Because I sometimes bake things that I really shouldn’t.  Case in point:

It’s pumpkin rum cake with walnuts (I didn’t have pecans like the recipe called for but whatev’) and it definitely is NOT low fat, low sugar or low calorie.  Suffice to say it used 2.5 sticks of butter, 4 eggs, and 2.5 cups of sugar.  And there’s alcohol too, the real stuff, only don’t tell hubby, but I added it early in the cooking process so most of the alcohol probably cooked off.

But for anyone game to try it, which I recommend if you’re feeling naughty or lucky enough not to have to worry about any of the previously mentioned issues, here’s the recipe:

2 sticks of butter softened (1 cup)
1 cup of packed brown sugar
1 cup of sugar
15 oz. canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 T pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 cups flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Glaze:
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
2 T water (I used 2 T of Captain Morgan’s rum and 1/2 T water and skipped the extract below)
1 tsp rum extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, spice, soda and salt) and set aside.
2. Beat 2 sticks of softened butter with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup packed brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add 4 eggs and beat well.
4. Add canned pumpkin and 1 tsp vanilla.
5. Gradually combine flour and pumpkin mixtures; mix well.
6. Place 3/4 cup of chopped nuts on bottom of greased 12-cup bundt pan.
7. Pour batter over nuts.
8. Bake in preheated 325 degree oven for 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean.
9. Cool 10 minutes then make holes in cake with long pick.
10. Make glaze by melting 1/4 cup of butter in a small saucepan. Stir in 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 T of rum and 1/2 T of water. Bring to a boil then remove from heat. If using rum extract, mix in 2 T water only then add rum extract after removing from heat.
11. Pour 1/2 of glaze over cake while still in pan. Let stand 5 minutes.
12. Invert cake onto plate and repeat with remaining glaze. Allow to cool (but no one in my family can ever wait that long.)

Oo-la-la.

I go all out for Thanksgiving whether we have guests or not.  We used to have our friends from Seattle visit nearly every year for the feast and Black Friday, but alas they moved to Albuquerque.  This year we had my husband’s brother and his wife visit us from Denver.

For the meal, I make everything, including the yeast bread, from scratch.  Everything except for the pumpkin pie and Cool Whip topping which I buy frozen because I hate both and they’re usually pretty cheap to buy on sale this time of year.

So, I had two debut dishes that were big hits–Colorful corn medley and Satsuma mandarin orange cheesecake.  The cheesecake recipe is in the November issue of Cooking Light magazine.  The corn medley is reprinted below from Taste of Home Digest:

Colorful Corn Medley (from Taste of Home Thanksgiving 2009)

1 med green pepper, chopped (I used a yellow one which wasn’t the best color but was the only pepper I had)
1 small onion chopped
3 tablespoons butter
4 cups of corn (9 ears fresh or frozen–I used frozen)
1/4 cup hot water
1 (2 oz) jar diced pimentos, drained
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

1.  In a large skillet, saute green pepper and onion in butter until tender. Add corn, water, pimentos, honey, salt and pepper.

2.  Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 8-10 minutes or until corn is tender. Sprinkle with cheese and bacon (though I mixed mine in to distribute it).

Only my husband ventured out for Black Friday.  He left around 4:15 AM to go to Best Buy.   I’m surfing the web in my jammies, having already checked my company’s Canadian bank account clearings to make sure no counterfeits slipped through.  It wasn’t a holiday in Canada yesterday or today–they had theirs last month–and doing the account review on Thanksgiving and the day after is my annual gift to my staff who normally do it.

I may do some online shopping later, because that’s how I like to shop now.  Black Friday on the web is more like Green Friday–you can spend a lot of cash and never have to fight a single crowd.

We’ll see what… interesting… items hubby comes back with.  He sometimes gets caught up in the frenzy of the hunt.  Last year, he stocked up on flash drives (??) and digital picture frames.  Admittedly, the latter made great Christmas gifts.  This year he’s in search of a $500 HP computer,  including monitor, only eight of which will be at each Best Buy store today.  Lots of luck to him.