New York Style Cheesecake, Blackberry Sauce, and a correction!

First things first, in going through my last post, I realized there was a typo on the chicken alfredo recipe.  It should have read 2 tablespoons of cream cheese, instead of 2 ounces of cream cheese.  This is not a huge gaffe, and really won't have too big of an effect on your sauce, as 2 tablespoons of cream cheese equal 1 ounce of cream cheese, and I usually add a little over one ounce, but I just wanted to be sure I had all of the correct measurements on the blog.  So, I've changed the post, and highlighted the new amounts in yellow.  Sorry for the confusion!

Now, onto the REAL reason you've come to this blog today:

Seriously is there anything that isn't better in New York?  Pizza, shopping, and DEFINITELY cheesecake.   I have never even been to New York, and I already love it.  With all of the dining options, late-night menus, pizza, and cheesecake (and shopping!) I think we could be very happy together.  But, I'd have to live outside of the city on a ton of land, I'm a country girl at heart.  The only thing I can't figure out, NY style pizza is thin, and crispy, as opposed to Chicago's tall, deep-dish variety.  But NY Style cheesecake, is tall, and deep, like Chicago's pizza.  Random, huh?

Cheesecake and I get along VERY well.  Just ask my hips, and my thighs.  The four of us (Myself, my hips, my thighs, and my cheesecake) are thick as thieves.  Which brings us to an important point.  The two T's of cheesecakes. A perfect cheesecake should be tall, and thick.  The taller, the better.  This particular cheesecake, from Smitten Kitchen, almost overflowed my springform pan, which is just how it should be.  A perfect cheesecake should also be thick, and dense, not gooey, like the stuff you buy in a tub at Wally World.  This particular cheesecake fits the bill for both categories.  It's tall, and thick, and dense, and delicious!

A couple of notes about this cheesecake recipe.  The recipe calls for the oven to start at 550*, and to brown the top of the cheesecake for 10-12 minutes at that temperature.  However, my cheesecake was more than brown after only 5 minutes, and  even after reducing the oven temperature to 200*, it still got a little more brown than I would have preferred.  So, you may want to play around with your oven a little bit to find the sweet spot.  All that really means is more cheesecake, and who can argue with that?

Personally, I'm a naked cheesecake kind of girl.  Yes, I said naked.  Go ahead, take a second, and do the Beavis n' Butthead laugh, I'll wait.  Got it out of your system?  Good.  Now, back to the task at hand.  I happen to like naked, unadulterated cheesecake.  It allows you to get the full effect of the sweet, tangy, creamy goodness, without interrupting the smoothness by some other concoction on the top.  However, many in The Family prefer to make their sweets include a 'healthy' serving of fruits and vegetables (carrot cake, anyone?  I mean really, carrots in cake?!), and this blackberry topping by the Pioneer Woman was so beautiful, I was inclined to oblige.  And it couldn't have been easier to make!  Considering my brother-in-law, Keith, was eating it alone, after he'd finished his 2nd piece of cheesecake, I think it's safe to say it was a huge success!

New York Style Cheesecake

from: Smitten Kitchen

Note:  I prefer an intense, cream cheese taste in my cheesecakes.  Because of this, I like a VERY light flavor of citrus in my cheesecake.  Just kind of a hint of it in the background that makes you go, 'hmmm, what's that?'  Accordingly, I adjusted the amount of orange/lemon zest when I made the cheesecake.  I used maybe 1/4 teaspoon of each.  But, I will list the original measurements here, in case you prefer a more 'in your face,' citrus flavor.

Hallelujahs: Delicious, Tall and Thick, and difficult to mess up!
Hellfires: Graham cracker crust. I love the taste, but pressing graham cracker crusts into the bottom of pans is my absolute LEAST favorite baking chore ever. It's like the seventh circle of hell. But this was delicious enough to make it worth it. Also, waiting for it to cool before eating is torture of the worst kind! I mean, really, some cheesecake recipes call for 12-18 HOURS?!?! Of course, I couldn't wait that long, I only waited 5 hours, and it was still delicious. Don't tell the cheesecake gods, though, okay?

Crumb Crust:
15 sheets of Graham Crackers
1 stick of melted butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt

-Crush graham crackers into crumbs. Most people use a food processor. I happen not to own a food processor, so I tried several methods of this. First, I placed some graham crackers into my magic bullet:

-This did NOT work very well. It was loud, and left LOTS of large chunks. I do not recommend this method.
-Then I tried just crushing them with my fingers. Again, not very useful.
-Finally, I placed them in a ziploc bag, and used that handy marble rolling pin I told you about. This worked the best.
-Once your graham crackers are crushed, mix all ingredients, and press into bottoms/sides of your springform pan.
-Note: It really is important for a cheesecake to use a springform pan. I bought mine at good, old Wally World for around $10. So, while it's necessary to have a springform pan, it is not necessary to have a $30 or $40 Williams-Sonoma springform pan.



Cheesecake
(5) 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened 
1 3/4 cups of sugar
3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon each, lemon zest, and orange zest
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla


-Preheat oven to 550*.
-Cream together cream cheese, flour, sugar, and zests until light and fluffy:





-Add Vanilla.
-Add eggs, and yolks, one at a time.
-Scrape down bowl between eggs/yolks to be sure there are no stripes of unmixed cream cheese in there.
-Pour into springform pan.



-I had a ton of batter left over that just wouldn't fit in my springform pan. And you just KNOW I couldn't let that goodness go to waste. So, if you happen to have some leftover batter, and some left over graham crackers, this is a very good way to make use of them (recycle, recycle!):



-Place springform pan on cookie sheet with lip in order to catch any drips.
-Brown at 550* for 5-10 minutes
-Turn down oven temperature to 200* (I left my oven door open for about 5 minutes to reduce the temperature), and bake for about 1 hour.
-Note: even when done, your cheesecake will still jiggle. The top will be firm to the touch when done, but will still jiggle, all in one piece, like Jello, when done. So don't leave it in there until it's not moving at all, or it will be overdone.
-Allow cheesecake to cool completely on a baking rack before placing in refrigerator.


-Note: I have NEVER had a cheesecake not crack. Water bath, or no water bath. Just tell your type-A self to stuff it, and enjoy the goodness without worrying about the cracks. Just call it "homey, and old-fashioned," and all will be right with the world. Or, just pour the blackberry sauce all over the top, and no one will be the wiser!
-Chill in your fridge for 6 hours before serving. If you can wait that long. If not, I won't tell!

Blackberry Sauce

Hallelujahs: Fast, easy, only three ingredients, delicious
Hellfires:None.

2 packages of blackberries (mine were 12 oz each)
A couple of handfuls of sugar (to taste!)
5 or 6 tablespoons of water


-Place all ingredients in a saucepan, and bring to a boil.



-Allow to boil (while stirring) for about 4-5 minutes.
-Remove from heat, and serve.
    -Note, the original PW recipe calls for completely cooling the blackberry sauce, but really, who can wait for that?  I mean, I suppose if you were efficient and made it right after placing the cheesecake in the fridge, you'd have no trouble.  But, if you're a procrastinator like me, and you make it after the cheescake's ready, and 5 hungry faces are staring at it, like ravenous wolves, you can go ahead, and serve it hot, right off the stove.  Think of it like hot fudge on ice cream.
     -Oh, and speaking of ice cream, if you have some of this leftover (of which I had a TON), save it, place it in the refrigerator, and pour it over your ice cream, when you need a treat later in the week.  Because there won't be any cheesecake left over.  At all.  It's just too good.




Original Recipes can be found at: http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/04/new-york-cheesecake/ and http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/07/blackberry-cheesecake/

Fruit Pizza, requests, and photography!

This is probably the absolute EASIEST recipe you will ever make, and it will garner RAVE reviews from your family and friends. Those are two things that I LOVE putting together, easy, and great. I even broke one of my cardinal rules for this baby, by following the recipe, and using pre-made, refrigerated cookie dough. Which I usually believe is DEFINITELY from the devil. I mean NOTHING beats homemade cookie dough. But in this case, it's all about the ease of this recipe, and nothing's easier than rolling out pre-made dough. It comes to you from one my culinary heroes, Paula Deen! I mean, really who DOESN'T love her? Everytime I see her on TV I just want to invite her over to hang out with me. I feel like she'd be the best friend you'd ever have, not to mention the goodies she's bring to the party! I could just see us being great friends, sipping on some homemade mint iced tea, watching Steel Magnolias, and eating something fried, and wrapped in bacon.

Also, this recipe is a request from one of my awesome friends, Tricia, and the last recipe (the fruit salsa) was a request from another great friend, Rene. If there are any recipes YOU are dying to try, but don't feel like wasting the ingredients if they suck, feel free to leave me a comment, and I'll be happy to try them for you. And I'll only send you a bill for 1/2 the ingredients! Okay, just kidding, I won't bill you for anything, but I will blog about here, so we can save the world from bad recipes, and shout it from the mountaintops for good recipes. Consider the comment box your all-night, request live station, and me, your cooky all night radio DJ. I'm excited to see what you guys come up with!

Also, I have just downloaded a copy of Photoshop Elements, so once I have time to sit down, and figure out how to use it, we should have some much more beautiful photographs on here! Now, onto the recipe!

Hallelujahs: Easy, delicious, beautiful
Hellfires: Not enough frosting, I would double the recipe next time, also 1 roll of cookie dough was not enough for my pan, I had to buy two, and had some left over of that 2nd roll, which is a hallelujah for my taste buds, but a hellfire for my hips!

**Note, the original recipe called for a green apple on the fruit pizza, but The Husband (a fruit pizza connoisseur) felt that it did not go with this recipe, so I left it out. I also used mandarin oranges, instead of a navel orange, because they are just so cute, and because in keeping with the theme of this recipe, they are MUCH easier than cutting a navel orange. In addition, I've adjusted the amount of white chocolate chips/chocolate syrup, because I had WAY too much left over, so much so that even I couldn't have eaten it all. Also, I'm going to list this with the doubled recipe for the frosting, and the cookie dough, because let's face it you can't have too much frosting, or cookie dough.**

Fruit Pizza a la Paula Deen

2 rolls refrigerated sugar cookie dough
2, 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
2 cups powdered sugar (aka confectioner's sugar)
1 large peach, sliced
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
6 ounces fresh blueberries
6 ounces fresh raspberries
1/4 cup white chocolate chips, melted
1/4 cup chocolate syrup


-Preheat oven to 350*
-While oven is preheating, spray cookie sheet, or other pan (I used a stoneware cookie sheet), and roll cookie dough to form an even layer on the bottom. You can make this as thick, or as thin as you like, depending on your optimum crust to fruit ratio.
-Bake crust for 11-15 minutes, or until it is firm to touch. If you cook it too long, it will be hard, and very difficult to cut, and eat.
-While the cookie crust is cooling, combine the cream cheese, and powdered sugar in your mixer.
-Spread the cream cheese frosting on your cooled cookie crust.
-Artfully (not haphazardly, you didn't know you had to be an artist, here, did you?) arrange your fruits on the crust.
-Melt white chocolate chips.
-You can do this by making a double boiler on the stove, or by microwaving at half power in 20 second increments. Do NOT burn your chocolate. You will regret it, I promise.
-Add chocolate syrup to melted white chocolate, and stir.
-Drizzle chocolate mixture over your fruit pizza until it looks delicious!

Original Recipe found at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fruit-pizza-recipe/index.html
(notice that Paula's pizza is MUCH more beautiful than mine, yet mine was still tasty...thus proving that you do NOT have to be an artist to make a delicious fruit pizza!

Enjoy! And keep those requests coming!

Adding to your appetizer arsenal, and a yummy party drink!

I don't know about you, but I absolutely LOVE to entertain. Having people over, mingling, having fun, and of course EATING is worth all the work it takes to make it happen! The Family (the one I married into) happen to be a pretty casual bunch, some chips, and salsa, and they're happy campers (did I mention that at least half of them think they are hispanic, often speak spanish more than English, and have a strange obsession with Mexican food?). But me? No, no, no, that's WAY too simple for me. And if there's one thing I'm really great at, it's over-complicating things. Dare I say it's my specialty. So, when I put on a party, it's a several day event, in terms of planning, and shopping, and cleaning, and cooking. Thank goodness that I married a man who doesn't mind pitching in, and helping, because I couldn't do it without him.

This weekend, I had a surprise party at my house for my awesome sister-in-law, Anne, who is one of TWELVE children, and hadn't had a birthday party to call her own before. Heavens knows I had to remedy that! Anyway, being the Southern girl I am, most of the recipes in my party arsenal are fairly heavy, and/or deep fried. Fried chicken, sausage balls, rigatoni and meatballs, biscuits, all kinds of deliciousness that are very filling, and very HOT! Being that it was going to be almost 90* on Saturday, and we were going to be spending a lot of time outside, I wanted to do some lighter items, that wouldn't have us sweating all afternoon. Looking through my recipe files, I realized that I was severely lacking in appetizer and/or finger food recipes that don't involve hot oil, or copious amounts of sauce. So, I took to my good ole friend, Google (what did people DO before the internet, anyway? Perhaps this is the reason for the abomination masquerading as an appetizer that is 'pigs in a blanket,' seriously, what IS that?!), and came up with a new idea, or two.

The recipe that caught my eye right off the bat is especially interesting because I don't actually like 90% of the ingredients (are you noticing a theme here? I'm probably pickier than your children!), but it just looked so BEAUTIFUL in pictures, that I absolutely HAD to try it. Add to the fact that it's a play on The Family's favorite food (the ubiquitous chips & salsa), and it was a winner in my book! It was obscenely easy to put together, and the results were delicious, winning rave reviews from the Mexican loving crowd! Fruit Salsa with Homemade Cinnamon Tortilla Chips is definitely a winner to add to your appetizer arsenal, in case yours is as lacking as mine was.

For some reason, I didn't take any photos of the process of this recipe (could be that it was 10:00 at night, and I still had WAY too much to do), but the final product was so beautiful, I had to share two!



And, marrying into an absolutely FABULOUS Mormon family means that my drink repertoire is even more limited than my appetizer arsenal. Seriously, it's been so long since I've seen a cocktail that I could probably get tipsy off a SNIFF! And the ubiquitous Mormon "mocktail" of Sprite and Sherbet just doesn't do it for me (sorry, Utah, I drank it at my wedding, but it's just not my cup of tea!). As such, I make a LOT of lemonade, embarrassingly enough, not even homemade lemonade, plain old Country Time lemonade. And I LIKE it! But, I was feeling a little bit bored of lemonade, and looking for something with a bit more pizazz, reminiscent of a good, bubbly Mimosa, or Bellini. What I came up with, Sparkling Berry Lemonade is so easy, and tasted so good, that on a good day, it's even a substitute for a good, strong cocktail. On a bad day? Well, let's just not go there! ;) Again, this is an original recipe, so there aren't any official measurements, I just filled my new pitcher ($4.00 from Wal-Mart, the evil giant I love to hate), half way full of water, and half way full of club soda, and then enough lemonade mix to acheive the flavor I like (slightly tart, but mostly sweet). The addition of frozen berries turns the whole thing a beautiful orange color as the fruit thaws, and mingles with the lemonade (no photos of that, sorry!), and let's just face it, bubbles (from the club soda) make EVERYTHING better!



Sparkling Berry Lemonade
Country Time Lemonade Mix (or your favorite mix, this just happens to be the brand I'm loyal to)
Water
Club Soda
Frozen Mixed Berries

-Fill your pitcher half way full with water (Tap, or filtered, whatever floats your boat, I use filtered, because I'm anal like that, but I won't tell if you don't!)

-Then fill the rest of the way with Club Soda.
*Note, leave a little room at the top of your pitcher, as the club soda and lemonade fizz a fair amount when mixed! This is chemistry in action, folks!*

-Add your lemonade mix, and stir well, until you achieve the flavor you like best! Some people like their lemonade uber sweet, and others extremely tangy, I think I'm somewhere in the middle, leaning more toward the sweet side.

-Add some frozen berries and stir.
*I'm sure you could also use fresh berries, but I use the frozen because they act as my ice cubes. This is extra great for me, because one of my biggest pet peeves in the kitchen is making lemonade with ice cubes in the water. Because when they melt, it dilutes the lemonade, and ruins the whole batch. My husband and I disagree on this, and he makes lemonade WITH ice cubes just to get my goat, and I make them without just to get his, but TRUST ME ON THIS, do NOT put ice cubes in your water when making lemonade. Put some thought into it, make the lemonade early, and stick it in the fridge. Or, put ice cubes in your individual glass if you don't find diluted lemonade to be as big of a tragedy as I do, but whatever you do, DON'T rain on everyone else's parade! (or as we say in my house, "don't poop on my parade," but I wasn't sure exactly how appropriate that would be on a food blog!)

Hallelujahs: Fast, Delicious, BUBBLY, and nutritious? (hey, there's fruit in there, which is already an improvement for me!)
Hellfires: Not sure if there are any, maybe that it's non-alcoholic, if you're looking for a nice, stiff drink.

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
-Note, I doubled the original recipe (except for the pineapple), and added a fair amount more sugar, as well

For the Cinnamon Chips
16 Flour Tortillas (these are on my list of things I want to learn to make from scratch, but for this, I was pressed for time, and used store bough tortillas, and they STILL turned out DELICIOUS!)
1 stick of butter
Cinnamon/Sugar Mixture (I always have this hanging around for my cinnamon toast, which is God's gift to breakfast!)

-Preheat oven to 350*
-Using a pastry brush (or a BBQ sauce brush, or a paint brush, or a spoon, or even the tools God gave ya-your hands!), spread melted butter on all of the tortillas.
-After buttering, sprinkle each tortilla with cinnamon/sugar in whatever ratio you like. It's important to make the cinnamon sugar mixture ahead of time, though, you don't want to have big streaks of cinnamon on your chips.
-Stack the tortillas (4-6 at a time) and cut into 8 wedges.
-Place tortilla chips in one layer on a greased baking sheet, and bake for 5-10 minutes until crisp. It will take several batches, but no matter how tempted you may be to stack them, especially if it's 10:00 pm, place them in a SINGLE LAYER on your baking sheet. It's important for the crisping. Also, they will continue to crisp after you take them out of the oven, so don't wait until they feel like the tortilla chips you get in the store. Mine took closer to 10 minutes, than 5.
-After removing from oven, place in bowl, and allow to cool COMPLETELY before sealing in Ziploc bag (otherwise they'll get soggy)


For the fruit salsa
-1 pound of strawberries, rinsed, and chopped fine
-2 Navel Oranges, rinsed, and chopped fine
*Incidentally, it's not so easy to dice an orange, and it hurts when you squirt the juice in your eye!
-6 kiwis, peeled, and chopped fine
-1 large can of crushed pineapple, drained
-2 tablespoons of lemon juice
-Sugar to taste
*The originally recipe would call for 2 tsp here, but you know how I feel about measuring. I did several heavy turns of the bowl. Just start small, and taste as you go!

-Chop your fruit, and place in large bowl.
-Add Lemon Juice, and Sugar
-Toss
-Serve with cinnamon chips

Hallelujahs: Easy as pie (which actually ain't easy), delicious, light, fresh, beautiful
Hellfires: There's a lot of liquid in this, as it sits, which makes it look less beautiful, maybe strain it in collander first?

Original Recipe, and nutrition info can be found at: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Fruit-Salsa-with-Cinnamon-Chips

Okay, now you have some fantastic new summer recipes, you've got no excuse here, GO HAVE A PARTY! Have some fun with it, go a little crazy (if you're a non-LDS reader, throw some Vodka in with the lemonade), and report back to me! Also, if you have some great summer appetizers, share them with me, I could use a few more!