Birthday

Dan turned 22 yesterday! AND in honor of his turning 22, I tried a new recipe I found on THIS awesome food blog. It's not new to the blog, but it is new to me for a number of reasons:

1. I've NEVER made cheesecake before. (I know you are all probably thinking "what the heck? who hasn't made cheesecake before?" but I'm talking about the real life actual cheesecake made from scratch. The kind of cheesecake that you put in a spring form pan and bake for 1.5 hours. NOT the jello refrigerator kind that you just put in a tin pie pan and eat right there.)
2. It was a PUMPKIN cheesecake!
3. I had to use plenty of new techniques to cook this little baby such as cooking in a spring form pan, cooking the pie in a water bath, and making the whipped cream to go on top (not cool whip)

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan-Gingersnap Crust

Anyway, it turned out so freakin' good! I'm pretty proud of myself, I must say! AND Dan loved it, which was the main purpose for making the cheesecake in the first place.

21 + 1 candles

Dan blowing out his candles

I also gave Dan a new black leather scripture case and a mixed CD with some of our favorite tunes AND a lovely homemade birthday card.

And then he took me out to dinner at Applebee's. It was a fun night :)Happy 22nd!