Pumpkin Cheesecake

Because we've been eating Joyce's famous pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving since before I was born, I haven't had a chance to make this Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe that I found last year. (Who can justify eating pumpkiny desserts any other time but Thanksgiving?) Luckily, we decided to have a pre-Thanksgiving meal with our friends, so I got to try it out!!!

I have to say, this cheesecake is fabulous. So creamy without being overwhelmingly pumpkin-y. I almost didn't add the marshmellow topping, but it made it look so pretty and also tasted great!! One thing that I might change is to go back to the good old graham cracker crust instead of this gingersnap crust. Just not a fan of gingersnaps.

You can find the recipe (and some better pictures) here.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

I've been on a continual quest for the perfect peanut butter cookie, which gives me an excuse to make them a lot!! These ones are more on the crunchy side, and are great, but not THE PNB cookie. The search is still on.....

BUT, I tried these chocolate sugar cookies about a month ago and fell in love with them! I don't really like to make sugar cookies because I HATE decorating, but with these guys, you don't have to roll them out or shape them at all - just drop & bake. And, they are SUPER chewy - my fav.

Thanks for reading and bothering me to post more often (Mel & Laura!!).

Peanut Butter Sandies (from Cookies: Food Writers' Favorites)

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

7/8 cups unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I use more - around 3/4 to 1 cup)

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/2 cup chopped peanuts (or use chunky peanut butter)

Beat butter and peanut butter until fluffy, add sugars and beat until smooth. Beat in vanilla and egg. Gradually beat in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Form into about 1 inch balls. Flatten each ball into a disk using your palm (wash hands please!!!). Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool & eat.

Blueberry "Scones"

When I think of a scone, I think of something triangular shaped, slightly sweet, dense, and moist. These are not scones:

But they are delicious! They are more like a muffin top - round, light and airy.  But I'm not complaining. 

I didn't have the correct sugar to put on the top of them, and I think that it would have added that little extra something to put them over the edge.  They can be made either in a food processor or with a pastry cutter.  Also, this recipe makes a lot of scones, and they don't keep very well, so I would definitely scale this one down!

Blueberry Oat Scones (from bonappetit)

3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsps baking soda

2/4 tsp salt

11 tbsps chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-in cubes

1 cup plus 3 tbs old-fashioned oats

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 3/4 cups chilled half and half 

1 tsp vanilla extract

5 tsps raw sugar (look for turbinado or demerara sugar) 

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a food processor or bowl and blend.  Add butter and blend until mixture resembles coarse meal.  If in food processor, transfer mixture to a large bowl.  Add 1 cup oats and blueberries, stir to blend.  

Stir together half and half and vanilla.  Gradually add to flour mixture until dough comes together.  Drop dough into 1/2 cup mounds, spacing about 3 inches apart.  Sprinkle tops with remaining 3 tbps oats, then raw sugar. 

Bake about 25 minutes or until scones (muffin tops) are golden and toothpick comes out clean.  Cool slightly and serve warm! Enjoy! 

Strawberry Cake!

It was my turn to bring in a cake for this month's birthdays at work (yes, we celebrate birthday's by the month, which stinks when you have 5 other people to share your birthday cake with... not that I'm bitter or anything...). We normally have a store-bought cake, but I was excited to finally be able to make a a whole cake without the danger of having  3/4 of a cake left over to eat by myself.

 I knew the birthday girl liked a strawberry and whipped cream cake that we normally get, so I re-created it with a few twists.  

Yummy!! It's a three-layer white cake frosted with some delicious, but not too sweet, vanilla buttercream. In between each layer are poached strawberries and buttercream.  I finished it off with some fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream!  

The cake was a hit, with only one piece left standing, and I might have been hired to make a cake for everyone at work's birthday! (or month).  Stay tuned!

Love, 

Becky

Cherries, Cherries, and more Cherries

I can never resist a sale.  It could be anything - from a great pair of shoes to a huge pack of toilet paper (at least I won't have to buy any for a while!).  This time, the lovely yellow sign at the Harris Teeter indicated that a huge bag of cherries was on sale.  Without particularly liking cherries, I ended up leaving the store with several pounds.  After literally eating three, I grew annoyed dealing with the pits, and there they sat in the fridge for a week.  

Before I wasted my (on sale) money, I decided to throw them in some goodies!  

First on the list: Cherry-Poppyseed Muffins

These were so good! I made them as mini's and regular size and brought them into work - they disappeared before I could snag a few of my own!  (I've put the recipe below.)

Next up: Mini Cherry Pies

These guys were super simple - I took some leftover instant pie dough from the Blueberry pie and put it in a regular sized muffin pan.  I added cherries that were mixed with some sugar, sealed the top, and baked at 350 for about 20 minutes. They made a perfect sized and super sweet dessert! 

Last, but definitely not the least: Cherry Garcia Ice Cream!

One of my favorite and most coveted cook books is the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Book with all their original recipes! I've never actually tried their Cherry Garcia Ice Cream because I always get sidetracked by the Peanut Butter Cup (best thing ever), so I decided to give it a whirl.  Undoubtedly, it came out great!

Recipe: Cherry-PoppySeed Muffins (adapted from Tyler Florence)

1/2 cup unsalted butter -melted & cooled

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk

2 large eggs - lightly beaten

1 tbsp poppy seeds

Zest of 1 orange (I used lemon)

1 cup dried cherries (I used fresh and cut them into quarters)

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a muffin tin with Pam. 

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour wet into the well and fold together.

Toss the cherries with flour and fold them into the batter.

Spoon batter into muffin tins, filling them two-thirds full. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Blueberry Pie

I haven't been the biggest fan of pies.  I think its because you really have to make a whole one for it to be worth it, and two people + one pie = too much eating.  But... I was feeling adventurous (and hungry), and we had a TON of blueberries that were about to go bad, so one Sunday afternoon, I made a delicious blueberry pie with an almond crumble topping. 

Can you see it there underneath all that cool whip?  This is (surprise) Patrick's piece - I'm not sure which he likes better - the pie or cool whip.

The hardest thing about pies are getting the crust perfect, but I sort of cheated (ok, I actually cheated) and used Betty Crocker instant pie crust mix. (just add water! - literally.) Since I'm not the biggest fan of so much crust covering my fruit, the almond crumble topping really made it for me, and you'll probably see it in other recipes!

Next time, I would probably use less sugar in the filling.  Since my blueberries were not "wild," but rather "from Harris Teeter," they were much sweeter than the tart wild ones. 

Recipe: 

Wild Blueberry Pie with Almond Crumble Topping

adapted from epicurious.com

Filling

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 7 cups fresh wild or regular blueberries
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Topping

• 2/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 4 ounces marzipan or almond paste, broken into 1/3-inch pieces (about 3/4 cup loosely packed)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 
  

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 400°F.

For Pie Crust:  Follow instructions on package, roll into a 12-in round circle.  Transfer to a 9-in pie dish.  Turn edges under to hide and crimp decoratively (or have a pie place that has crimps on its edges so you don't have to!). Refrigerate while preparing filling. 

For filling:
Whisk 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar and cornstarch in heavy large saucepan to blend. Stir in blueberries and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens, frequently stirring gently, about 13 minutes. Chill filling until cool, about 1 hour. If more sweetness is desired, stir in sugar by tablespoonfuls.

For topping:
Combine first 4 ingredients in processor or bowl; blend until mixture begins to clump together.  Chill 30 minutes. Spread blueberry filling evenly in unbaked crust. Sprinkle topping evenly over. Place pie on rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust and topping are golden and filling bubbles thickly, about 50 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool completely. 

Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, or cool whip!

Alaskan Vacation Part Two - Fishing!

After heading out of Denali, where we had beautiful weather, we drove 6 hours to Seward and was met with lots of clouds and rain :( However, we made a quick pit stop in Anchorage to pick up my luggage - since I wasn't going to have to wear the same pants every day anymore, I didn't care what the weather was like!

For our first two days in Seward, we went fishing!  The forecast predicted that it was going to be "sunny and calm" for day one.  By noon, it had started to rain and the wind picked up, treating us with rough seas and 5 ft swells.  Because we stupidly listened to the forecast (note - in Seward, I've noticed that it tends to do the opposite of whats forecasted), we had no rain gear, and we were stuck in our cold, wet jeans.  I was FREEZING, but I couldn't go inside the cabin because I would start to get sea-sick from all the waves.  To make matters worse, no one was catching ANY fish.  After a couple hours of misery, we trucked on over to a calmer area and began to catch some really nice fish (shown here on the cleaning table ready to be filleted), which definitely takes the sting out of being wet and cold.

After a nice, hot shower and a big Chinese dinner, I began to entertain the idea of keeping our reservation to go fishing again the next day.  Patrick and I showed up bright and early in full on rain

gear borrowed from the fish processing plant: rubber boots and gloves and bright purple rubber pants and jacket.  After popping a dramamine, we were ready for anything! The whole day, the weather was sunny and calm.  Unfortunately, we only fished a half-day because our captain had to go tow another boat that had broken down at sea, but we still ended up with 7 great looking fish!  I even had a fish follow my bait all the way to the surface of the water before he struck, so I could see him take the bait (which was awesome to watch) AND I didn't have to reel very much to pull him in!!!  I caught the big fella on the right (about 14 pounds!) and we ended up taking home a total of 80 pounds of salmon that somehow managed to fit into my itty bitty freezer!

Besides the really nice salmon that we got (silvers this time around), it is also beautiful to just be out on the water and looking at the majestic landscape!  In the picture below, taken from a mountain across the bay from Seward, we fished most of the day right off of the point in the middle in an area called Porcupine Ridge. 

We also fished right next to a glacier and you could see chunks of ice that had broken off and were floating in the water.  The air coming off of that baby was COLD!

On the water, we were always surrounded by such a variety of wildlife!  There were puffins everywhere, and we even had one that kept diving underneath the boat.  We could see him swimming underwater, and since they can dive so deep, we were afraid that they were aiming for the herring on our hooks.  It would have been interesting to catch one!

 

There were also porpoises (think dolphins that look like baby orcas) that swam right up next to us, and we saw many river and sea otters (that were doing what they otter) and huge sea lions (shown on the left). 

Despite the weather, we had a great time.  And from now on, no matter what the weather forecast, I will definitely be bringing my dramamine and full on rain gear!

Love, B

(and Larry Lingcod, RIP)

Alaskan Vacation Part One

Somehow, whenever we've flown out to Alaska, something has gone wrong.  Last time, Patrick lost his luggage for seven days and received his suitcase the day before we left. This time:

1. Somehow Patrick was put on the standby list for our first flight out of Raleigh.  Luckily, someone didn't show up and he got on the plane. 
   
2. We missed our connection in Houston by 5 minutes.
3. We made it to Seattle just in time to get 3 hours of sleep at Patrick's house, but without luggage. 
4. We fly into Anchorage, and whose luggage doesn't show up??? Mine, of course.
5. We get into a fight with the baggage lady who was wearing a ridiculous shade of lip gloss and start yelling at us when we asked her any question.

With a quick pit stop at REI in Anchorage to buy some replacement clothes and shoes (scored another pair of running shoes!! on sale too!), we were off to Denali National Park.  

The park is HUGE - about 6 million acres (larger than Massachusetts) - and home to tons of caribou, grizzly bears (seen to the left), and moose, among others.  No cars are allowed in the park, so you ride a an old school bus into the park and you can stop anywhere and go hiking - there are hardly any trails but you are allowed to walk anywhere you want. 

The main attraction of the park is Mount McKinley, or Denali, meaning "the high one."  The largest mountain on the North American continent, it rises to 20,320 feet.  We lucked out in that both of our days were perfectly clear and we got BEAUTIFUL views of the mountain. 

 (The guide said that he only gets clear days like this 6 times out of the entire summer). 

For lunch, we hiked up a ridge and ate lunch looking at Denali, and Carl the caribou 

decided to join us!

 

The next day we headed down to Seward, Alaska, but stopped along the way for a hike around Byer's Lake, where you could eat fresh blueberries right off the trail and still see Denali in the background! 

Stay tuned for the second 

installment!

Love, B

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's start off with a classic.  

Don't you just want one?? or maybe two?? or six? (not that I've done that....)

I'm pretty certain I've been baking these babies since before birth.  I can't remember a time when I didn't love making these - fresh from the oven with a bowl of ice cream - doesn't get any better.  

I pretty much use any excuse to bake them - When I'm having a bad day, these are what I bake.  When someone else is having a bad day, how about a chocolate chip cookie? or a whole batch? And, by far, these cookies are the most requested from my friends and family - I even sent a package to my dad for father's day!  I just love how something so simple (cookie + chocolate) can make a day so much better!! 

Even though I've had ten plus years to finesse the recipe and try out different ones, I still return to the same one from the back of the Nestle Semisweet Chocolate Chips Package.  I only do two things differently from the package: 

1. Use 1 stick margarine and 1 stick butter - I think I started doing this because we ran out of butter, but I find it gives them the best texture! Still round (not flat) but still chewy!
2. Add wayy more chocolate chips than the bag says (and no nuts - it interrupts the chocolatey-ness).

All this chocolate-chip cookie talk has made me hungry! I think I might just go bake a batch. 

Love, B

My Wedding Cake

For my first blog post (yay!), I wanted to tell you about something that I didn't actually make (you'll get plenty of that later) - but was the most fantastic piece of edible art that I've ever seen and tasted - my wedding cake!  

Isn't it beautiful!!  It was made by Gregory Bingham from The Art of Cake. He was fantastic - meeting with us several times to make sure the design is what we wanted and envisioned, and he even gave us his design boards as a wedding gift!  

We couldn't choose just one flavor, so we alternated between (get ready to drool): Blueberry Cobbler Pound Cake with layers of fresh blueberries, lemon curd, and lemon meringue buttercream and a splash of limoncello (the best flavor by far) and Vanilla Butter Cake splashed with frangelico and layered with white chocolate ganache and white chocolate buttercream.  I think I had at least two pieces of each on our wedding night!!

And the best part is, we have leftovers that are now safely partitioned and wrapped in the freezer, just waiting for us to eat.