Mini-Cheesecakes

I have a thing for mini-desserts. Not only do I like the fact that they are built in portion control... well, unless you eat multiple of them... but I just think they're so dang cute!!

Mini pies, mini cakes, mini loaves of bread; I've even done small cheesecake tarts before. But for my birthday this year, my in-laws gave me this sweet little mini-cheesecake pan from King Arthur Flour. Two perfect bites of sweet, cheesy goodness in every cake. I also like how quick they are to mix up and bake.

I use my Perfect Graham Cracker Crust recipe and then whip up a basic cheesecake filling, which has nice lemony overtone. The cutest thing, which I did not take advantage of in this instance, is that they end up with a slight dimple in the middle of the cake, perfect for filling with whatever fruit or chocolate topping you think your mini-cheesecakes deserve!

Mini-Cheesecakes
Yield: 12 mini-cheesecakes

1 recipe Perfect Graham Cracker Crust
1 package cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Prepare the graham cracker crust and tamp about a 1/4-inch layer of crust in the bottom of each pan. Bake at 400 degrees F about 8 minutes or until nicely golden. Let cool.

Adjust the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. Pour batter evenly into the twelve molds. Bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes. After twenty minutes, turn off the oven and let the cakes sit in the oven ten minutes longer. Remove pan from oven and let cool completely. For easiest removal, chill cheesecakes in the refrigerator a few hours until they are firm and then remove the cakes onto a serving dish.

Perfect Graham Cracker Crust

I am pleased to announce that crumbly graham cracker crusts are no longer going to be a problem I have to deal with. I have always been frustrated by how the traditional graham cracker crust turned out for me.

It made perfect sense to me... I mean, really: crushed up graham crackers, sugar, and butter... there's no glue in there! What is supposed to hold it all together?

Fortunately, the cure is simple and wonderful. If you add one single egg yolk to the mixture, you end up with a perfect graham cracker crust that holds it's own once baked.

Perfect Graham Cracker Crust
Yield: enough for one pie/tart shell

1 pouch graham crackers (there are usually three pouches per box, 9 full sized crackers per pouch)
4 TBS melted and cooled butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
dash cinnamon

Grind the graham crackers into a fine meal. A food processor is easiest, but you can also use a rolling pin and a plastic bag. Then add the remaining ingredients into the mixture and be sure everything is well incorporated. Press into whichever mold or tart shell you choose and bake in a 400 degree F oven until the crust is gently golden, between 8 and 12 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your shell.

Grilled Turkey and Pesto Sandwich

We love sandwiches around here. My husband's been working such late hours that many days by the time he calls to let me know he's on his way, I just can't think about cooking a full-fledged meal.

Yes. Soup and sandwiches visit our house very often.

But, when I'm really looking for a satisfying meal, cold sandwiches just don't quite measure up to the task. Ergo, we eat a lot of soup and grilled sandwiches at our house.

The great thing is that you have almost as much flexibility with a grilled sandwich as a cold one. Granted, I'm not a big fan of lettuce and tomato condiments on a grilled sandwich, for instance, but you can add all kinds of other great things! Besides the regular grilled ham and cheese (yes, I live with a man and, apparently, men cannot abide by a meatless sandwich), the sky's the limit. Swap out your cheeses; go with a variety of meats. My favorites often include caramelized onions and/or mushrooms. Oh, yes, the options are many.

Funny, then, that this one has made so many regular appearances lately. It's much easier to make than a sandwich that requires cooking onions or mushrooms separately. I can slap these together in no time flat, and my husband says they're good! And they have turkey on them. GASP! What, no beef? I guess when you slather a sandwich with pesto, turkey is A-OK.

So, here's the deal: Butter the outsides of your bread and spread the inside of each slice with a little pesto. I have a bunch of homemade pesto in my freezer that I froze in ice cube trays. I use one ice cube worth of pesto per sandwich. I then place a slice of smoke provolone cheese on each slice of bread (read: two slices per sandwich). Fold some deli smoked turkey in the middle, put them together, and grill over medium heat until nice and golden and heated through. Yup. This one's a keeper.

Stew Dumplings

You ever noticed how sometimes folks start doing something because they think it's convenient and then they forget there ever was an original way to do it? I think stew dumplings fall in that category. When was the last time you had chicken and dumplings with dumplings made from scratch? It seems like everyone now just throws some refrigerator biscuit dough in their stew and calls it good.

There are only two problems with this practice that I can see. First: Biscuit dumplings have a weird texture that in no way resembles scratch dumplings. I find the refrigerator dough dumplings to be very chewy and dense. The real thing is just slightly chewy on the outside and somewhat fluffy on the inside. Second: It only takes me 2.4 minutes to mix up a batch of dumpling dough from scratch. Is that really more trouble than trying to open a roll of store bought biscuits?

Mix this dough together and drop by the tablespoon full on top of any stew you're cooking and see what a difference it makes! You may never look back!

Stew Dumplings
Yield: approximately 6-8 dumplings
Adapted from the New Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook

2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk
2 TBS cooking oil
1/8 tsp salt
pinch of dried herbs (such as parsley, thyme, or oregano)

Stir together all ingredients. For the most tender dumplings, do not over mix the dough. Drop tablespoon sized blobs of dough onto any finished, bubbling stew (you will not want to have to mix anything else into the stew after you add the dumplings). Reduce heat to just maintain a simmer. Cover the pot and cook 10-12 minutes until dumplings are just cooked through.

Phyllo Dough Shortcut

Good news! Your life is about to get easier.

For a long time now, I've wondered, do I have to brush phyllo dough with butter to get the best results? I love baking with phyllo dough... those flaky layers get me every time, but I hate brushing each layer with butter. And, in this case, I really mean hate.

So, the other evening I conducted a test. I built two stacks of plain phyllo dough and baked them for comparison. On one I brushed butter like I usually do, on the other, I sprayed plain old cooking spray on each layer. First, I want to let you know that building the stack using the cooking spray was a breeze! It was wonderfully easy and I could control the amount of fat I used somewhat too. When you're trying to brush tissue paper thin sheets of dough with butter, there's no such thing as going easy on the stuff.

I purposefully made the stacks with no flavorings whatsoever. I wanted to be see if I could discern a difference in flavor between the two, because - as we all know - butter has a special flavor profile and if there was a difference, the hassle of brushing might be worth it.

And the good news is: knock yourself out with the cooking spray. Not only was the result just as flaky and puffed as the butter (in fact, maybe even more so), there was no significant flavor difference between the two. Make your life easy! Make phyllo with cooking spray!

NOTE: The cooking spray tower is on the right in the above picture, the butter on the left. When I bit into them, there was really no significant difference in flakiness. I think the difference you see in the picture is due to the edges of the layers sticking more with the butter when I trimmed around each stack before baking. Another kudos to the cooking spray, I suppose!

Spinach and Scallop Casserole

I have a confession to make. I've got some serious casserole woes.

Perhaps it's because about the closest thing to a casserole I had growing up was lasagna. Perhaps it's because when I first moved out on my own and really started cooking, I didn't have a working oven. Who knows why these things happen. But, just ask my husband... casseroles are a challenge for me.

My husband loves casseroles. So, occasionally, I try and go outside my comfort zone and make the guy a dish. Of course, it doesn't help that his favorite casserole, named - if you can believe - Dump Casserole - is a mixture of ingredients I just can't hardly bear to put into one dish.

Yet, I've got to try and help a guy out, and it's been a little bit of a rocky road. Some have turned out OK, some... haven't. But I keep trying. Fortunately, pasta casseroles are a little less daunting to me, I guess because I never really considered them casseroles. But, alas, this little dish I put together for my husband the other night turned out great. It's creamy and cheesy (which is never a bad thing, in my book). I love the combination of the shallot and spinach and how the hint of sherry brings out the best from the scallops.

Yup, this casserole, at least, was a smashing success.


Spinach and Scallop Casserole
Yield: 6-8 servings

3 cups elbow pasta (large elbows if you can find them)
1 tsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb bay scallops
3 TBS olive oil
3 TBS flour
2 cups warm milk (whole, preferably)
2 TBS cream sherry
1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1 cup thawed and pressed chopped frozen spinach
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Boil the pasta as instructed on the package until just al dente. Drain and hold until ready to use. If your pasta is ready way before your sauce is, add a little drizzle of oil to the pasta once it's drained to keep it from sticking together too much.

In a skillet, over medium to medium-high heat, saute the shallots and garlic in a teaspoon of olive oil. When the shallot is soft and starting to brown slightly, add the scallops and saute just until they are barely cooked. They cook very quickly, so give them your full attention while cooking them. Turn off the heat and let cool while preparing the sauce.

In a stock pot or Dutch oven, heat 3 TBS of olive oil and then stir in the flour. Cook for a minute or so and then add the warm milk slowly, stirring the whole time. Slow is the key if you do not want a lumpy sauce. Continue stirring over medium heat until the milk thickens and just starts to boil. Turn off the heat and add the sherry, cheeses (reserve a small bit of cheese to sprinkle on top of the casserole), and spinach. Stir to distribute the ingredients and then add the drained pasta and scallop mixture. Mix and then pour into a greased 9x13 (or similar) pan. Sprinkle the remaining bit of cheese on top.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until the top is nicely browned and bubbly. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Greek Rice

Every now and again I try a recipe that I think looks intriguing but that ends up not being that great. I'd had my eye on a stuffed squid recipe for some time. It ended up looking pretty, just as nice as the picture in the recipe book:


However, there was something about the texture of the squid (fairly rubbery) that was an unappealing contrast to the texture of the rice filling. When cooking squid, the rule is typically cook it really fast or really long; anything in between is a recipe for dining on rubber bands. Unfortunately, to obtain a safe internal temperature on the eggs in the stuffing, I think it ended up crossing the "tender" boundary... if you can ever really call squid tender.

What was a pleasant surprise was how delicious the filling was. There was more filling than was needed to fill the squid I had, so I decided to saute it up with some added scrambled egg. What a delightful combination of flavors! The contrast of the sweet currents, the tangy lemon, and the nutty edge from the pine nuts was fabulous... and beautiful! While I can't recommend the squid application, I can whole-heartedly recommend this rice dish.

You need pre-cooked rice for this dish. Either use left over rice or cook some ahead of time. You need 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice. I advise toasting the pine nuts first. Nuts just have so much better flavor when they're toasted.


Greek Rice
Yield: 4 side servings

2 TBS olive oil
2 scallions, diced
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup currents
2 TBS minced fresh parsley
2 tsp lemon zest
3 eggs, divided

Mix the scallions, rice, pine nuts, currents, parsley, and zest with one of the eggs that has been slightly beaten in a bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Scramble the two remaining eggs in the skillet. When the eggs are almost cooked through, add the remaining ingredients and saute, stirring regularly, until the rice is heated through.

Brownie Pudding

Who here likes ooey-gooey brownies? If you do, read the following post at your own peril. This recipe may be the simplest rich and decadent dessert around. You can make it less than six minutes. How's that for wonderful... or dangerous?

I'm almost embarrassed to post this recipe. It came about as a result of my uncontrolled and unabashed sweet-tooth. When my husband is out of town and I want to indulge - but only once - this is what I've come up with; making a whole batch of anything is just too dangerous. This gem works great because while it is absolutely sinful and will completely and utterly cure what ails you, there won't be any leftovers.

My husband had a brownie hankering the other night, but as we've really been trying to not be so co-dependent about our eating, I thought I would introduce him to this treat. He's sold! Cured his hankering without compelling us to consume an entire pan of brownies between the two of us.

Now, I'm not saying this treat is good for you or reduced calorie... it really, really, really isn't. But provided you only make one serving per person, you can only imbibe once.

Brownie Pudding
Yield: 1 generous serving (multiply as many times as necessary)

1/4 cup semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I prefer the bittersweet, myself)
1 1/2 TBS butter
2 TBS sugar
1 whole egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
3 TBS all purpose flour

In a microwave proof glass bowl, heat the chocolate chips, butter, and sugar over medium-high heat in 30 second increments until the chips are almost melted. Stir until the chips are completely melted and the butter and sugar are incorporated. The texture will be somewhat grainy at this point from the sugar; have no fear.

Be sure the mixture is not too hot (if it is, let it cool down slightly) before adding the remaining ingredients as you do not want to scramble the eggs. Stir the egg, extract, and flour together with the melted chocolate until well mixed. Microwave on medium-high heat for one minute. Stir and then microwave on medium-high heat in 30 second increments, stirring between each, until you start to see the batter turn into a cake-like substance. At this point, go slow, heating just until most of the batter is no longer runny. If you over-do the cooking, it will not be as moist and gooey, so go easy.

Spoon into a serving bowl and top with whipped cream, if desired. I like how the whipped cream helps cut the chocolaty richness of the pudding and melts as it hits the heat. Yum! Yum! Yum!

So... what have I been up to?

Here's our backyard before. Before sanity was restored to an insane place. The vines! The brush! The over-zealous trees! What's a girl to do?

Sweat.

Sweat and then sweat some more. Dang, but it's been hot. Hot, hot, hot. And humid, too. Drippy, nasty humid. Sheesh!

But it's been worth it. Just doesn't quite look like the same place, does it? And now I have some space to grow a few vegetables. It's not the same as the third of an acre garden I had in Ohio, but it's better than nothing!

It's not 100% done, but it's darn close. I've been laying some stone in an area of the yard that is too shady for lawn, but I ran about ten pavers shy of finishing the job. But I'm so close, I can taste the sweet refreshing scent of air conditioning. The good news is that I have been cooking some... I just need to get around to sharing the recipes with you. Stick around! New posts are just around the corner!

Meatball Soup

Well, today is my last day in beautiful Seattle. The weather has been quite cool the last few days and I am worried about returning to the hellish sauna called "home" tomorrow. I have had a wonderful time on this visit seeing family and friends and traveling around the state looking at cool rocks. After two weeks, though, I am a little ready to get back into my routine of home.

This week we're going to have our lawn re-sod and I am will be installing a small patio of flagstone and finishing some other odd jobs I haven't quite finished outside. Prepare to sweat!

In the meantime, while enjoying my last sweat-free day in a while, I'll share with you a recipe I whipped up before coming out here. This soup has a great, robust flavor that is both hardy and delectable. It's like a French onion soup with meat! A great compromise of flavors between my husband and me.

First, you need to make the meatballs. Forgive the slightly creepy look of the ingredients in this bowl. The roll of sausage just looks weird, I know, but when it's mixed with breadcrumbs, eggs, onion, and seasonings, they're mighty tasty.

Simply mix the meatball ingredients together and form one-inch balls out of the meat. Set aside on a plate or tray until the soup is ready for them.

In the meantime, start caramelizing a bunch of onions. I always start my onions over medium-high to high heat and then turn the heat down to medium-low once I see them starting to brown. It takes a bit of time to properly caramelize onions, so be patient. I think this amount of onions took me about 30 minutes. Once they have a nice color like you see here, proceed with adding the broth. Bring to a boil and add the meatballs. Cook for 10 minutes at a low boil (reduce heat as necessary) and then at the very end add the Madeira (a fortified cooking wine) and chopped spinach. The soup can then be served immediately.

Meatball Soup
Yield: 6 servings

2 onions, halved and sliced
1 TBS butter

1 lb pork sausage
1/3 cup minced onion
1 tsp minced parsley (fresh or dried)
1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

6 cups chicken broth
2 TBS Madeira
2 cups loosely packed, chopped fresh spinach

Heat a skillet over medium-high to high heat. Melt the butter and add the sliced onions. Toss onions to coat with butter and then cook, stirring occasionally until they just start to brown. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking, stirring from time to time, until the onions are caramelized and show a nice, rich, brown color. It should take about 3o minutes.

While the onions are cooking, mix the meatball ingredients together and form into one-inch balls. Set aside completed meatballs on a tray or plate.

When the onions are done, add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the meatballs gently to the broth and cook for 10 minutes. Reduce heat as necessary to maintain a gentle boil. Once the meatballs are cooked through, add the Madeira and the spinach. Serve immediately.