Graduation!

As some of you may know Brian graduated yesterday. It's been a challenge at times, but overall has been a great privilege to be a part of Brian's last semester of his engineering degree. As I've mentioned before, Brian did the best he could to create a stable homelife for us by fitting all of his projects, homeworks, and classes into a 8-5 (which most days looked more like 7-5) work day. He finished up with the best grades of his college career. I'm so proud of the work he's done.

His family was proud too :) They came up from the Springs for his early graduation (9:30am) which means they had to get up WAY early. After one of the most genuinely interesting graduations I've been to, we went to Jose O'Shea's to eat some yummy mexican and then back to our place to have pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Brian made the crust:

1 1/2 graham cracker crumbs

5 T melted butter

1 T sugar

I made the filling:

3- 8oz.pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. allspice

Mix crust ingredients together, just till coated and crumbly. Press onto the bottom and 2/3 up the sides of an 8" springform pan. Bake for 5 min. at 350. Set aside.

Combine cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl, mix until smooth with an electric mixer. add pumpkin eggs, and spices, beat till smooth and creamy. Pour into the crust. Bake for 60 min. or till the top turns a bit darker. Remove from oven and allow to come to room temperature, then refrigerate. After it has thoroughly chilled, remove the pan sides and cut

I also added a small top layer:

8-10 oz sour cream

1/4 c sugar

1 t vanilla

Spread this evenly after cake has been in the oven for 1 hour and bake 5-10 more minutes.

The cheesecake turned out to be good. I was a little worried since I combined three different recipes to make it ;) The time with family was even better though.

Congratulations Brian!