Cheesecake Pumpkin Muffins

In our previous post about pumpkin alfredo pasta we mentioned having extra canned pumpkin on hand after making a crowd-pleasing desert. Now we'll look at how we put together these composite goodies, which combine elements of both muffins and cheesecake.

In honor of the fall season we wanted to go with pumpkin muffins, but cheesecake is a tried and true desert we can't do without, so the two got mixed together. To start these delicious stuffed treats, Megan whips up our usual cheesecake base with cream cheese, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.

There's three main components before we start assembling everything: the cheesecake filling, the dry ingredients, and the brown sugar/pumpkin mixture. The dry ingredients are standard muffin fixings including flour, sugar, and baking soda.

Next we add canned pumpkin, softened butter, crushed nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to the brown sugar and all three main components are complete.

The pumpkin/brown sugar mixture gets folded into the dry ingredients and lightly mixed.

Eventually we get this, which is essentially pumpkin bread batter and is a nice consistency partway between wet and dry.

To assemble, we place paper liners in a muffin tin and then lay down a spoonful of pumpkin batter. Next, we spoon in a layer of cheesecake filling.

Once the cheesecake filling is in, we top the muffins with another layer of pumpkin batter.

About 20 minutes of baking later, we get these beautiful, moist muffins mixing the fall flavor of pumpkin bread with the any-time deliciousness of cheesecake.

You can of course top these with fall-themed frosting, or simply top them with a mixture of brown sugar, butter, and nuts for the last few minutes of cooking.

Novel Noodles: Pumpkin Alfredo Pasta

In the full swing of the Halloween spirit, Megan recently whipped up some truly amazing pumpkin muffins filled with cheesecake. We'll be covering how to make those filled treats soon, but first we'd like to share an interesting concoction we came up with when there was some spare canned pumpkin on hand.

We've done plenty of non-traditional pastas before, and this one again stretches the boundaries of what you'd traditionally consider as ingredients for a sauce. Here we've got canned pumpkin, which is being heated on the stovetop:

While the pumpkin was cooking, we roasted a whole bulb of garlic in the oven. If you haven't done this before, chop off the top of the garlic bulb and pull off some of the papery exterior. Set the bulb in tin foil if you don't have a garlic baker, and then throw in a dab of olive oil. Once it's done baking, the cloves easily slide out of the bulb and can be easily mashed up.

Next we added the mashed garlic to the pumpkin and then added in some heavy cream, parmesan, pepper, and butter to end up with essentially an pumpkin style Alfredo sauce.

We decided to use cheese filled ravioli for our pasta, but of course anything from penne to fettuccine would work as well.

Top it all with some extra parmesan and pepper and you've got a delicious pasta dinner well off the beaten track!

Pesto stuffed meatloaf

Meatloaf is a pretty standard meal, but there's a lot of interesting ways to jazz it up and add in unexpected flavors. Recently we tried making a stuffed meatloaf that uses an ingredient you wouldn't normally associate with this staple dinner - pesto!

We used ground pork, but of course ground beef would also work just fine. To start, we make a batch of our homemade marinara sauce, which will be used in place of the usual ketchup topping. We layer some sauce in the bottom of a baking dish before dividing our seasoned ground pork in half. The first half is spread out in a rectangle shape in the pan, then covered in a layer of delicious pesto.

Unlike with our recent blog, we didn't make the pesto from scratch this time around - this one is store bought instead.

Again going non-traditional for meatloaf, next we put on a layer of fresh spinach to add another fun green vegetable.

Spinach, pesto...what's it missing? Cheese of course! Let's take this up a notch by slicing some pepper jack and layering it on top (you could always shred it instead, but this was less messy and easier to work with as we added the various layers).

Then we add another layer of spinach and slather on some more pesto before we're ready to top this towering monstrosity.

Form the second half of the ground meat over the layers until it's all completely covered.

We topped the meat with more marinara sauce and popped it in the oven. After about an hour we get this beautiful stuffed meatloaf. It looks like we didn't fully cover a small side though, as some cheese has escaped!

Here's a look at the inside with the layers of spinach, pesto, and cheese all baked together.

Slice it up and serve with whatever sides you have on hand - we went with stuffing and a baked potato, but pasta or salad would be great as well.

This was a huge success and is going to become part of our reuglar dinner rotation, but we're also looking forward to trying this in different ways, such as using ground chicken and swapping out some of the fillings or even the sauce. Provolone with bacon and mushrooms would be great, and there's no reason it couldn't have an alfredo or cheese sauce instead of marinara.

Visiting Florida, Kentucky, and Ohio

For months we've been planning a two week trip to Florida, Kentucky, and Ohio to visit Cristal's family, Megan's family, and of course see the sights and eat the local treats!  We had a great (but physically exhausting and financially draining!) time seeing how other people live in different parts of the country, and we had the opportunity to both take some of our favorite meals to those locations and experience what they have to offer that we don't normally get to try.

Every time Cristal heads down to Florida to spend time with her parents the first stop from the airport is Joe's Crab Shack, and we didn't want to break that tradition. It's claim to fame is to serve huge pots full of crab or lobster with sides such as corn on the cob, sausage, or crab cakes. It's a big messy affair, but very fun. I wanted to try a variety of things and not spend too much of my time cracking open shells, so I went with the "East Coast" platter. One of the most interesting things featured on the plate was crab-stuffed shrimp: seafood on seafood action!

The next day we headed down to Tarpon Springs and discovered there is just randomly a Greek community of spongers in Florida. You'd think sponges wouldn't be a thing to get excited about, but they are serious about their sponges there. We had a fun time that afternoon walking through the town and seeing the various fishing attractions.

There is a whole boardwalk filled to the brim with Greek restaurants, including the award-winning Plaka, where we ate delicious overstuffed gyros. They definitely put the ones here in Great Falls to shame! Mine ended up being more a knife and fork job than a pick-up-and-eat scenario. Although we didn't get a chance to try it, many of the restaurants there specialize in flaming cheese, and the waiters yell "Opa!" while serving.

Taking advantage of the magnificent outdoor kitchen setup at Cristal's parent's home, we served them a taste of Montana for dinner that night, grilling the delicious double-pork rollup and knocking back more than a few local beers.

In the Clearwater, Florida area there's a bakery on every corner, and Cristal's mom taught half of them how to decorate cakes, so we ended up eating so many sweets this trip! Cannolis, cupcakes, cookies, and more all ended up on the table at one point or another. Taking advantage of Joyce's expertise, the girls got a free decorating lesson and made this beautiful cake (even making the frosting flowers and leaves themselves!)

So close to the water we of course had to take advantage of the fresh seafood, so Friday night we had an amazing fish fry. Besides fabulous fried shrimp and fish, Megan took a cue from Joe's Crab Shack and made some truly amazing crab cakes in the skillet using real crab and bell peppers. Unfortunately we don't seem to have gotten any pictures, but don't worry, we'll have more coming soon as we will most certainly be making those again at home.

With the warm, humid conditions and lots of water around, the landscape was covered in a variety of lizards and frogs just hopping around in backyards and even parking lots. One of them bit the dust after the fish fry however, as I startled a frog while getting a beer and it hopped right into the fryer :( Thankfully we'd finished cooking at that point, but we were all sad the little guy couldn't have the decency to jump into the batter first!

One of the last days in Florida we hit up the Lucky Dill, a famous New York style deli that piles up its sandwiches with absolutely staggering amounts of sliced meat. The place is famous for its many kinds of Reuben sandwiches, which are a favorite of mine. Sadly they were all out of the Cuban Reuben, which was what I wanted (and I can see why - the place was PACKED!) but we all still had delicious sandwiches, and the French Onion soup, usually a watery throwaway affair not worth trying at most restaurants, was legitimately delicious.

Cristal loves Megan's cheesecakes, so we decided to make one for her birthday while in Florida. We've done a ton of these with different flavors and toppings, and this time it was an Oreo crust with raspberries, Oreos, and whipped cream on top. You can see some of our previous cheesecakes - including banana cream pie and a delicious gingerbread and caramel version - by heading over here.

After Florida, we headed to Kentucky to visit Megan's mom and sister. Almost everything - weather, street layouts, scenery, and even the personalities of the people we met - couldn't have been more different between those two locations!

We went to a few diners and fast food joins we don't have in Montana that were only exciting to us because we don't get to eat them often. That being said, there was one restaurant well worth mentioning called the Copper River Grill. I saw the "Big Foot's Mother In Law" burger and immediately knew that's what be ordering, as it reminded me a bit of our fried shrimp gouda burgers. They also had fantastic looking pizzas and a delicious creamy crab soup.

Megan's sister Jayne had been dying to try many of our delicious meals that she doesn't get to experience living so far away, so we made several meals that week, starting with our spinach and pesto stuffed meatloaf. Besides the delicious filling, this meatloaf is covered with our homemade tomato sauce instead of ketchup. You can see how it all comes together at our Facebook page here.

One night several family members from the surrounding area stopped by for a barbecue, where we made our delicious barbecue chicken skewers and individual potatoes.

As you can see, it was kind of a girl's night, and I was the odd man out...

But hey, I got to try a Kentucky IPA, so it's all good!

For our final night in Kentucky we pulled out all the stops and put together the out-of-this-world pulled pork nachos, made with incredibly tender pork. To change it up, this time around we topped them with crumbled Mexican cheese instead of our usual cheese sauce.

Jayne also wanted a cheesecake, and we let her pick the specifics. Hers used a shortbread cookie crust instead of Oreos and was topped with raspberries and pieces of white chocolate.

The last two nights of our trip were spent in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our first stop upon arriving was at their amazingly massive library, where we snapped this photo in front of the book fountain:

Just a few blocks down from the library we spotted the little Tom+Chee restaurant, which we recognized from the show Man Vs. Food, so of course we had to stop in. It specializes in crazy grilled cheese sandwiches, including a grilled cheese sandwich filled with mac and cheese, and even sandwiches made with donuts instead of bread.

Megan and Jayne had turkey and pesto sandwiches, while I went with the signature grilled cheese - the Armagoetta! It's stuffed with several different kinds of hot pepper, a variety of delicious cheeses, and a local sausage called goetta. They also come with tomato soup, and by "tomato soup" they really mean "marinara sauce for dipping!"

Since we love working with non-standard ingredients and trying out new recipes, the last day in Cincinnati we spent several hours wandering around Jungle Jim's International Market. It's a grocery store so big they literally have to hand you a map when you walk in, and getting lost is not out of the question! It was a tragedy we couldn't take anything home, because we saw dozens of things we wanted to try cooking with. There were hundreds of varieties of cheeses, meats, olives, fruits, and vegetables that we just don't get easy access to in Montana. Here's a huge row of amazing looking peppers:

The beer section is like the size of an entire convenience store, and we of course picked up several we haven't tried before, including the "Pumpking," which has been nominated as one of the best seasonal pumpkin beers of all time. The back of the store has individual rooms and sections filled to the brim with ingredients from specific countries.

Of course we've seen live lobster before, but this was the first time we'd seen live tilapia you can take home to cook!

We've finally made it home and now we're going to need some down time to recuperate, but don't worry, we'll be back soon with new culinary creations!

Making Pestos

Pesto is an ingredient we love to use for both pasta and pizza, but itss something we've never actually made on our own up until this point.

Traditionally pesto is made with basil and pine nuts, but there's no reason it can't be put together with different fixings entirely. Today we'll look at two interesting variations we whipped up - sun dried tomato pesto and spinach pesto!

For our sun dried tomato version we're going to use walnuts instead of pine nuts, since they are cheaper and we're more familiar with how to cook them. To start off with we take a bag of walnuts and lightly bake them in the oven.

Next we use about half a bottle of sun-dried tomatoes, using most of the oil packed in the jar.

The tomatoes and walnuts go together in the blender or food processor.

Next we throw in a half cup of Parmesan cheese along with some standard seasonings. It all gets blended together and magically becomes delicious pesto sauce! Add more oil as necessary until you get the correct consistency.

For this pesto we cooked up some rigatoni and then tossed it with the sauce.

This was some of the most delicious pasta we've had in recent memory, and it's a fairly simple recipe. Cover it with some more Parmesan and pepper and throw together a vegetable side for a fantastic weekday dinner.

Next up we made something a little more along the lines of the traditional green pesto. For this version, we toasted almonds in the oven and then blended them with spinach and seasonings to get this thicker pesto below to use as a pizza sauce.

We topped our pesto pizza with roasted red bell peppers and mozzarella cheese.

Here's a slice of delicious pesto and pepper pizza ready to be devoured! We're looking forward to making these again, as well as trying out several new pesto variations in the future.

Bistro Pear and Ham Pizza

It's time for another crazy pizza experiment at Six-Seven-Eight. If you've seen our previous pizza blogs, you know we love to try out non-traditional ways to put together delicious baked pies using ingredients you wouldn't normally see on a menu, from various fruits like apples and strawberries to pizza recreations of sandwiches like the Rueben.

Today we've got another crazy concoction for you - a pizza made with pears and ham. To get started, we're of course making our own crust, although lately we've been using half whole wheat flour and half white flour. If you don't already have your own pizza crust recipe, you can find a bunch of great ones right here.

Making the crust is a little more time consuming, but sometimes it's half the fun! Besides being cheaper than buying pre-made crusts, these tend to be much tastier, and they have a better texture.

After the rising and kneading process, here Megan is rolling out the crust on a pizza pan.

To start our toppings, first we caramelize some diced onions on the stove top.

Next we finely chop up a few cloves of garlic (for a stronger flavor, use whole garlic cloves as a topping!)

Rather than a tomato or alfredo sauce, for this pizza we're using a homemade butter, garlic, and herb mixture.

While putting together the pizza, we realized this would be pretty awesome as a stuffed-crust, so here's some mozzarella cut into small sticks and placed around the edge.

Carefully pull up the edges of the crust and wrap it around the cheese to get the stuffed-crust effect. If you have packaged string cheese it takes a lot of the work out as you don't have to slice cheese into the correct shape ahead of time.

Next we lay down thin slices of pear and top the pizza with mozzarella. Smoked gouda or provolone would also be fantastic on this!

The next topping is thinly sliced brown sugar ham.

Finally we toss on the caramelized onions and pop the pizza in the oven.

And here it is, baked and steaming hot!

After cooling for a few minutes, it's time to slice up this delicious pie.

Another successful experiment in pizza! If you missed it before, be sure to also check out our spicy strawberry chicken pizza.