Thanksgiving Recipe:Pumpkin Marbled Cheesecake

*From the kitchen of Christian Comedian Bob Smiley*

Ingredients :
1 and 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (When I was growing up, my family was poor, so I used sugar cookies left over from our church party)
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans ( Actually, no one liked pecans, so I used one cup of sugar instead)
1/2 cup butter (We couldn't afford air conditioning, so all our butter was melted)
24 oz  softened cream cheese (To soften it, I'd carry the stick of cream cheese in my pocket while riding my bike for thirty minutes)

1 1/4 cup sugar (I went to public school, so I didn't know what a "1/4" was. I just went with two cups)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I didn't know how to extract vanilla from something, so I just put in one vanilla wafer
4 large eggs (I grew up on a farm, so I used turkey eggs. After all, they were large!)
1 1/2 cups  pumpkin puree (Ask a french guy what puree means
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (Again, we didn't have cinnamon, so I used cinnamon chewing gum)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I actually had my friend Mag grind up some almonds)

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (This wasn't a problem because our Texan oven stayed about 250 degrees even when it wasn't on)

Step 2: Combine gingersnap crumbs, pecans, and butter. Press onto pan (not, well, never mind) and 1 1/2 inches up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan (I used a metal bucket.) Bake for 10 minutes. Remove and cool.

Step 3: Combine cream cheese, 2/3 cup sugar, and vanilla, mixing at medium speed on electirc mixer until well blended (We didn't have a mixer, so I had my little brother mash it up with his hand, but he did it at medium speed, because we like to follow directions to a T) Add eggs, one at a time (or as the turkey could lay them)< beating well after each addition (the egg, not the turkey) Remove one cup batter from mixture and chill. Add remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices to remaining batter; mix well (may have to use a different family member if your brother's arm is tired) Alternately layer pumpking and cream cheese batters over the gingersnap crust. Swirl knife through the layers of the batter to create a marble effect. (Note: This won't look like a marble. The directions really messed with me the first time I made this. I couldn't get it to roll up into a ball that I could shoot across the floor!)

Step 4: Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Loosen ckae from rim of pan, cool before completely removing. Chill before serving.

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That's it! Follow these directions, and I promise you'll have a big mess- but a tasty mess!

-As seen in BRIO MAGAZINE-