In 2005, when I went to Europe for the first time, I visited my junior high pen pal Catia in Luxembourg. She taught me how to make tiramisu and sent me back over the pond with several packages of lady fingers.

Last year on my first date with Greg at the Indian restaurant down the street, over my saag paneer, he invited me out for a second date. But this wouldn't be just any second ate: he asked me to go to a party his friends were having. That meant it was trial by fire since we barely knew each other.

Then he proceeded to tell me he was supposed to bring a dessert to go with the Italian theme. He said he was going to buy something. While I knew he was a forty-something bachelor, I was horrified he would consider buying a dessert and offered to make tiramisu. Not knowing me and believing it was too much time, he insisted I didn't do it.

But I did.

It took some work on my part to find lady fingers (World Market is the best place) nor did I have enough time to make them. But the dessert was a hit and his friends told me he could definitely bring me back to future parties.

Instead of making something traditional yesterday for Thanksgiving, I made pumpkin tiramisu. I love pumpkin and I'm always looking for new ways to use. I was short a package of lady fingers (something I didn't realize until about 5:30 pm Wednesday night- a time when I was not going near any store!).

Once again, the tiramisu was a hit. I didn't use the cream topping- to me it's overkill- nor the shavings. The great part about pumpkin is that it's very flavorful and with the sugar and cream, becomes just sweet enough to become a delicious dessert.

Greg told me I will need a trifle bowl if I want to continue to make desserts and when I offered to add one to our wedding registry, he said, "Anything that will encourage you to make more desserts."

You can find the Food & Wine pumpkin tiramisu recipe here.