Pumpkin-Caramel Cheesecake-TO DIE FOR!!!

I may have put this on my blog before...but if not, i apologize because you've been missing out! For the last few years I've been making this yummy cheesecake for Thanksgiving! You've got to try it, I promise you'll love it!

The recipe is from Betty Crocker

CRUST:
1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (homemade or store bought both work great)
3 T sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

FILLING:
3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened (do not use margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned 100% pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup caramel topping
3 tablespoons flour
3 eggs (room temperature)

TOPPING:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Wrap foil around outside of bottom and side of 9-inch springform pan to catch drips. Spray bottom of pan with cooking spray (if you put parchment down, spray it too). In a small bowl, stir crust ingredients until well mixed. Press isture in bottom of pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set.
2. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smooth and creamy. Beat in 1/2 cup butter until creamy. Do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in 1 cup sugar. Add pumpkin; beat until blended. Beat in caramel topping and flour. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F. Pour filling into partially baked crust. Place springform in large roasting pan; pour hot water into roasting pan until one-fourth full. ( if i'm in a hurry i skip this step, turns out fine). Bake 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes or until edges of cheesecake is set at least 2 inches from edge of pan but center of cheeseake still jiggles slightly when moved. Cool completely in pan on cooling rack, about 1 hour. Refrigerate at least 8 hours before serving.
4. In chilled medium bowl, beat toping ingredients with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
   

HAPPY EATING!!!

Thanksgiving Break-Boredom Buster

When your kids are off of school and have lost sight of their good fortune of a week's vacation....one has to turn to the ultimate boredom buster...peanut butter playdough!!

18 oz. peanut butter
6-8 T honey
1/4c + powdered sugar
dry milk

Mix together until not sticky (consistency like bread dough). The measurements are really variable. Just do it to taste. (if you want you can add in some cocoa) Refrigerate for 15 minutes, and create.

Flowers on my tree

Here are the latest flowers that are blooming in our yard! This tree decided to bloom and we were surprised to see that the flowers were magenta! The other ones we have are white.

Torrey Pines State Park

We found ourselves at home, on a Saturday, with time on our hands.....so we drove down to Torrey Pines State Park in LaJolla. We looked at the stuffed animals & creatures in the shop and then hiked a trail down to the beach. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a good time!

We were trying to get all 3 kids to look at the camera and smile....AT THE SAME TIME!
I yelled out, "1, 2, 3 say hi to grandma!"...Carley yelled back, "say hi to grandpa"!
It was funny & cute, she's obsessed.

At the end of our hike we were rewarded with this!

Then it was time to hike back up the cliff...took a lot longer, but we made it!

Kids, Perfect Light & A Camera

The other morning I opened the shutters in my room and it filled with the most wonderful light. I tried to get my kids to sit for a few photos. I didn't get to take very many because they are starting to get to that point, you know, where if they see my camera they scatter! Anyhew, I think the background of these is a bit dull, but they're works in progress.

Here are my 3 favorite shots:

Photography Class

For the past 8 weeks I've been taking a photography class. It's been so much fun! I feel like I've gained a lot of knowledge about how to use my camera, composition, editing, work flow, printing, etc. The class covered it all and I can't wait to take another one!

A business plan is in the works, and my portfolio is finally in a place that I'm proud of. I feel it's a good representation of where I am as a very armature photographer with lots of room to grow. I will post more pics in the next few days. I've taken a lot of photos for friends that I want to share. I don't know that I really aspire to do portraits, but I don't mind doing them. I am most inspired and excited about macro photography and sometimes that comes out in my portraiture.

I haven't shown any of my work yet, and right now feels like a good time to put it out there. I'm going to post a series of photos over the next few days or week perhaps, you never know how much time you're going to have when you have kids. Any feedback would be highly appreciated.

This first post has pictures from my class assignments:

Week 1, objective: Take 20 shots of the same object. Try to get different angles and an interesting photograph.

This light coming over the avocado grove into this lane was beautiful. Notice the triangle (from tractor to front of photo) that is supposed to draw your eye in and be appealing.

Here is my other shot of the tractor. It possesses the element of intrigue.

Week 2 objective: learn to use proper exposure and white balance.

White balance is what makes whites look white no matter the lighting conditions.
It is also a huge factor in how skin tones appear.

Week 4-another exercise in white balance and color correcting.

Week 5 objective: Portraits. We had a field trip to a Halloween costume party. We took portraits under a complete studio set up. I decided to use my macro lens b/c everyone else was using 50 or 100mm lenses. I didn't want my photos to be just like theirs so I took only tight shots. This was great as a secondary source, but it also presented a lot of limitations on highlighting the entire costume.

This was taken by my teacher during set up.
We all took turns being the model so everyone could get ready.

This is some of the people in my class & teacher.

I took tons of photos. People had really cool costumes, some were very impressive.
Here are some of my best shots.

I loved this guy.
He was a nerd and his pants which you can't see in this shot were just to die for!
He was in character the entire time, so funny!

I thought this was a unique costume. He is windblown!

This is one of my favorite shots b/c of this guys smile. He was posing with 3 other guys, they came together. I thought that it really captured the mood of the moment. A good candid shot!

Week 6 objective: Photoshop.

This picture is actually 2 photos (1 color/1 black & white) that have been layered on top of one another. The I applied a layer mask to allow the color from the sign to show through. I think it turned out rather nice!

Class 7 objective: Black & White. Black & white photographs aren't for everyone,
but I love Love LOVE them. It was fun to go out and try to find things that would translate well into black & white. I used to think everything looked better in b/w, but I don't anymore.