I’m making plans about cooking for Thanksgiving and I wanted to share an absolutely awesome recipe with you. It is seriously the bee’s knees. It’s the bomb. It raises pumpkin pie to new level. And every one of the seven males in my house love it. You know what, I think I’ll serve it for breakfast on Thanksgiving! That would be a real surprise to my family and would probably make them very thankful!

This was taken from a very old grocery store recipe book called “Homemade with Love” from Kraft. They called it Paradise Pumpkin Pie.

1 9″ unbaked pastry crust

For the cheesecake layer:
1 8oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

For the pumpkin layer:
1 1/4 cup pumpkin (canned is fine)
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
dash salt
maple syrup, just about a tablespoon full
pecan halves (for decoration)

Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla, mixing on medium. Blend in egg. spread on bottom of pastry crust.

Combine remaining ingredients, except syrup and pecans. Mix well and pour slowly and carefully over the cream cheese layer. Bake at 350 degrees for 65 minutes. Cool. Spoon syrup over top and gently spread over pie. Use pecans in patterns to decorate the top. Two pecan halves side by side and touching at the top look kind of like leaves – very pretty. Enjoy!