ve noticed about good brownie recipes? They are EXPENSIVE. Three sticks of butter! Entire box of baking cocoa/chocolate! Two TABLEspoons of vanilla extract!

Today I’m trying the Alton Brown recipe Shannon contributed. I’ve modified it a little bit, by taking out instructions such as “sifted,” except for the brown sugar because this is the first time in my life I have seen brown sugar listed as an ingredient when it isn’t supposed to be packed. But I took out all the other sifteds, because the day I sift my flour is the day I was born in the 1920s, and I don’t really care if it’s hurting my recipes. And I didn’t sift the brown sugar, either, I just left the instruction in.

Alton Brown’s Cocoa Brownies, modified certainly for the worse by Swistle
(here’s the original recipe for you purists who like to do things “correctly” and “so they turn out right”)

4 large eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar, he says “sifted” but…whuh?
8 oz. melted butter
1-1/4 c. cocoa
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Butter and flour an 8-inch square pan. Preheat over to 300 degrees F. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs at medium speed until fluffy and light yellow. Add both sugars. Add remaining ingredients and combine. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. They’re done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean. Remove to rack to cool. Resist temptation to cut into brownies until they’re mostly cool.

***

I managed to let them cool before eating them, mostly because I’ve been so crabby and sulky I didn’t want anything that might make me feel better. Now I’ve eaten one, okay two, and I can make my report.

These brownies are in a different league than other brownies I’ve made. I was a little crabby about 1-1/4 cups of cocoa in an 8×8 batch (the last ones I made had only 1/3 c. of cocoa), but I did say “more chocolatey” so I don’t know what I thought I was whining about. Not only are these way more chocolatey, they’re much thicker, too: about half again or even twice as thick as the brownies I’m used to.

These are so dense and rich, I wasn’t tempted to eat my usual long strip of samples. I had one, okay two, and then I haven’t felt the urge to nibble. They’re heavy, and they’re dark. I suspect that people who like dark chocolate would like these brownies even better than I did. They’re very, very good, but I would save these for special occasions. They’re not the right kind for eating mindlessly out of the pan while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. These are the cheesecake of the brownie world.

A note on the kosher salt. It’s a weird choice. Kosher salt, for those of you who can’t proudly whip a box out of the cupboard, is the kind that’s in little chunks. Typically it decorates large soft pretzels. When you are eating a brownie made with kosher salt, you will periodically crunch down on a small nugget of salt. I’m not the only one who thinks that’s strange, right? William took a bite of his brownie and said, “Hey! I tasted one of those SALTS!” It was yummy, the way chocolate-covered pretzels are yummy, but I think next time I would try the recipe with regular salt.

Baking time is 45 minutes, but I left them in for 52 minutes and the center is still wetter than I’d like. Alton Brown notes that brownies usually bake for an hour, but he likes his brownies really moist. I like them less moist than that, and so I’m going to try a full hour next time.

Don’t do this: When your baby wants to admire her freshly-formed ponytails in the mirror, don’t carry her over there so that you see your own saggy, tired, undereye-circled, blotchy, aging face and your own blah, dirt-colored hair which somehow manages to be both dry and oily, right next to her smooth, rosy-cheeked, perfect complexion and bright eyes and shiny beautiful blonde hair in darling springy little ponytails. Don’t do that.

Today’s plan was to write a post about how our mornings go in this house. I might fall apart in the last two hours before the kids’ bedtimes, but I am GREAT with mornings. I have systems. I can juggle ten things at once. I can get someone into motion on one thing so that he’s done just as I’ve finished what I need to do for his next step. I remember everything. I can fit things together to get twice as much done as if I’d done it in a different order. I may have four children, but I’ve also got rhythm. I was going to describe that rhythm in a shruggingly modest way that would make you admire me all the more.

It was probably because I was absorbed in composing this tribute to my own awesomeness that the morning went so badly. We still managed to get to the bus stop on time, but three minutes before we were supposed to be there, I was in my pajamas with wet hair falling in my face and no glasses on, and Rob couldn’t find his shoes, and the twins were crying about something. The morning was filled with a series of small hitches, minor things like yogurt spilled on someone’s shirt, a broken toy missing a choking-hazard-sized piece that should probably be found before a twin choked on it, a wet bed that required an unexpected clean-up and shower, a slow eater tiny bite taker.

William said he couldn’t find his cereal bowl, which I had recently put out for him. He said it was not on the table. I asked him to check to see if I left it on the kitchen counter. No, he said. Considering he had told me not five minutes before that he couldn’t find his chair, and I had gone in and found it in plain sight less than five feet where it usually is, I was suspicious of his story and went to look for myself. No bowl on the table. No bowl on the counter. It was a clattering sound that turned my eyes in the correct direction moments before I would have considered checking myself into some sort of institutional program: the twins had somehow (how?) managed to hook the bowl into their playpen with them, and they were sitting on the floor together, companionably crunching cereal. Luckily, William eats his cereal dry.

Everything worked out fine in the end, and Rob got on the bus with his lunch and his backpack and all his clothes, but I am no longer in the mood to discuss my awesomeness.

Let’s talk about the awesomeness of brownies instead. And the awesomeness of all of you, sending me recipes just because I wanted them. You–and brownies–are awesome! And right now the awesome smell of brownies is filling the air, because William and I baked a batch this morning.

I started with Julia’s recipe. What caught my attention was that it was similar to my Unsatisfactory Recipe, but with butter instead of shortening, cocoa instead of baking chocolate, less flour, less baking powder…well, actually, not all that similar. But similar in the basic formula. And I had all the ingredients, that was a big selling point. Here’s her recipe, for those of you baking along at home:

Julia’s Best Brownies
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. baking cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add eggs; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

***

If you want the recipe exactly as she put it (with optional/alternate ingredients), it’s in the comments section on the recipe request post. I copied it here but then modified it so it’s the way I baked it: I used butter not margarine, and I’m not using nuts or any other add-ins for the first batch of each recipe, to make the comparison more fair.

I had a little trouble with the “cool completely in pan” step, if that implies “before eating a long strip of ‘samples’ off one edge.” These brownies are significantly better than my recipe. They are still less chocolatey than I’d like, but I don’t taste that stale flavor that was bugging me, and the edges aren’t too cooked when the middle is too moist, and the buttery goodness is a step up from shortening. They’re moist and yummy, and if there are any left I plan to do the vanilla ice cream test with them tonight after dinner.

I’m thinking today about Devan, who went in this morning for an induction. I always get attached to people who are pregnant at the same time I am. I’m hoping she has a fast, easy, miraculously painless labor, and that little cartoon bluebirds perch on her shoulders and sing her sweet songs, and that butterflies flutter beautifully around the room pinning up lovely silk sashes, and that she swears at her husband only enough to remind him how lucky he is that normally her disposition is so sweet. Best of luck, Devan!

Devan at All D’s has got me in the mood for brownies, and I don’t like my recipe. My complaint is that it’s not very chocolatey, and I think there’s a funny stale taste to them, and the middle is often too moist when the edges are too done. Here it is:

Swistle’s Unsatisfactory Brownie Recipe
2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 c. shortening
2 eggs
1 c. sugar
3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

In a small saucepan, melt chocolate and shortening.

In mixer, beat eggs. Mix in sugar and melted chocolate/shortening. Add dry ingredients. Add vanilla. Pour into greased 8×8 pan. Bake 350 for 20-25 minutes.

***

I don’t like my recipe. I want YOUR recipe. Send it to me, or post it in the comments. I usually get, like, ONE response to these recipe requests, but this is a pregnant woman emergency, people. I must have chocolate brownies, and I must have them now. Also, frosting is nice but what I’m looking for is the basic chocolate brownie recipe, nothing fancied up.

Chocolate-chip cookies are good, but they have a big flaw: any bite without a chocolate chip in it might as well be broken off and tossed into the trash. I am always on the lookout for cookie recipes that have other stuff in them (I’m partial to oats), so that the “in between” bites are worth eating, too.

One of my favorite recipes is Ranger Cookies, from the Better Homes and Gardens cook book. I’ve made a few small modifications: chocolate chips instead of snipped pitted whole dates, for example–a no-brainer.

Ranger Cookies
1/2 c. margarine or butter (I use butter)
1-1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 c. crisp rice cereal or 1 c. rolled oats (I’ve always used oats)
1-1/3 c. flaked coconut
1 c. chocolate chips

Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add about half of the flour, then the sugars, egg, vanilla, baking powder, and baking soda. Beat until thoroughly combined. Beat in remaining flour. Add cereal/oats, coconut, and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for about 8 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute, then remove.

***

They’re chewy and hearty, and they hold up pretty well if you’re determined to send someone cookies in the mail. I would like to say that even people who don’t like coconut would like these cookies, but I do like coconut so what would I know? However, William doesn’t like coconut, and he does like these cookies. Besides, you could always use the “crisp rice” (hm, what cereal could they be thinking of?) cereal instead.

I usually double the recipe, but it does strain the capacity of my mixer. Sometimes emergency dough-eating measures are required, to alleviate the crisis.

Here are the results of my call for recipes. Thanks everybody who sent one in! If now you’re thinking, “Oh, shoot, I meant to send in my awesome recipe and I totally forgot,” don’t despair–go ahead and send it in, and I can always post “More Recipes To Make For New Mothers.”

Black Sheep says: “I’ve got a fun recipe here for white chili, or spicy chicken soup. If you don’t load it up with cheese it’s quite low-cal, and has lots of fiber and chicken soup goodness. This freezes/refrigerates super well. Just don’t freeze it with the cheese in! It gets all weird and…goopy if you do that.”

Black Sheep’s White Chili

1 tbsp. olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 (4 ounce) cans chopped mild green chilies (you can also use fresh, and get the hotness level you like)

2 tsp. ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (I use a ton more than this, because I like things to burn)

3 cans (16 ounce) white beans (great northern) undrained
6 cups chicken stock or 3 cans canned chicken broth (put in more if you like soupier soup, this amount will make it fairly chunky)

4 cups chopped cooked chicken
Grated monterey jack or mozarella

Heat oil in large pot over medium high heat. Add onions and saute until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, then chilies, cumin, oregano, and cayenne pepper and saute 2 minutes. Add undrained beans and stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add chicken. Simmer as long as you want (within reason).

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with sprinkle of cheese. (Or just fill a bowl with cheese and add a little soup, as my sister does.) (Also good with tortilla chip garnish!)

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Aoife says: “I like tuna casserole. The one I like the most involves one box of Kraft macaroni dinner, one can cream of mushroom, frozen peas (and other frozen veggies – this is an easy recipe to add veggies for kids) one can (or two if you like) of tuna, butter, and some sort of crunchy like french fried onion or potato chips.”

Aoife’s Tuna Casserole

Cook elbows per box directions. In separate pan, heat soup with a HALF can of milk or water and the cheese powder. Drain pasta, set in casserole dish. Add tuna and frozen veggies to sauce mixture and stir to shred it all up. Pour sauce on tuna, mix it up. (Freeze at this point)

Bake at 350-400 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (i play fast and loose with times and temps since its not actual baking, but heating). Add crispies about 15 minutes before its done. Then its ready to eat.

Another good concoction involves white rice, cream of chicken soup, canned mushrooms, shredded cheese, frozen peas (again), left over chicken (or fresh since its for a friend! )… combine and bake. Add just a half can of milk to soup mixture. You can add one egg to make it stick together better.

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Tessie, a new mom herself and a fellow enthusiast of bringing food to other new mothers, sent in seven recipes, for which I was very grateful because this recipe idea was making a pretty skimpy post until she came along. I was picturing all the other bloggers elbowing each other and whispering about how I couldn’t get more than TWO people to send in recipes.

Tessie’s Tater Tot Hotdish

1 ½ lbs. lean hamburger
1-2 stalks of celery
1 medium chopped onion
1 can each cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup
½ can milk (soup can)
½ lb. Velveeta
1 32 oz package tator tots

Brown the hamburger with chopped celery and onion. Drain fat. Put this in the bottom of a casserole dish. In the same pan, mix the soup and milk until lumps are gone and pour over hamburger. Cover the top with slices of Velveeta. Cover this with a single layer of tator tots. Bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.

**This is my favorite Minnesota hotdish!

**Some crazies like to add green beans, corn, etc. I don’t but go for it, if you want

Tessie’s Swedish Meatballs

4 eggs
1 cup milk
8 slices white bread, torn
2 lbs. ground beef
¼ cup finely chopped onion
4 tsp. baking powder
1-2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. shortening
2 cans each cream of chicken and cream of mushroom
1 can evaporated milk
Parsley

In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk. Add bread; mix gently and let stand for 5 minutes. Add beef, onion, baking powder, salt, and pepper; mix well (mixture will be soft). Shape into 1 inch balls. In a large skillet, brown meatballs, a few at a time, in shortening. Place in an ungreased 3 quart baking dish. In a bowl, stir soups and milk until smooth; pour over meatballs. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve over noodles or rice.

*If you don’t want to brown the meatballs in oil, put them on a baking sheet and brown them in the oven for 20 minutes or so. If you don’t want to make the meatballs from scratch, you can use this same sauce with frozen store-bought meatballs (not Italian seasoned).

Tessie’s Easy Chili Hotdish

1 can (40 oz) chili with beans
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
1 can (2 ¼ oz) sliced black olives, drained
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups Cool Ranch Doritoes, crushed (I use almost the whole bag)
Sour cream

Combine all ingredients except sour cream. Transfer to a greased baking dish. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly. Top with sour cream.

Tessie’s Easy Hotdish

1 box macaroni and cheese, prepared as usual
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 tsp. poultry seasoning
Salt and pepper
½ cup celery, chopped
¼ cup onion, chopped
2 cups cubed, cooked chicken
½ to 1 pint sour cream with chives

Mix the above ingredients together and cook until heated through.

*I like to use the Shells and Cheese or “Deluxe” kind of mac and cheese

Tessie’s Chicken and Rice

1 box Uncle Ben’s Long Grain and Wild Rice
Butter
3-4 chicken breasts
Flour
1 envelope Lipton Dry Lemon and Garlic or Savory Herb with Garlic soup mix

Cook the Uncle Ben’s rice until about half done. Put rice and remaining liquid in a baking dish. Flour the chicken breasts and brown them in plenty of butter. Put on top of the rice. Add Lipton Soup and about 2/3 cup water to the chicken breast drippings. Heat to a boil, mixing well. Pour soup over chicken breasts. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for at least 30 minutes.

*This freezes and reheats really well. As you know, I am a huge fan of cheese, so I add a layer of cheese slices to the top of mine (Velveeta is always best)

**Sometimes I also add a can of cream of chicken soup to the Onion soup and water if you want it creamier

Tessie’s Deviled Chip Hotdish

1 (7 oz) package small shell macaroni, cooked
16 oz. Sour cream
1 small can deviled ham
1 egg
1 bag potato chips, crushed
½ lb. Bacon, fried and crumbled
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar
1 medium onion, chopped

In a medium bowl, beat the egg. To that add the sour cream and deviled ham. Mix till smooth. Combine the sour cream mixture and the cooked macaroni. In a casserole, layer ½ of the macaroni mix, followed by ½ of the cheese, ½ of the chips, ½ of the bacon, and ½ of the onion. Repeat, starting with the noodles. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly.

**I know what you’re thinking, but I swear, this is one of the tastiest hotdishes…just try it!

Tessie’s Hot Tuna Sandwiches

1 can tuna
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
¼ lb. Velveeta, cubed
½ cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. olives, chopped
1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
12 buns

Combine all ingredients (except buns). Spread filling in buns. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake 30 minutes at 250 degrees.

*You can freeze these before you bake them; then just pull one or two out when you need them and throw them in the oven.

I asked a few days ago about good recipes to bring to other people (like, recipes that freeze well, or ride nicely in a disposable casserole pan), and they are pouring in! Okay, so there are only two so far. Feel free to add another to the deluge: email me at swistle at gmail dot com, and I’ll post the recipes in a day or two.

In the meantime, here’s a recipe I got off the back of a Grape-Nuts box and then modified. The resulting bars are dense and wouldn’t qualify as a low-cal type of food, but they’re great for new mothers who are struggling to find time to eat, or for pregnant women battling that “must eat / can’t eat” problem. You can eat one of these with a glass of milk for breakfast or a snack, and they’re easy to eat while nursing the baby. I also sent a batch to my brother when he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, and he said they were awesome for that. So take note if you’re planning on hiking or conceiving!

Swistle’s Modified Grape-Nuts Bars

1 c. corn syrup
1 c. sugar
1 c. peanut butter
4-5 c. stuff (see below)
1 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Butter a 9×13 pan.

In a large saucepan (I like the ancient Revereware I found at an estate sale–I think it holds 4 quarts, but a 3-quart will do), heat and stir corn syrup and sugar to boiling. Let them boil for a tiny while (under a minute), stirring until it looks all clearish instead of all grainy. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Stir until it is all creamy sweet peanut buttery goodness.

Now add 4-5 cups of assorted stuff. My favorite combination is: 2 cups Grape-Nuts, 1 cup rolled oats, 1 cup raw shell-less unsalted pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup flax seed meal, 1/2 cup raw or roasted/salted sunflower seeds. (I mix those all together in a bowl ahead of time so I can dump them into the pan all at once: it’s easier to stir that way.) If you want, you can also add a cup of raisins or other dried fruit—that’s in addition to the 4-5 cups of other stuff, not as one of the cups.

Scrape the mixture into the 9×13 pan. Dampen your hands with a little cold water and press the mixture around evenly—be careful, because it’s hot. Don’t press too hard because they’re already dense bars, but you don’t want them falling apart in chunks, either. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top; then, if the pan has a lid, put the lid on so the warmth is trapped and can melt the chocolate. A little while later (ten minutes?), open the lid and use the back of a spoon to spread the melted chocolate around. Then cut into bars while they’re still warm—way easier than if they’re cold. I like to use a dough knife, but a regular knife works fine too.

I found it took a little practice to get this recipe the way I wanted it. The first time, I made it with four cups of Grape-Nuts (that was what the recipe on the box called for) and then I pressed way too hard. The result was hard to bite into, and I thought they were fine but boring. That’s when I started tampering with different ingredients, though I almost always still use 2 cups of Grape-Nuts. I also didn’t pack the bars into the pan quite as hard.

I’m getting the feeling from comments on my last post that freezer meals are one of the best things to give a new mom, and I totally agree: one of my favorite gifts after the twins were born was an enormous pan of pasta and meatballs that I ate for about a week, feeling nourished and comforted every time.

I am more a baker than a cook, however. I have a million good recipes for muffins, brownies, cookies, etc., and I will make her some muffins (and maybe some brownies–I’m remembering that the woman who brought the pasta and meatballs also brought a big plate of brownies, which were excellent for morale), but I would also like to make her a good hearty freezer meal. Would anyone like to contribute a good recipe or two? If you’d like to, email me (swistle at gmail dot com) with the recipe and with how you’d like to be credited (name or pseudonym, url if you want), and I’ll post them in a few days.

You probably thought nothing could top the Chocolate-Crusted Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe, and you’re right, but I do have another contribution for your developing “pumpkin + chocolate” recipe collections. This one is partly my own invention (that is, I used an existing recipe but made some significant modifications and substitutions), and it is Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Muffins. I like to double the recipe so I can eat an entire dozen before anyone notices.

Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Muffins

1 c. canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. cinnamon
2-1/4 c. flour
3/4 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together salt, baking powder, cinnamon, flour, and chocolate chips. Combine contents of two bowls and mix. Spoon into 12 papered muffin tins. Bake 25-30 minutes.

It is happy Thanksgiving again, and thankful I am indeed to be going to someone else’s house for dinner. Also, nothing is quite as delicious on a queasy pregnant tum as huge heaps of turkey and mashed potatoes and corn. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I plan to still be eating long after everyone else has left the table to work on the clean-up.

I am making the chocolate-crusted pumpkin cheesecake I bring each year, and also a raspberry-cranberry Jell-o salad I make for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can always find the Jell-o recipe easily in the cookbook: it’s the page that is dyed completely pink from previous years’ spills.

I will give you the recipe in case you want it for next year, because it is indeed delish. Shuss.

The night before you want to make it: Put a 10-ounce bag of frozen raspberries (or I think the ones at my supermarket are 12 ounces, and I use that) in the fridge to thaw, in a bowl to catch the juice that will otherwise leak out of the package and all over your refrigerator, making a nasty surprise when you look inside the next morning at breakfast time.

When you’re ready to make it: In the mixer, put one can of jellied cranberry sauce, plus two 3-ounce packages of raspberry Jell-o powder (I use the sugar-free kind instead, not to save calories but to save “heaviness”: the recipe seems so much more filling with the sugar, and I can’t taste the difference using the sugar-free instead), and mix them up. Then add two cups of boiling water, CAREFULLY, remembering my stained cookbook, and blend it all up for awhile until the cranberry sauce is totally dissolved. Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and blend a little more. Pour into a 1.5 quart bowl, and put it into the fridge. Stir it about every 30 minutes for 1-1/2 or 2 hours, and when it seems pretty thickened add the thawed raspberries (and any leaked juice, too). Stir the raspberries in, and then leave the bowl alone to set completely. I usually make this first thing in the morning and it’s ready by suppertime, but if you have your Thanksgiving meal earlier in the day you should make it the night before.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in the U.S.! Happy Thursday, everyone else!

Crust:
9 oz (half package) Oreos, crushed (eat other half of package while cooking)
1/4 c. sugar
6 T. butter, melted

Pumpkin mixture:
1-1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
5 oz evaporated milk
1 t. vanilla

Cheese mixture:
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1-1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cloves
salt (the recipe doesn’t say how much, and I don’t remember how much I used last year–maybe 1/2 t.?)
24 oz softened cream cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the three crust ingredients. Press mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 9×13-inch pan. Bake until crust is set, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool crust completely.

In a bowl, stir together the five pumpkin mixture ingredients. Set aside.

In the mixer, mix all the cheese mixture ingredients EXCEPT the cream cheese. When mixed, add the cheese and beat on high speed until smooth. Take out 1/4th of the cheese mixture and set it aside to be used two steps from now. [Note: I no longer do this last step. The taken-out cheese mixture never did what it was supposed to do, so I just stopped doing it, and it is just as good if not better; plus it is less fuss.]

With mixer running at low speed, add pumpkin mixture to the cheese mixture and mix until combined and smooth.

Pour pumpkin mixture into pan. Drop dollops of the reserved cheese mixture over the pumpkin mixture. Use a thin metal spatula or knife to gently pull the cheese dollops through the pumpkin to make swirls. [Note: This is the other part I no longer do: no reserved cheese mixture,  and so no dolloping, no frustrating attempts to “swirl” the unswirlable clumps.]

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, or until center of cheesecake is just set. Remove from oven and cool 30 minutes. Cover and chill for a few hours. Eat in handfuls directly from pan in fridge. Or, slice it into squares and serve it on plates, I guess, if that’s the way you want to do it.