Pumpkin Creme Brulee and Drunken Apple Sauce

So awhile back, before Lilly and I really knew each other that well, we bonded over the fact that we both enjoyed pumpkin seasonal (*coughandnotsoseasonalcough*) treats. Over the summer Lilly had emailed me this recipe, which looked amazing. However the other day when the opportunity arose to finally make it we didn't have heavy cream. However, looking at the amount of cream and egg yolks needed for this recipe made me feel for my heart, and specifically how I don't want it to feel attacked :/ I know, not something I should really worry about, but I do. 

So instead I followed this recipe, which better matched the amount of certain ingredients we had on hand. Namely, I had made a pumpkin cheesecake (maybe if you're all lucky one day I'll make a post on that, it's to die for) for Lilly's birthday and had the left over pumpkin puree (which to be honest I at no point actually measured, but I suspect it was probably a little over what the recipe called for) and 2 cups cream leftover from making whipped cream. We also had 4 egg yolks saved in the fridge from something else we had made, maybe one of the batches of muffins a few weeks ago? Who knows. I wasn't great about measure all the ingredients perfectly. I didn't use cloves, and I used 2 cups of cream instead of 1.5 and half a cup of milk. 

  

I'll admit it. I didn't bake them long enough. At all. Even after a few hours of refrigeration they were still liquid on the inside. That didn't stop me from trying one, but it made Lilly queasy just watching me do it. So the next day I re-baked them, and once they were finally cooked they were totally fine (though honestly, they were still delicious even when they weren't fully cooked!)

Side note: I'm not sure how safe it is to photograph yourself using a little butane torch, but it's certainly somewhat challenging. 

A day or two after the pumpkin creme brulee experience, Lilly and I were going to an informal potluck that I had to make something for kind of last minute. We had a few apples (four, to be exact) in the fridge that were on the brink of going bad, so I decided to make applesauce with them. For those of you who have never made homemade applesauce, you should try it sometime (it tastes amazing warm over vanilla ice cream!) it's super easy. All you gotta do is peel and chop those bad boys up and then simmer them in a pot with some water and (cinnamon) / (nutmeg) / (sugar) / (ginger) to taste (all those parenthesized things are optional, but what I tend to use). I also got this crazy idea: we had about half a glass of red wine left in a bottle that had been there for over a month. Clearly no one was about to drink it, so I threw it in the pot. And honestly? I think that was a fine decision :)