nom nom nom thanksgiving!

so thanksgiving kicks off my favorite time of the year! holiday music, pumpkin, good food, good company and something I did not expect... hennessy shots with the fam? anyway, point is I look forward to this holiday EVERY year... I was invited to a holiday fat burn... which entailed burning fat during thanksgiving and xmas... and I couldn't do it because the thought of having to skip dessert and skimp on the butter in the turkey was unbearable.. First off, I'll post a picture of my turkey. I used the michigander style recipe on allrecipe.com. I've been using it for several years now and have made a couple changes each year.. chopped veggies and fresh herbs here and there but the recipe itself is solid and makes a great moist turkey.

what i was REALLY excited about was dessert. everyone knows i LOVE LOVE LOVE pumpkin and i also LOVE bread pudding. When I came across the recipe for pumpkin bread pudding I was absolutely sold... besides I'm usually pretty hesitant about making pumpkin pie since it sells at 3.99 at ralphs... I topped my bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream and slightly burnt caramel sauce because I liked the burnt sugar taste :)

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Adapted from a recipe in Gourmet, October 2007

Ingredients:
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread*
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 cup pecan, chopped (optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoons ground pumpkin pie spice or all spice
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, and more chopped pecans, for garnish

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss bread cubes with butter in a bowl and set aside.

Whisk together the rest of the ingredients in another bowl, then pour pumpkin/cream mixture over the bread. Toss to coat the bread well.  Let it sit, covered, for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator to let the custard absorb into the bread.

Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Alternatively, for individual servings, divide and transfer to 6 ramekins.