I found these cool little pumpkins at an awesome local store called, "The Root Cellar." I thought: hey, I like cheesecake and I like pumpkin, so I combined the two: a mini-pumpkin filled with pumpkin flavored cheesecake.

Ingredients:

• Five to six small (baseball sized) pumpkins
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 packages of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 3 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup nuts (pecans or pistachios) (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450°
2. Cut the tops off of the pumpkins. Scoop out the seeds (discard or use them to make roasted seeds).
3. Scoop out the innards from inside the pumpkin flesh, until the shell is a maximum 1/2" thick.
4. Place pumpkin innards, water, brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in saucepan. Stew until the pumpkin is soft and the water has evaporated or combined with the pumpkins.
5. Spoon 1 teaspoon of butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon into each hollowed out pumpkin. Put the lids on the pumpkins. Then give them a shake to distribute the butter.
6. Place pumpkins on a cookie sheet and bake for approx 20 min.
7. In a blender, combine cream cheese and sugar. Beat until smooth and well integrated.
8. Add in stewed pumpkin and blend into the mix
9. Add in eggs, one at a time to thoroughly beat them into the mix
10. Add in remaining cinnamon and allspice
11. Add in remaining butter and beat until the butter is well integrated
12. Remove pumpkins from oven. Spoon cheesecake batter into each of the hollowed pumpkins. Nestle nuts into the top of each pumpkin cheesecake.
13. Replace into oven. Bake for 15 minutes
14. Lower heat to 200°. Bake for 45 minutes
15. Remove from heat, allow to cool in refridgerator for 6 hours.
16. Garnishment suggestions: whipping cream, cinnamon, allspice, pistachios