Homemade Cheesecake

One of our favorite desserts is cheesecake. Usually when the craving hits us we head to the place in Baton Rouge that has the best cheesecake you can buy, Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro. If we are looking to have more than once slice each then we will get a cheesecake from Whole Foods since they have the second best cheesecake in the city. This weekend we both wanted cheesecake but we decided that we wanted to give making one a shot. So we made a homemade cheesecake with fruit topping and it turned out wonderful, It was better than Cheesecake Bistro! We definitely will be making our own in the future especially since its much cheaper than buying it ($5.99 per slice at the bistro and $30.00 per cake at whole foods) and it tastes better than either place.

Here is a picture of our beautiful cheesecake:

Mmmmm...makes you hungry doesn't it? I Wouldn't show you that picture without including the recipe (that would just be mean) so here are the directions on how to make your own homemade cheesecake.

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups finely ground honey graham crackers
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted

Cake:
2 - 8oz blocks softened cream cheese
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
8oz sour cream
dash of vanilla

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Crust:
In a mixing bowl combine crust ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8in springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Here is a pic of the pan in case you don't know what kind of pan to use.











You can buy a pan at Sears, Target, Walmart, etc.

Pour the Crumb mixture into the pan and using the bottom of a measuring cup, press the crumbs into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 min.

Cake:
In Bowl beat softened cream cheese with electric mixer on low speed for approx 1 min until smooth and free of lumps. Add the eggs 1 at a time (mixing between each egg) continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy 1-2 min. Add sour cream and Vanilla and mix, the batter should be well mixed but not over beaten. Pour the filling into the crust lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake in a large roasting pan. pour hot water into the pan until water is 1/4-1/2 the way up the sides of the pan. (the foil keeps the water from seeping into the cheesecake) Bake for 1hour -1hour 30 min You want the cheese cake to still jiggle just a little but not be liquidy. Let cool in pan 30 min then place in refrigerator. Chill in fridge, loosely covered, for at least 6 hrs, but preferably overnight.remove from pan and top with topping of your choice.

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For our first cheesecake we went simple and just used different fruits for the topping. The fruits we used for our toppings were peaches, bananas, strawberrys, and grapes drizzled with a little bit of honey. All of the fruits were delicious on top of the cheesecake, however my favorite of the fruits was the banana. Next time we make the cheesecake we are going to try and do a banana foster topping. I will update pictures and recipes here as we try making different toppings.

Easter Cupcakes

We didn't cook any new dishes tonight, but I did make some yummy Easter cupcakes.



They turned out great. They are just white cake mix with fluffy white vanilla frosting. I used food coloring to make the frosting a pastel spring blue. Then I used a peep for the chick. For the "egg" that the chick is hatching from I used white airheads that I rolled out with the rolling pin then cut into the jagged looking egg. Then I put on the other eggs (m&ms and jelly beans). Finally I covered the cake with "grass", which I made from coconut and green food coloring. As you can see they look so cute! They were alot of work but definitely were worth it for the cuteness factor.

Playing Top Chef - Maritime Tacos (Fish Tacos)

We made Fish Tacos with mango radish salsa and homemade corn chips with tomatillo salsa tonight for our weekly cooking experiment. I actually took all the pictures of the dishes this week because food network didn't have any pictures of what we were making. I like my pictures better than the ones the food network has done for the other dishes we've tried (maybe I'm biased lol) anyhow, from now on I'm going to try and take my own pics for the new dishes we make. Below is the picture of the Fish Tacos (courtesy of me ☺) and here is the link to the recipe: Ultimate Fish Tacos



I have to admit that I was very skeptical about making this dish. I thought that fish tacos didn't really sound all that appetizing. Well they may not sound all that great but they looked, smelled, and tasted heavenly!! I am so glad that we tried these! We decided that such a delicious dish needed a catchier, tastier name, so we are now officially calling fish tacos, Maritime Tacos.

I've never had Mahi Mahi before and I was pleasantly surprised at its mild flavor and light airy texture. The only down fall to Mahi Mahi it that it is a bit expensive and was hard to find. I called several local fish markets and they did not carry it. Luckily Whole Foods had just gotten a shipment in and I was able to get it there(Whole Foods to the rescue again lol). I liked the way the panko bread crumbs gave the fish a nice crunch. The mango radish salsa was very refreshing as was the pink chile mayo. I love that when you combine the fish, salsa, and mayo together with the cabbage on the tortilla its like a fiesta in your mouth.


To go with the Maritime Tacos we made homemade corn chips with tomatillo salsa. Below is the picture (courtesy of me again ☺) and here is the link to the recipe: Fresh Fried Corn Chips With Tomatillo Salsa.



One of the first things that you probably notice about the picture is that the salsa is red. You might be wondering how the salsa is red when tomatillos are green...Its Magic!!...not really... we made the tomatillo salsa and hated it, so the salsa in the picture is Pace Picante. The tomatillo salsa was really bitter and just nasty so we ended up throwing it out. On the upside, the tortilla chips were really yummy and easy to make. Plus they are much better tasting than the chips that you buy in the store.


Overall the meal was wonderful and I had a lot of fun (as I always do) preparing it with Karl. Its kinda funny but before we started this experiment we never cooked together too much. It would just be one of us cooking. Now I look forward to trying new meals and working as a team on a mini weekly - biweekly project. You know what else? I love working with Karl on anything and I just plain Love Karl and i always will ♥

Playing Top Chef - Raviolis And BBQ Shrimp

This week we decided to make corn star raviolis in sweet basil cream sauce and bacon wrapped shrimp with chipotle barbecue sauce. Below is the picture of the raviolis courtesy of the food network and here is the link to the recipe : Corn Star Raviolis in Sweet Basil Cream Sauce.



This dish was very time consuming to make, however it was worth every second of time it took to prepare. It was delicious! We had a little trouble finding the wonton wrappers, we went to 3 different stores (Wal-mart, Albertsons, and Whole Foods) and Whole Foods was the only store that we were able to find them at. I was so glad that we put in the extra effort to look for them because they made great ravioli! This recipe was great as is, but I think it would also be great with some meat added into it, next time we will try it with some crab or lobster meat. We will definitely be making this dish for years to come. It would be a great dish to use if you want to impress company (just don't tell them you used wonton wrappers for the ravioli, let them think you slaved for hours making homemade pasta!).

To go with the raviolis we had some bacon wrapped BBQ shrimp, we figured they must go well with the ravioli since Guy did them together on the same show. Also it would give us some meat in the meal. Here is a Picture of the shrimp courtesy of the food network and here is the link to the recipe: Bacon Wrapped Shrimp With Chipotle Barbecue Sauce.



These shrimp were delicious! After eating these you wont want to eat shrimp any other way! The BBQ sauce was so good, It had just the right amount of spice so that it wasn't too hot, but it had a bit of an after burn. We loved the sauce so much that we have decided that we are going to use sauce recipe to make BBQ ribs in. The only things we did differently from the recipe is that we didn't add the red pepper flakes (we thought that would make it too hot) and we added a little honey to the sauce which gave it the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. Also I would suggest using thick cut bacon (guy uses it on the show but its not listed on the recipe) with the thick bacon you can cut a bacon strip in half and it is plenty enough to wrap around one shrimp. We will definitely be making these again, this recipe is a winner!

Playing Top Chef - Steak Sandwich

This week we decided to make the Ultimate Steak Sandwich. Below is a picture of the sandwich courtesy of The Food Network and here is the link to The Ultimate Steak Sandwich recipe.




This sandwich was AWESOME!! It was the best sandwich I've ever had. We made a few changes to the recipe : we left out the arugula in the mayo, used cheddar for the cheese, and we didn't make the Fennel Slaw also we added sauteed mushrooms and onions to the sandwich. This was definitely a winner and we will be making this yummy sandwich regularly.


For the side to the yummy Ultimate Steak Sandwich we decided to make some homemade onion rings. Below is a picture of the onion rings courtesy of The Food Network and here is a link to the Tempura Battered Onion Rings recipe.




The onion ring recipe was very time consuming and overall disappointing. The onion rings looked wonderful but they tasted pretty bland and also a bit bitter. After we fried up the first set and tasted them we decided to omit the flour coating step (the batter stayed on fine without the flour, just make sure you remember to remove the thin membrane between the onion layers) and we added some sugar and more salt and pepper. This helped to add some flavor and tone down the bitterness. Also I think that 1 large Onion would be plenty, (we cut up 2 onions as the recipe said and had lots of cut onion left after using up all the batter). We will not be making these again.

Yet even with the onion ring disappointment, The meal was wonderful. The steak sandwich was divine and i can't wait till we cook up something new next week :)

Playing Top Chef - Blackened Catfish

Top Chef ...Karl and I love the show. It was a gateway for us into the world of cooking shows. We have recently started watching some cooking shows on food network. A few weeks ago we were watching a cooking show and we decided that we should try and make a new dish that we have never had before. Now we have decided that we will try to do one dish per week keeping in mind that sometimes we may only be able to do one per two weeks just depending on cost/finances.

So This week we made Blackened Catfish with Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes and Parmesan Roasted Green Beans.


This is a picture of the Catfish courtesy of Food Network (our fish looked exactly like this) and here is the link to the recipe, Not Lackin' on the Blackenin' Catfish.

I personally wasn't crazy about the catfish, however I'm not really a fish eater unless its fried. Karl loved it and i did enjoy it, so it was definitely worth making. It was rather easy to make as well. If you plan on making this dish my only real suggestion is to cook it outside if possible (we made ours on our gas grills side burner) because it creates alot of smoke and it will smoke your house up.


This is a Picture of the mashed potatoes courtesy of Food Network. Here is the link to the recipe, Grainy Mustard Mashed Potatoes.

These potatoes are really good. They were in fact the best tasting homemade mashed potatoes that I've ever had. Usually I find homemade mashed potatoes bland but these had plenty of delicious flavor. These potatoes are definitely a keeper.

Here is the link to the Parmesan-Roasted Green Beans (sorry no picture). The green beans were wonderful. The Sides were my favorite part of the meal.

I hope that I didn't make you too hungry with this post... If anyone out there decides to try these dishes (or any that we make in the future), I would be interested to know how it turned out and if you liked it or not.