Festive Cranberry Spread

The Misson:
To create a different but fantastic appetizer to take to my Mother-in-Law's house for Thanksgiving lunch. I knew that other people were bringing desserts, so I figured I'd make something different. I'm a huge fan of cranberries, and they're so pretty and festive during the holidays, so when I ran across the recipe for a spread, it sounded like the perfect option.

The Ingredients:

• 1 package - 8 oz - cream cheese, softened
• 2 Tbsp frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp orange zest
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
• Crackers for serving - I used Townhouse
  

The Instructions:
In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, orange juice, sugar, orange zest, and cinnamon until fluffy. Stir in the cranberries and pecans. Refrigerate overnight (the flavors will have time to blend together nicely that way). Garnish as desired. As you can see, I left a few pecans and cranberries un-chopped so I could use them for garnishing as well as leaving a small handful unmixed in order to sprinkle them on top. The orange curls added a nice touch, too.

The Results:
It turned out prettier than I thought it would. And though I had some serious problems zesting the orange, I was lucky enough to have two tangerines on hand, so I tried them instead and met with success. They made for pretty curls as well.

The Reviews:
As always, my husband refused to try it because he hates cream cheese. If possible, I sample my food before I serve it, just to make sure that it didn't turn out to be a complete disaster. This was so good that I almost didn't take it with us. I could've eaten the whole bowl myself. I received some very nice complements on it from the other guests as well.

Haitus is over!

Apparently I had no inspiration to cook much over the summer. I shall blame the humidity and the disgustingly hot weather.

Ever since October rolled around I've been itching to try out new yummy recipes. Unfortunately life got in the way and I resorted back to my usual menus and didn't spend much time experimenting.

With November here, I've decided that I can't abandon my hobby any longer! I am going to attempt to juggle my schedule and plan things more efficiently so I can knock out at least one new recipe a week. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I am hoping to host a small dinner party to show off my culinary skills. I'm working hard on the menu and the guest list! If anyone has any suggestions for a side dish or dessert, please feel free to share :)

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

The Mission:
Use up the leftover buttermilk. So I searched through a few cookbooks and websites and found a Banana Cake recipe that sounded fantastic. I love a good fruit based cake.





The Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups ripe mashed bananas
• 2 tsps lemon juice
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/8 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

The Instructions:
Preheat oven to 275*F. Grease and flour a 9x13" pan (or use non-stick). In a small bowl, mix the mashed banana with the lemon juice and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then stir in 2 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk, then stir in the banana mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for one hour or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and place directly into the freezer for 45 minutes. (This will keep the cake very moist and make it easier to frost.) Frost the cake with the cream cheese icing and garnish with chopped walnuts or pecans.


Icing Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
  

Icing Instructions:
Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth then beat in the vanilla. Add the confectioners sugar and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed until frosting is smooth.



The Result:
It smelled soooo good. It looked very pretty as well. If I make it again, I will halve the cream cheese icing recipe, since I didn't use it all. I only iced 3/4 of the cake, since my husband doesn't like cream cheese icing. I just found out that I don't like it either, so I'll only be icing 1/3 of it next time!



The Reviews:
I thought it tasted fantastic. Mark really liked it, as did my favorite co-worker. My husband's not a big fan of bananas (now he tells me!) so he wasn't overly thrilled with it. I think he's crazy - haha. I left some for my parents to eat and they both loved it. And to get rid of the extra icing, I sent Mark home with the tub of it. I'm sure he's already polished it off with a spoon :)

Raspberry Baked Brie

The Misson:

Make Raspberry Baked Brie as found in one of my older cookbooks. I never made it at Easter, so I already had all of the ingredients. It looked tasty and seemed elegant, so I figured it would be perfect for my sister's Bridal Shower.

The Ingredients:

• 1 can (8 oz) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 1 round (8 oz) Brie cheese
• 1 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam
• 1/4 cup fresh raspberries
• 1 egg, beaten
• assorted crackers or slices of French Baguette
  

The Instructions:

Unroll the crescent rolls and separate into two 6" squares. Place one square on a cookie sheet and press on the seams to seal. Place the round of brie in the center of the square and top with the jam and the fresh raspberries. On each corner of the remaining square of dough, use a small cookie cutter to cut out a shape and set aside the shape. Take the dough square and place it ontop of the brie round, folding the corners of the dough under. Fold the bottom layer of dough up around the top layer and pinch to seal. Brush with the beaten egg. Place the cut out shapes on the top and brush them with the egg. Bake the brie in a 350*F oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet and place on serving plate. Cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm with water crackers or sliced french baguette.

The Result:

The brie turned out a bit browner on top than I would've liked. I also think that my cookie cutter was too big. If I use this in the future, I'll go buy a teeny tiny cookie cutter (perhaps in the shape of a flower or a heart). I honestly wasn't really thrilled with baking the brie in the crescent roll dough. I'm going to add a "brie bowl" to my Christmas list this year, so I can just bake it with the rasperries by itself and skip the bread part.

The Reviews:

Everyone said that it tasted good and that it looked very pretty. So it wasn't a complete failure, but only half of the brie was eaten. I left it with Mom to finish off.

Bridal Shower Punch

The Mission:

Make "Bridal Shower Punch" using the recipe that my sister found. It's the same punch that she made for my Bridal Shower in 2007. It's supremely tasty. I added sliced limes (recipe called for lemons or oranges, but I thought limes would look cooler) to give it some color other than pink.



The Ingredients:

• 8 cups of prepared sweetened pink lemonade (I used the frozen concentrate kind and mixed with water as directed)
• 4 cups of carbonated lemon-lime beverage (Sprite, etc.)
• 2 quarts raspberry sherbet
• lemon or orange slices (to garnish)

The Instructions:

Using a round ice cream scoop or large cookie scooper, scoop out HALF of the sherbet into balls. Place them on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they're frozen, you can remove from sheet and place them in a ziplock baggie to save on storage space. By freezing the balls in advance, it will slow the melting process. I froze the balls over night. In a large glass punch bowl, mix the prepared lemonade and the lemon-lime pop. (Make sure that both are VERY cold, since that will slow the melting of the sherbet). Add in the remaining half of the raspberry sherbet and stir well until mixture is frothy. Add the small scoops of frozen sherbet and the lemon/orange/lime slices (if using) and serve immediately.

The Results:

The punch turned out fantastic! Since I was pressed for time, I failed to get pictures of the punch until it was ready to serve. Oh well. Freezing the sherbet balls ahead of time turned out really well. The only problem was that I kept wanting to eat them instead of saving them for the punch. Next time I'll have to buy a separate quart of sherbet just for me ;)

The Reviews:

The ladies at the shower enjoyed the punch. My sister was thrilled with it (it was a special request from her) and there were absolutely no leftovers. I swear I thought my Mom was going to lick the punch bowl! Though it's impractical to make this punch very often, I'm going to have to come up with an excuse to make it again soon.

Oreo Balls

The Mission:

Make Oreo Balls for Heather's Bridal Shower, They look fantastic. They sound tasty. And I'm pretty sure that they'll be impressive.

The Ingredients:

• 1 package Oreo cookies, crushed
• 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 package white almond bark
• 1 package chocolate almond bark
  
  

The Instructions:

Using a blender or a hand-held mixer, blend together the crushed oreos and the softened cream cheese. Roll into walnut sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Chill for at least one hour. Melt approx 3/4 of the chocolate almond bark. Stick a toothpick in an oreo ball and dip it in the melted chocolate until coated. Place on a sheet of wax paper and allow to harden. Repeat for every oreo ball. While waiting for oreo balls to harden (approx 15 minutes), melt 1/4 of the white chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate into a decorator bag (or a plastic ziplock baggie with a tiny piece of the corner cut off). Drizzle white chocolate over the hardened oreo balls to decorate.

The Results:

Wow. I think they turned out pretty good. I had toothpick holes in each of the oreo balls and I didn't like that, so next time I'll try and figure out a way to elimate the holes. I also had problems with the oreo balls falling off the toothpick while I was dipping in the chocolate. I think next time I'll freeze the balls first. I'll see how that goes. They still turned out quite nice looking and I received a lot of complements on how professional they looked.

The Reviews:

I had not one single left over oreo ball. Everyone raved about how pretty they were and how good they tasted. My sister was very pleased with them and reserved a few for her to take back to school. I will definitely be making these in the future since they went over so well. The only complaint I got was from my husband, who didn't like the "wang of the cream cheese." But he doesn't like cream cheese, so his opinion doesn't count! ;)

Sausage Balls

The Mission:

Add one more item to the Bridal Shower menu... something a little more hearty and "male friendly" since my Dad and Husband would be scarfing leftovers later. So I started flipping through recipe books, taking suggestions, and checking around online and found these. I figured they fit the bill quite nicely for being a heartier appetizer. And they looked fun and easy to make.

The Ingredients:

• 1 (12 oz) package of extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 lb pork sausage (mild or spicy - your choice)
• 2 cups Bisquick baking mix
• 1-2 dashes of hot sauce
  

The Instructions:

Let the sausage come to room temperature before making. I've been told that this step is very, very important and that the balls will turn out dry if you mix them with cold sausage. I have not tested this theory, since I didn't want to have a dry appetizer. Maybe sometime I will try just to see what the difference is. Anyway - mix together the room temperature sausage, the grated cheese, the bisquick, and the hot sauce. I've found that it's easiest to just mix it by hand in a large mixing bowl. Shape bits of the sausage into tablespoon sized balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake in a 375*F oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until balls are hot and golden brown. Serve warm.

The Results:

I thought that they turned out fantastic. The recipe made about 60 sausage balls for me, and I found that it was a perfect amount. Since I was cooking them at my parent's house I wasn't using my own things, so I will make the following changes when I make them at home: first I will use a bigger mixing bowl to mix up the ingredients. It was difficult to do in a smaller bowl. I will also line the cookie sheets with foil so there will be no clean up. I love to cook and bake and entertain, but sometimes the amount of cleanup gets overwhelming!

The Reviews:

The ladies who attended the shower thought that they were fantastic. Dad really liked them, and my husband ate all of the leftovers. Then he went to the store to buy more ingredients so I can make more this week. So apparently these were a big hit! He wants me to make them for our next big cook-out as well. I'm very pleased with this recipe!

Bridal Shower

The Mission:
Host a Bridal Shower in honor of my little sister who will finally be getting married in June. Since my house was too small to comfortably hold all the shower guests, I am taking over Mom's for the day. I wanted to keep things simple but very, very tasty. I finally came up with the following menu that I think will be bound to have something for everyone's taste. It also has a lot that can be made in advance, so I won't be over-doing it in the kitchen on Saturday. Hopefully everything will turn out well!

The Menu:

Ranch Dip

Assorted Veggies

Raspberry Baked Brie

Water Crackers

"Crack Dip"

Tortilla Scoops

Sausage Balls

Ricotta Garlic Stuffed Mushrooms

Cream Puffs

Eclairs

Oreo Balls

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Bridal Shower Punch

Sweet Tea

Heather's Deviled Eggs

The Mission:

Learn how to make my sister's recipe for deviled eggs. She has never written it down, and I'm not very good with making things up. Heck - I'd never even made hard boiled eggs before, so this was going to be a big first for me! Because things got crazy over the weekend, I ended up not really helping her, but just listened to her instructions while she made them. All of the ingredients are approximate. She usually makes it to taste and appearance, so feel free to adjust everything to your own personal taste!

The Ingredients:

• 12 hard boiled eggs
• 6 Tbsp mayo
• 9 tsp dijon mustard
• 6 tsp worchestire sauce
• paprika for sprinkling

The Instructions:

First you need to hard boil all of the eggs. I handled this completely on my own. I pricked the top of the raw eggs and set them in a medium saucepan. I then poured enough water in the pan to completely cover the eggs. I brought that to a full, rolling boil for 10 minutes. I then placed the eggs in a separate bowl and doused them with cold water so they would be cold and ready for Heather when she got to my house. The first thing she did was peel the shell off each egg, then slice each egg in half (lenthwise) and scooped the yolk out into a medium mixing bowl. She then added in the mayo, mustard and worchestire sauce to the yolks by sight, giving me approximate measurements so I could write them down for future use. She mixed all the ingredients together until smooth, filled the hollow eggs, sprinkled with paprika, and served! It seemed very easy.

The Results:

They looked good. They tasted good. People ate them. I'd say that they turned out really well. Of course, I can't take any credit for them at all. I just boiled the eggs. That was it. I'm excited to try them on my own sometime, though.

The Reviews:

Other than my family, people said they were good but "different." Apparently my sister's recipe for deviled eggs isn't the standard or typical. Who knew! I wasn't serving them to people who were huge fans of deviled eggs anyway, so the reviews weren't rave, but I thought they tasted yummy :) Thanks, Heather!!

Cheesey Green Bean Casserole

The Misson:
Make Green Bean Casserole the way my husband and his family like it - cheesey!

• The Ingredients:
• 2 cans of cut green beans
• 1 can of french cut green beans
• 1 can of cream of chicken soup
• shredded cheddar cheese - we use about 6 oz.
• 1-2 tps pepper (optional and to taste)
• 2-4 Tbsp paprika (optional and to taste)
• French's Fried Onion crunchies - enough to cover top of casserole

The Instructions:

Mix together the green beans and the cream of chicken soup in an 8x8x2 inch baking dish. Stir in the grated cheese, the paprika and the pepper until well blended. Smooth out the top and bake in a 350*F oven for 30-45 minutes or until hot and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven and sprinkle the fried onion crunchies on top. Place back in the oven and bake uncovered for 3-6 minutes, or until onions are a golden brown. Serve hot.

The Results:

Turned out fantastic as always, the onions were the perfect golden brown color, the ratio of cheese to beans was superb.

The Reviews:

Everyone loved it! I had not a single spoonful of leftovers. Yay :)

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes

The Mission:

Try out "Kittencal's Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes" as found on recipezaar.com since the recipe got great reviews and can be made ahead of time (see the link at the bottom of the page). The recipe says "you may even make them up to 2 days in advance." Which I thought was fantastic considering I had a lot of cooking to do for the Easter dinner. With this big side dish out of the way, I'd be free to concentrate on other things.

The Ingredients:

• 8 large russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 6 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) cut into cubes
• 1 1/2 tsps onion powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup shredded cheddar (optional)
• paprika to sprinkle (optional
• ground black pepper (optional)

The Instructions:

Butter a 9"x 13" casserole dish. Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling water with 1 Tbsp salt and 1 Tbsp white vinegar until just fork tender. Drain and place into a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer - I used my KA mixer - beat the hot potatoes until just semi smooth and still a little chunky. Add in cream cheese, sour cream butter, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Mix until combined and smooth. Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle lightly with paprika. Allow to come down to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. When ready, bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350*F oven. If desired, sprinkle with the shredded cheddar and return to the oven for 3 mintues or until cheese is melty.

The Results:

I apparently chose super duper large potatoes, because mine were overflowing the KA mixer. So I spooned out about 4 cups worth and everything went back to normal. In my case, this had an extra bonus, since it left me with some plain mashed potatoes to serve to my husband, who was not interested in the "creamy junk" that was going into the fancy recipe. Silly husband. The potatoes turned out really well and the recipe went smoothly. My only regret is that I forgot the cheese. I'm sure they would've tasted fantastic covered in cheese, but they were pretty darned good with just the sprinkled paprika! Next time I might add a little bit of milk to make them slightly creamier. I thought mine turned out slightly on the dry side, but I probably should've scooped out more than 4 cups of my excess potatoes.

The Reviews:

Everyone who attended my Easter Dinner had nice things to say about the potatoes. I'm very pleased with how they turned out - though I did have quite a bit of leftovers since my three absent guests were the big potatoe eaters in the group. Oh well. I brought some leftovers to my coworker and she enjoyed them. I will definitely be adding this recipe to my holiday/big event dinner menus for future use. The fact that they're "make ahead" makes them a fabulous side dish!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Kittencals-Make-Ahead-Mashed-Potatoes-191490

Muenster Bread

The Mission: Make "Muenster Bread" as found in an old Taste of Home's Blue-Ribbon Recipes booklet by my best friend Mark. I decided to add this to the Easter Dinner menu in order to get as many reviews as possible (and feed it to Mark who will be attending).

The Ingredients:

• 2 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk (110* to 115*F)
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 1/4 to 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 4 cups (1 lb) shredded Muenster cheese
• 1 egg white, beaten

The Instructions:

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in milk. add butter, sugar, salt, and 2 cups of the flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a sof dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. In a large bowl, beat egg and yolk; stir in cheese. Punch dough down; roll into a 16" circle. Place in a greased 9" round cake pan, letting the dough drape over the edges. Spoon the cheese mixture into center of the dough. Gather dough up over filling in 1 1/2" pleats. Gently squeeze pleats together at top and twist to make a top knot. Allow to rise 10-15 minutes. Brush loaf with egg white. Bake in a preheated, 375*F oven for 45-50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

The Result:

Well, the bread got a little brown on the top instead of staying a nice golden color, but I'll go ahead and blame that on my cheap oven. haha. I didn't take my time and make nice, even pleats, so the loaf looked a little funky, too. But it tasted fantastic!

The Reviews:

Everyone who tried a piece really liked it. My family and my in-laws all tried a piece and were raving about it. My husband - who wasn't really sure about the muenster part of it - seemed rather impressed. I think this bread is definitely worth baking again. I am adding it to my repetoire for entertaining.

Easter Dinner - The Menu

The Mission:
I decided that I was going to host dinner at my house for Easter this year. I've never hosted a big holiday dinner in my own home before. I'm usually in charge of most of the cooking, but mainly at my parent's house or another relative. So this was a first for me! I think the hardest part was actually coming up with the menu.



The Appetizers:

Deviled Eggs

Ranch Dip with fresh veggies

Muenster Bread

Raspberry Baked Brie with crackers



The Main Course:

Glazed Ham

Cheesey Green Bean Casserole

Healthy Green Bean Casserole

Asparagas

Corn Niblets

Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes



The Desserts:

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Mom's Chocolate Sauce

Vanilla Ice Cream

The Result:
Due to some cancellations, an un-expected trip to Columbia, and a birthday party not everything on the menu was made. I had planned on making as much as I could on Saturday so I wouldn't have much to do on Sunday.... well that didn't work out!

My husband and I were adopting another greyhound, and the one we picked up Friday night decided that it really, really, really wanted to eat our cat, so we took him back and picked up another. So all of Saturday was spent with Mark driving to and from Columbia. So much for cooking and cleaning! ha. Saturday night was my husband's birthday party, so doing anything then was a lost cause. Oh well. Dinner still turned out fantastic on Sunday even though it felt rushed.

The Reviews:
Everyone had very nice things to say about how dinner turned out. I had some wonderful help in the kitchen as well - Mom and Step-mom-in-law, Blake, helped cut veggies for the veggie tray and my fabulous sister made deviled eggs! It was wonderful to have my In-laws and my parents together again. We all had a really good time catching up. And my amazing step-mom-in-law helped wash dishes!!!! I don't have a dishwasher, so everything - absolutely everything - must be done by hand. And by the time dinner was over I just wanted to cry when I thought about washing more dishes. But Blake pitched right in and washed, while my Mom dried. Aren't they fabulous?!?

225th Anniversary Cake

The Mission:
Bake the cake that my husband saw in the Baker's Chocolate recipe book that I have. He'd been begging for it for quite some time, but since it was fairly involved, I decided to wait and bake it for his birthday. I made the cake and the icing the night before, but didn't have time to ice the cake until immediately prior to serving it.

The Ingredients:

• 2 tsps butter, melted and divided
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 package (8 squares) Baker's Semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla

The Instructions:
Lightly grease 2 (9" round) cake pans with half of the melted butter. Cover the bottom of each pan with wax paper (or parchment paper); brush evenly with the remaining melted butter. Set aside. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Melt the chocolate and the cut-up butter in a double boiler until smooth and creamy. Set aside. Beat the sugar and eggs in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened and pale in color. Add the chocolate mixture; beat until well blended. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed until well blended. Add buttermilk and vanilla; beat on low for 15 seconds, then on high for 15 seconds. If the batter isn't completely blended, mix with a rubber spatula until it is. Pour the cake batter evenly into the prepared pans, and spread to evenly cover bottom of each pan. Bake for 30-34 minutes in a preheated 325*F oven. Cool in pans for 5 minutes then remove to wire rack to cool completely after removing wax paper. Fill and frost with 225th Anniversary Fudge Icing. Refrigerate until 30 minutes prior to serving.

225th Anniversary Fudge Icing

The Ingredients:

• 2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 1 package (8 squares) baker's semi-sweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 6 Tbsp butter, cut into 1/2" pieces

The Instructions:

Place all ingredients except butter in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently with a wire whisk to dissolve the sugar and melt the chocolate. Reduce heat to medium-low, simmer 25 minutes or until thickened, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Add the butter, once piece at a time, stirring after each addition until it is completely melted before adding the next piece. Pour the fudge mixture into a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan and spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (If refrigerating for more than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before beating as directed in next step.) Place chilled fudge mixture in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed for 1 minute., scrape the bottom and side of the bowl. Continue beating 30 seconds or until light and fluffy. Immediately frost the cake.

The Result:
Well - for whatever reason, my cake looked NOTHING like the picture. It seemed very flat somehow.... and I'm still not quite sure what I did wrong there. I will try again sometime. The Icing never got "light and fluffy" instead it was runny and gooey. I ended up pouring it over the cake and hoping for the best. Thankfully it tasted absolutely fantastic! I had people fighting over the last piece. I didn't even have time to take a picture :(

The Reviews:

I heard a lot of reviews. "oh my god" "wow" "mmmmm" and "can I have another piece" were among the most coherent. I will definitely be making this again sometime. Most likely sometime soon. I have to please the herd of people that didn't seem to get enough of it on Saturday night.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

The Mission:
Make a cheesecake for my friend for her birthday. And I didn't want to just make a 'normal' plain cheesecake, I wanted something much more fantastic. So I double checked with her, and raspberries were okay, so I found a recipe that looked yummy, bought all the ingredients, and proceeded to stay up extra late to make a cheesecake.


The Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I used smashed oreos)
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup butter - melted
• 1 (10 oz) package frozen raspberries
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 3 (8 oz each) packages cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

The Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 325*F. In a medium mixing bowl mix the cookie crumbs, 3 Tbsp sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter until well blended. Press onto the bottom of a 9" spring form pan. In a medium sauce pan, combine raspberries, 2 Tbsp sugar, cornstarch, and water. Bring to a boil. Continue boiling and stirring until the sauce is thick and no hunks of raspberries remain. Strain sauce through a mesh strainer to remove all the seeds. Set aside. In the top of a double boiler, heat the white chocolate chips and the half and half until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool to luke warm. In a large bowl (I used my Kitchen Aid mixer) beat the cream cheese and 1/2 cup of sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Blend in the vanilla and the melted chocolate. Blend until smooth. Pour half of the batter on top of the crust in the spring form pan. Spoon 3 Tbsp of the raspberry sauce over the batter. Pour the remaining batter into pan. Spoon another 3 Tbsp of raspberry sauce over the batter. Swirl the batter with the tip of a knife to create a marble pattern, being careful to NOT disturb the bottom crust. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until filling is set. Allow to cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before removing from pan. Serve with remaining raspberry sauce.



The Result:
Well, the middle of the cake was still VERY jiggle when I tested it at the 55 minute mark. So I put it in for a total of 20 minutes more, checking at each 5 minute interval. This is the first time I have ever made cheesecake, so maybe a jiggle center was okay. Who knows. Obviously the cake turned out to be fairly well down and browned on the top. But it tasted fantastic. I also could not get it out of the pan to save my life. The sides of the spring form ejected just fine, but the crust might as well have been super-glued to the bottom. I'm not sure how to solve that particular problem, but I'll give a few different things a whirl next time I try this.


The Reviews:
Well - I thought the cake tasted absolutely divine. Of course, when I took the cake to the party I forgot to bring the extra raspberry sauce for serving :( Sad. I'm sure it would have tasted just amazing with the extra sauce. Oh well. All of the party-goers thought that the cake tasted wonderful. My husband - who at first wasn't going to even try it - even liked it. He's not a big cream cheese fan. Silly man. The birthday girl seemed pleased, and in the end, that's all that really mattered.

Happy Birthday, Meranda!!!!!

Monkey Bread

The Mission:

Make Monkey Bread from scratch using a recipe that I've had for years and never bothered to try out. The original plan was to make it for breakfast on a Saturday morning since we were supposed to have overnight guests on Friday. Well, the sleepover never happened, but I made it anyway as a snack for the guests.

The Ingredients:

• 4 cans of Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits
• 1 1/3 cups of sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
  

The Instructions:
In a medium bowl combine the sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside. Cut each biscuit into fourths, then roll each piece into a ball. Roll each ball around in the sugar-cinnamon mixture until coated and plunk in a tube pan. Continue doing this until all the biscuit pieces are gone. It takes a little while. This is also a fun activity for children (if you trust them in your kitchen). Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan then stir in the remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture. Heat to a boil, then pour over the balls of dough in the tube pan. Bake in a 350*F oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Turn the tube pan over onto a plate or platter of your choosing and serve warm.

The Result:
Well, for some reason they didn't turn out perfect. I had a few problems. 1) they were underdone. This could be because of the non-stick tube pan I used, or the fact that my oven is super cheap. So if I make them again, I will probably bake them in a 325*F oven for an hour. 2) I wasn't a huge fan of the biscuit taste. So when I make these again I will use brand-name biscuits instead of generic. 3) My tube pan is the kind that comes apart - so the melted butter leaked allllll out from the bottom and all over the bottom of my oven. Well, part of it managed to get on the cookie sheet that I had on the bottom rack just in case. Stupid tube pan. So I need to buy another tube pan - one that is all one piece - no stupid removable part.



The Reviews:
Everyone who tried it really liked it, even though I thought it left something to be desired. I think it would have gotten more reviews if it had been the main attraction at breakfast rather than an afternoon snack. I'll be making this again sometime, and hopefully under the "right" circumstances to have a better result and better reviews!