Home Cooked Sunday: Fall Themed

Tonight our menu is fall inspired.  We had a couple of days this week that were pretty cool.  We even turned our air conditioning off for a few days, and it made me want to make a something warm that tastes like fall.  When I think about fall food, I picture stew slow cooking all day and filling the house with a delicious aroma, maybe a warm apple or pear cobbler, chili, root vegetables, squash, pumpkin, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.  So, it's probably not quite cold enough to keep the air off and bundle up, but tonight we are going to crank up the air and enjoy some warm soup and a pumpkin infused dessert.  Fall will get here, even if it's just a few days between now and winter. :)

Menu
Dinner: Taco Soup and Corn Bread
Dessert: Pumpkin Cheesecake

Taco Soup

recipe adapted from one by Paula Deen

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. ground beef
• half of an onion, diced
• 1 (15.5 oz.) can pinto beans, drained
• 1 (15.5 oz.) can pink kidney beans
• 2 (15.25 oz.) cans whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
• 2 (14.5 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
• 1-2 (14.5 oz.) cans tomatoes with green chiles (depending on how much spice you like.  I stuck with 1.)
• 1 (1.25 oz.) package taco seasoning mix
• 1 (1 oz.) package ranch salad dressing mix
• beef broth, to add moisture if needed
• Corn chips for serving
• Sour cream for garnish
• Grated cheese for garnish
• Chopped green onions for garnish

Directions

Brown the ground beef and onion in a large dutch oven, drain excess fat, then transfer back to pot or slow cooker.  Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix, and cook for 6-8 hours in a slow cooker or simmer for 1 hour in pot on the stove.  If the soup needs more moisture throughout cooking, add beef broth for desired consistency.  To serve, place a few corn chips in a bowl and ladle soup on top.  Top with desired garnishes. 

I also made corn bread to go with the soup.  This one is perfect for dunking!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

recipe courtesy of Paula Deen

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:
In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch spring form pan. Set aside.

For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Happy Fall... even if we have to pretend it's cold outside and our leaves are changing colors!  This is the last week of law school classes before finals start, so prayers for JW and our other law school friends to finish strong are appreciated.