The Great Pumpkin and other foods

In honor of fall (or the 90 degree fall Louisiana is experiencing), I made a pumpkin creme brulee' last night. I'm a huge creme brulee' fan and when and if I get dessert at a restaurant, if it's available, I usually order it. This recipe is good. Burning your finger on crystallizing sugar -- not so much. After that recipe, I've posted a BLT dip that I also made last night, which was a hit.

Pumpkin Crème Brulee

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup coarse sugar or raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until it comes to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse at least 15 minutes. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar. Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream mixture. Whisk in the pumpkin puree. Pour the mixture into 4 ovenproof ramekins and arrange in a hot water bath. Bake in the center of the oven until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan; it will firm up more as it cools. Remove from the water bath and let cool 15 minutes. Tightly cover each ramekin with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, preheat a broiler to very hot (or fire up your kitchen torch). Uncover the chilled custards. Pour as much coarse sugar as will fit onto the top of 1 of the custards. Pour off the remaining sugar onto the next custard. Repeat until all the custards are coated. Discard any remaining sugar. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool 1 minute before serving.

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BLT Dip
1 c. Sour Cream
1 c. mayonaise
1 lb bacon
1 med. tomato cut up.

Mix all ingredients together and serve with toast or crackers. To cut the fat, I used lite sour cream and light mayo. Instead of real greasy bacon, I bought a bottle of real bacon bits and poured the whole bottle in,