Valentines Day Cheesecake Bites

I found this lovely recipe at one of my favorite baking blogs, Buns In My Oven. They seemed like the perfect Valentine's Day treat for our work fundraiser to support the American Heart Association.

I followed the recipe exactly and these yummy morsels came out perfect! I used all three toppings; raspberry sauce, caramel, and Nutella.

Click here for recipe (and even prettier pictures!) or see below:

For the crust:
•2 cups Oreo crumbs (just crush the cookies, filling and all, in a food processor or blender
•4 tbsp butter, melted

For the topping:

•6 oz fresh raspberries
•2 tbsp sugar
•Nutella, chocolate, caramel topping (only if you want a variety of toppings, optional)

For the filling:

•2 lbs cream cheese (4 8oz packages), at room temperature

•1 1/2 cups sugar

•Pinch of salt

•1 tsp vanilla extract

•4 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Enlist your children to line the muffin pans with paper liners. Combine the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Stir together with a fork until the Oreo crumbs are moist. Spoon 1 tbsp of the crust into each paper liner. Press flat with the back of a spoon. Bake for 5 minutes to set the crust. Transfer to a cooling rack.

To make the topping, add the raspberries and sugar to a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Press through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside.

To make the filling, add the cream cheese to the bowl of your mixer. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy on medium speed. Beat in the sugar until the mixture is smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time beating until each is fully incorporated.

To assemble, add 3 tablespoons of filling to each cupcake liner/crust. Dot a 1/2 teaspoon of whichever filling you are using on to the batter 3 times. You should have 3 separate dots of filling, 1/2 teaspoon each. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl the filling in to the batter creating a pretty swirl. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes.

Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes, rotating the pans half way through. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill at least 4 hours before serving.

Yield: between 24 and 30 cupcakes

Mom's Chili

1-1 1/2 lbs. hamburger
1/2 of a yellow onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno diced
1 pkg. chili seasoning (Lawrys is best!)
12oz. tomato juice, you can use spicy if you want
1 cup water
1 can diced green chilis
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 cup el Pato jalapeno salsa
4 cans of beans: pinto, chili, kidney black, or whatever you like for beans. (Some come in a flavored sauce and you don't have to drain them, otherwise drain the others)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions and jalapeno. Add meat and brown. Add half of the chili seasoning packet and combine.  Then add the remaining ingredients and continue adding seasong packet to taste. Simmer or cook slow in a crock pot!

Sprinkle with cheese and serve with yummy bread!

Serves 4-6 depending on the size of the bowls!

Cheesecake, Oreos, raspberries, and Nutella...oh my!

Making these cheesecake bites for an American Heart Association Valentine's Day bake sale fundraiser next week. Outcome to follow!

Downtime

So I've been off my feet since my foot surgery December 15th which means I've been out of the kitchen! It's been very strange for me not to be planning dinners and making lunches every day. Our menu has changed a bit - we've relied on yogurt, granola bars, jello, and microwavable costco tamales to get us through the day. But thanks to friends and family helping us out, we've managed to squeeze in many "real" meals and enjoyed every last bite. Here are some of the highlights!

• P.F. Changs leftovers the day after surgery. Unfortunately, these went straight into the barf bag, thanks to the anesthesia.
• My dad and Leslie came the weekend after surgery and made me a birthday dinner complete with steak, baked potato, and salad.
• Homemade chicken enchiladas by Maren and delivered by Michael! YUM!
• Homemade manicotti by Steve's friend Grahm.
• 7 pounds of bacon delivered to our door, compliments of Steve's friend Evan. Steve cooked bacon every day, twice a day for about two weeks.
• Seattle's World Famous Beecher Macaroni and Cheese delivered to our door from my mom. This stuff is heaven. Actually it's probably 7th heaven.
• My mom came for a few days and cooked us dinner every night. Steve was relieved! We had chicken marsala, pork tenderloin with cauliflower (oh how I love thee), salad, and homemade chili. She even made Steve breakfast sandwiches to take to work, and breakfast burritos as a farewell treat!
• Sprinkles cupcakes from Beverly Hills! A sweet treat we picked up after my last doctor's appointment. I had the marshmallow and black & white. My mom had lemon ginger and red velvet. Steve had peanut butter and chocolate with coconut topping.

Thank you to everyone who helped us EAT. We are so grateful! I think Steve is looking forward to my foot healing so that I can start cooking (and cleaning, and making coffee, and running the dishwasher!) again. He has really impressed me with his domestic skills and hasn't once complained of my constant request for another glass of milk.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

The annual American Chemical Society Wine Tasting Event was held at Firestone Vineyard this year. We always top off the wine tasting with warm soup, cheese, crackers, and fruit and I offered to make one of the soups. I decided to try something new and found a recipe from Everyday Italian with Giada de Laurentis for Creamy Red Pepper soup. It was a big hit and all of the women came up to me afterwards and raved about it. I'll definitely make it again, as Steve and I love soup on cold, winter nights. 

A trick for transporting hot soup from one location to another: Put hot towels in the bottom of an ice cooler. Transfer the hot soup pot directly from the stove to the cooler and wrap more warm towels all around it so that it is stable. This keeps the soup hot for a few hours believe it or not! Plus, if there's any spill, it is captured inside the cooler and not all over your car!

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 (12-oz) jars roasted red peppers, drained
• 1 russet potato, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• baguette slices (I baked my usual biscuits instead)
• mascarpone cheese

Directions:

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, and thyme and saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the broth, bell peppers, potato, wine, and sugar. Bring to a simmer over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low. Partially cover and simmer until the potatoes are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cool the soup slightly.

Using an immersion hand blender, puree the soup in the pot until it is smooth. Alternately, working in batches, puree the soup in a regular blender, taking care while blending warm liquids. Season the soup, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the bread cubes and saute until they are crisp and golden, about 8 minutes.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Dollop a tablespoon of mascarpone in the center of each bowl and top with croutons. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

NYC Pizza? Umm, YES PLEASE!

This is what I want to do for my 30th birthday. Scott's Pizza Tours Let's start planning!!!!

A Feast for Kings

This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple so I wanted to go all out and show Steve my domestic skills. It was just him and I for dinner, but I didn't want to skimp. I wanted to make a feast with all of our favorites.

Instead of an entire turkey, I made a turkey breast. I bought one of those freezer-to-oven bagged breasts which turned out delicious, tender, and juicy. The bagged turkeys have NEVER let me down. The turkey came with a gravy packet too which was equally delectable. 

We looove mashed potatoes but I came across a recipe for turnip mashed potatoes. I don't think I've ever eaten a turnip and Steve wasn't too sure he had either. But the description said it tastes like a really mild radish. We love radishes so I decided to make two batches of mash - one regular and one turnip style. The turnip potatoes were AMAZING. The difference between the two were subtle, but the turnip mash had a slight bite to it and if you didn't know there was turnip in there, you'd be licking your lips trying to figure out why your mashed potatoes tasted kind of spicy. 

I made my own stuffing, using a simple recipe that my mom gave me. But, instead of white bread I used whole wheat bread just because it was what I already had on hand. I sauteed a yellow onion and three stalks of celery in a cube of butter and poured it over stale bread cubes. I added 2 tablespoons of poultry seasoning and a can of chicken broth. Since I didn't have a whole turkey to stuff, I baked the stuffing in the oven for about 40 minutes. YUM. Sometimes I add apples to the stuffing but we had some home-made applesauce frozen from a stash Steve's mom gave us earlier this year and I figured that would satisfy our appletite (ha!).

Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving veggie dish like green bean casserole or carrots or broccoli, or cauliflower, or ANY OTHER VEGETABLE, I had to come up with something creative so that Steve would get his vitamins. So, I made a tomato, red bell pepper, and radish salad. I cut the veggies up in big pieces and tossed them in a home-made vinagrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, walnuts, thyme, salt, pepper, and a weird herb Steve planted for me outside) and added some crumbled feta cheese on top. This was a hit. Steve couldn't get enough!

I usually make the Pilsbury croissant rolls for Thanksgiving, but this year since I was on a domestic binge, I decided to make some semi-homemade biscuits. I used my go-to Bisquick recipe that I posted about before. 

Last, but certainly not least. The pumpkin pie. I really wanted to try out a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Tirimisu. Steve wasn't really into the idea, and requested pumpkin pie instead. So, I attempted my very first pumpkin pie of all time and found a Paula Dean recipe for pumpkin pie using cream cheese. It came out so good that pretty much all I could think about all day today was getting my paws on another piece of that pie!!!

Now, we have so many leftovers we'll have lunch and dinner for the rest of the weekend and I am planning on making a turkey and mushroom soup next week. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and gorged yourselves like we did. Cheers to good food, family, and friends!

Mini Deep-Dish Pizzas

Recipe from my new favorite cookbook magazine, Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart magazine. This recipe is perfect for appetizers at a party or a fun night with kids. You can add different toppings to each "muffin" for a variety of pizzas! Here's how it works:

Ingredients:

• Olive oil for muffin pan
• all-purpose flour, for rolling
• 1/2 pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough in 12 pieces (I made my own dough with my breadmaker!! and it worked!!)
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• pizza sauce (I made my own)
• desired toppings (I used pineapple, artichoke hearts, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and mushrooms)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly brush muffin pan with oil. On a lightly floured workspace, roll out dough pieces to rounds that fit the muffin cups. Fill each cup with 1 round, gently pressing dough into bottom and sides of cup. Season with salt and pepper.

Add about a tablespoon of sauce to bottom of each dough cup. Add cheese, and then toppings. Bake until dough is golden brown and crisp, 12 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes before removing from cups. Serve and enjoy!

Nut Tree Pumpkin Muffins

Thanks to my dear friend Marissa for giving me this recipe. I tried it out last week and these muffins were incredible! Super moist and yummy. 

Recipe Source: Nut Tree Remembered: The Cookbook Vacaville Museum and Nut Tree, Vacaville, California

Makes 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I used 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice instead)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup water
12 California walnut halves (I used chopped pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Mix in oil, eggs and pumpkin. On low speed, gradually mix in water until well blended. Pour batter into greased muffin pans. If desired, top each muffin with a walnut half. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Homemade Pizza

Not surprisingly, pizza is one of our favorite foods. We order out from a local pizza parlor, Paisanos regularly, and Dominos is our staple pizza place for a quick and inexpensive dinner. But every now and then I make pizza at home!

Dough: I use either Pilsbury pizza crust or Trader Joe's pizza crust. And for my next pizza, I am going to try making pizza dough from scratch with my bread maker.

Sauce: I make my own sauce using a small can of tomato paste, canned tomato sauce (with no seasoning) and petite diced tomatoes (either fresh or canned, whatever you have on hand). I mix the sauces together in a small bowl, and add oregano, ground pepper, garlic salt, basil, and some crushed red pepper.

Cheese: I use shredded mozzarella either from an already shredded bag or fresh mozzarella that I shred myself. I also sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Toppings: My favorite toppings are artichoke heart, mushrooms, and pineapple chunks. But you can add whatever you want. Pepperoni, bell pepper, tomatoes, already cooked chicken, sausage, whatever you can imagine! 

I prepare the dough on a non-stick baking sheet sprinkled with corn meal so that the pizza doesn't stick to it. I also sprinkle the cornmeal on top of the dough to give it a little crunch! Meanwhile, I prepare my pizza stone in the oven at 450 for about 15 minutes. I add the sauce, cheese, and toppings to the dough and then transfer the pizza to the pizza stone from the baking sheet. This can be tricky but if you used enough corn meal on the baking sheet, it should slide off pretty easy. 

Cook the pizza for about 15 minutes or whatever the dough instructions say.

Slice and enjoy!!