What's For Dessert? - 4th of July Rhubarb Crumble Pie

It seems as though this time of year is busier and more eventful than the Christmas season! I hope all of you had a wonderfully patriotic Independence Day!  Piper and I attended a killer BBQ at a friend's home and I decided to try my hand at rhubarb. This was totally new for me, and from what I gathered this recipe was a winner!  The best part about it is the freedom to improvise a little and you can cheat by buying frozen rhubarb in the frozen fruit section of your grocery store!

~Ingredients~

Filling - 

1 lb rhubarb, cut into 1-inch pieces

3/4 cups of white sugar

1/8 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

1 graham cracker crust

Crumble topping - 

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup of butter (or a 1/2 stick), cut into pieces

dash of cinnamon

dash of cardamom

dashes of vanilla extract

~Instructions~

1.  Preheat oven to 375.  In a medium bowl, mix together the rhubarb, white sugar, 1/8 cup of flour, vanilla extract, and ground cardamom.  Spoon into a graham cracker crust.

 2.  In a food processor, pulse together the 1/2 cup of flour, salt, and brown sugar.

 3.  Add the butter and pulse until butter pieces are pea-sized.

 4.  Spread topping over rhubarb mixture.  At this point, I sprinkled more cinnamon and cardamom on top and dolloped splashes of vanilla randomly over the crumble topping.

 5.  Bake for 35-45 minutes until the top is slightly browned and your house smells like a baking utopia of goodness.  Enjoy!!

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What's For Dessert? - Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

I'm backtracking a little here by blogging past recipes, but this particular dessert was requested multiple times after its initial debut.  Obviously this pumpkin dessert is most popular during the fall, especially for those of you cheesecake lovers who still enjoy the cozy and nostalgic taste of pumpkin. Plus, at the age of 3 months, Piper really enjoyed experiencing all of the smooshy textures as I'm sure your infant will!  Enjoy!

~Ingredients~

2 (8 oz) packages of softened cream cheese
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of cloves
pinch of nutmeg
whipped cream

~Instructions~

1.  Preheat oven to 325.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until it's smooth. Blend in the eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of this batter and spread into the graham cracker crust and set aside.
3.  Let your child squish the pumpkin in his/her hands and taste it. Be ready for MESSYHANDS!

4.  Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter that's already in the crust.  Letting your baby stir is always fun....

 5.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the center is done (test with a knife...if it comes out clean, it's done).

 6.  Refrigerate for 3 hours and top with whipped cream.

.....BEAUTIFUL!......

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