Recipe: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bars

My feathering did not come out so good...

'Tis the season! I love all things pumpkin, and when I was invited to a party over the weekend, I knew I had to bring some sort of pumpkin dessert. I have made many pumpkin desserts in my time (see the list at the bottom of this post), but I wanted to try something different. And since I always have cream cheese in the house given my husband's obsession with bagels, this recipe from Pop Sugar was a no-brainer. 

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar, divided
• 3 large eggs, divided
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 13-by-9-inch casserole dish.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Whisk in 2 eggs, pumpkin, and 1/3 cup water until well blended. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and nutmeg. Fold into the butter mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Spread batter evenly in the prepared casserole dish.
3. In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, remaining egg, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.
4. Drop cream cheese mixture in evenly spaced 1-tablespoon dollops over the batter. Use a butter knife to swirl the batter, gently folding some of the cream cheese mixture under the pumpkin batter.
5. Bake until the center of pumpkin batter (not the cream cheese mixture) springs back when touched, about 30 to 32 minutes. Let cool completely in pan and then cut into 20 bars.

I pretty much stuck to this recipe, although I just sprayed the pan instead of using butter/flour. Everything else was the same. The pumpkin part tastes great, just as you'd expect. But the cream cheese part is a little... claggy, somewhat gelatinous. The cream cheese was not room temperature, so perhaps microwaving it a little to soften it messed things up? Unsure. I think what would taste better would simply be cream cheese frosting on top. But not a total waste!

Other pumpkin recipes:

• Pumpkin spice muffins
• Pumpkin oatmeal muffins
• Pumpkin caramel cupcakes
• Pumpkin spice crumble
• Pumpkin peanut butter cookies
• Chewy [pumpkin] coconut cookies
• Pumpkin swirl brownies
• Soft pumpkin chocolate chip bars
• Chocolate chip pumpkin bread
• Applesauce Pumpkin Bread
• Easy Pumpkin Roll (I remember I was especially proud of myself making this for Thanksgiving during COVID. My dad doesn't like pumpkin desserts, but he loved this one, probably because of all the cream cheese icing!)
• Several recipes from this magazine!

Recipe: Marry Me Chicken

 

I have heard of "marry me" dishes before (chicken, pasta, etc.), but I had never tried it before. I wanted to make a nice meal before the fast for Yom Kippur began, so I tried this recipe from Southern Living. I thought it turned out pretty well!

Ingredients

• 4 (3-oz.) chicken breast cutlets (about 1/2-in. thick)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (such as Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc)
• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, plus more for garnish
• 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
• Basil leaves, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat a stainless steel or enameled cast-iron skillet over medium heat, then add olive oil and 2 Tbsp. butter to the skillet. As the butter melts, season the chicken cutlets with salt and black pepper.
2. Add the chicken cutlets to the skillet and cook until the outsides are lightly browned and the interior reaches a temperature of 165°F (approximately 2-3 minutes on each side).
3. Transfer the chicken to a plate. Cover with aluminum foil to keep warm. Do not clean the skillet.
4. Add shallot, red pepper flakes, oregano, and thyme to the skillet and cook until the shallot starts to soften, about 3 minutes.
5. Add garlic and sun-dried tomatoes to the skillet and cook 1 minute or until the garlic becomes fragrant.
6. Add tomato paste to the skillet and stir to coat the vegetables. Cook 1 minute, or until fragrant.
7. Pour the white wine and chicken broth into the skillet and cook, scraping up any flavorful bits from the bottom of the skillet.
8. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the heavy cream to the skillet. Stir to combine and simmer until the sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes.
9. Return the chicken cutlets to the skillet and simmer in the sauce until the sauce clings to the chicken (about 4 minutes).
10. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
11. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and the balsamic vinegar to the skillet and stir until the butter fully melts into the sauce. Garnish with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and fresh basil leaves.

First of all, I skipped the entire part about cooking the chicken on a skillet. It's so much faster in the air fryer! So while the chicken was cooking in the air fryer, I started making the sauce right away. I didn't have all the ingredients or spices, but I used what I had (parsley instead of time, pasta sauce instead of tomato paste, etc.). Making the sauce was very easy!

After I had added the chicken to the sauce, I served everything over penne pasta (I already had leftovers of that, so I just quickly microwaved the noodles). I thought this recipe was good, but I might add mushrooms and/or spinach in the future just to have some more veggies (we made side salads instead). I would certainly make this recipe again!