Post Thanksgiving Deets

So as you may or may not know...this Monday (aka yesterday) was Thanksgiving here in the magical land of Canada.  It was lovely!

Anyhoar, Mr. Dan and I were unable to head to the relatives due to him being on-call for work all weekend. No matter to me...I decided I could cook a perfectly good Thanksgiving dinner on my own (see post here for my menu).  And it went REALLY well.  We didn't do turkey (why get a huge turkey when a small chicken will do?!) but we did do all the fixin's.  From potatoes to veggies and even some bubbly - we had it all.  And the one thing that Mr. Dan (and our two friends that showed up to help us eat all this food) said was AMAZABALLS was the cheesecake squares.  So I decided that, in the spirit of Thanksgiving...and deliciousness, I would share the recipe.  I found it on allrecipes and then did some mod's to make it work for us.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

What you'll need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons cold margarine
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter until crumbly. 
3. Set aside 3/4 cup for topping cheesecake later. 
4. Press remaining crumb mixture into a greased 8-in. square baking pan. 
5. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
6. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese (make sure it's soft!! Otherwise you'll get chunky cheesecake) and sugar. Beat in the pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and allspice. 
7. Pour over crust. 
8. Sprinkle with your crumby mixture. 
9. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 
10. Cool on a wire rack. 
11. Cut into bars. Can be stored in the fridge

ZOMG good!

This is a recipe for delicious salmon that I got from another lady on a message board.  She usually has some delicious recipes so I thought I'd try this one out while Mr. Dan was away (he doesn't do fish).  I'm REALLY glad I did.  It's FANFUCKINGTASTIC!

Enjoy!

What you'll need:

Piece of salmon big enough to serve however many you're feeding
1 container of pesto (or make your own - basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic in food processor)
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans
Container of salsa
Cilantro
Lime

What you do: 

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.  

Drain corn and black beans, mix with salsa and pour over the bottom of a deep baking dish (I like Pyrex).  Lay the piece of salmon on top - cover the fish with a decent layer of pesto.  

Squeeze lime juice over the whole thing, top with a sprikling of cilantro to taste. 

 Bake for 45 minutes, or until fish becomes flakey in the middle (test with fork).

Devour!!