Happy National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day! Now, dig in with this easy recipe

Need a holiday to appease your sweet tooth between now and Halloween? Well, grab a fork, forget about calories and celebrate, because today is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day.

Traditional cheesecake got its day on July 30 and blueberry cheesecake gets a day to itself on May 26, but we think it’s fitting that pumpkin cheesecake gets a holiday (yes, we consider it a holiday—shouldn’t we get the day off of work?) to call its own in October. After all, come Thanksgiving it will be overshadowed by its close cousin, the pumpkin pie.

To help you dig right into the festivities, here’s one of our fave recipes (that just so happens to be super-easy, too), courtesy of Kraft. Oh, and if you prefer to make this a meal, we won’t tell.

THREE-STEP PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

Ingredients:

• 2 packages Philadelphia Cream Cheese (8 oz. each) softened
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ cup canned pumpkin
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• Dash ground cloves
• Dash ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 ready-to-use graham cracker crumb crust
• 1 cup thawed Cool Whip topping

Directions:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and spices in a large bowl until blended. Add eggs, beating just until blended. Pour mixture into crust.
• Bake for 40 minutes (make sure the center is almost set) and then refrigerate for 3 hours.
• Top with Cool Whip.

No time to bake, but you want to give pumpkin cheesecake the attention it deserves any time of year? Order individual pumpkin cheesecakes, on sale for $11.99 for four, from Omaha Steaks. They come with a spiced graham cracker crust. Just drizzle on some Dulce de Leche, caramel or chocolate.