Birthday Carrot Cheesecake

Ingredients:
***Cheesecake:***
16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon flour
3 eggs
***Carrot Cake:***
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 1/2 ounces can crushed pineapple, packed in juice, drained well, reserve juice
1 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
***Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting:***
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon reserved pineapple juice


Directions:

In large bowl of electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Beat in flour, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth. Set aside. Meanwhile prepare Carrot Cake.

Carrot Cake:

In large bowl, combine oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract; mix well. Stir in dry ingredients; mixing well. Stir in drained pineapple, carrots, coconut and walnuts.

Spread 1 1/2 c. carrot cake batter over bottom of greased 9- or 9 1/2" springform pan. Drop cream cheese batter over carrot cake batter by spoonfuls; top with large spoonfuls of remaining carrot cake batter. Repeat with remaining cream cheese batter, spreading evenly with a knife. Do not marble with a knife. Bake in preheated 350ºF oven for 50 to 65 minutes or until cake is set and cooked through. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. When cake is cold, prepare Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting.

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting:

In a bowl of electric mixer, combine cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and reserved pineapple juice. Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. Frost top of cheesecake. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours before serving.

This is what kind of Cake I made for D's 54th birthday! mmmmmm

The Dish that won his heart

Well, at least 32 years ago it got a proposal afterwards.

Beef Stroganoff

1 1/2 lb boneless beef sirloin steak
2 Tablespoons of Butter
1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
1 cup chopped or thinly sliced mushrroms.
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 cup sour cream
6 cups hot cooked medium egg noodles
1. Cut the beef with the grain into 2-inch strips, then cut the strips across the grain into 1/8-inch slices. In 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 4 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown. Add onion and mushrooms
2. Stir in soup, salt and pepper to taste. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender.
3. Stir in ketchup and sour cream until well blended. Serve over noodles.

Now a few notes; I used an all natural beef shoulder roast-no additives or hormones were fed to the blessed cattle that supplied the beef. It Tasted better than the regular beef quite frankly. I also used organic Ketchup. No High fructose corn syrup. I was quite pleased with the outcome. From now on I will be trying to post changes that we are making in our diet to avoid GMF's in our diet.

If you want an interesting video to watch, check out Food Inc. We watched it on Monday night and it has given us a new thought process in our everyday eating habits.

A new Taste of Heaven

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup molasses
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate(2 Tbls of unsweetened chocolate powder)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

roll out, cut, bake, eat.

okay...there is a little more.

Directions

Combine butter or margarine, molasses, and unsweetened chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Heat until chocolate melts. Stir until smooth.
Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Stir in melted chocolate mixture and milk. Mix well. Chill until firm.
Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees F ( 190 degrees C) for about 10 minutes.

PLEASE READ THIS FOR MY SHORTCUTS!!!

What I did, I did not use a double boiler. I melted the butter in the Microwave, added the molasses and the unsweetened chocolate powder(Hershey's Dark) and whisked it. I also did not chill until firm. I just couldn't wait that long

I make a pretty good vegan cook!

I have a son who is vegan. I have learned to adapt recipes that I love to fit his dietary needs. He really wanted a pizza. I figured out that I can adapt my pizza recipe to a vegan happy dish. Instead of adding one egg to the yeast dough, I replace it with Olive oil( about 2 Tablespoons. Let it rise the normal way and it works just as well as my original dough. I use tons of fresh veges including spinach, mushrooms, onions and olives along with a cheese free pasta sauce. I used a meatless sausage. For the " cheese " topping I use the vegan friendly mozzarella type cheese substitute. I have done it twice now with wonderful outcomes. It is nice to know that it can be changed that way.

I have made meatless Pasta Fagioli twice now. I used the original Pasta Fagioli recipe with very few changes. But both times have been very successful. Added no meat, more red pepper, vegetable broth, a couple of splashes of Tobasco, and substituted regular pasta with whole wheat pasta. this last time, I added celery, peppers, sliced leeks(one stalk) and two cans of okra with tomatoes for a little change. To Big D's and mine I added grated cheese when it was time to serve. Very nice outcome both times!

Chicken Rolls with a touch of Green

I am staying with Wonder Womna(my Daughter in law) this week and she told me about her favorite comfort food. Something I had never heard of before. She told me that when her mother wanted the kids to show up at her house she would make these little slices of heaven and then call the kids and tell them what was for dinner. I have heard it was a no fail device!

1 Pkg of Cream Cheese
1 stick of butter
4 cups of diced cooked chicken
1/2 cup to 1 Cup chopped Green onion
salt pepper to taste
4 Tbl milk

Cream butter and cream cheese together till smooth. Add everything else to the cream cheese and butter. Stir it up.

open up a Crescent Roll package, roll it out as if for cinnamon rolls. Use half the mixture for one can of Crescents. Roll up, slice with white thread about an inch thick, and then place on a baking sheet. We sprayed the pan with baking spray first. Bake at 3:50 for 20 minutes.

The customary gravy is 1/2 C milk with 1 C Cream of celery. Mix, and heat!

Now this was absolutely wonderful. Little slices of Heaven!

I was thinking that chopped cashews would be more icing on the cake on this. But then I think cashews could be added to almost anything. IMHO.

Kristine and Jeni...THANK YOU FOR sharing. it was so amazing

necessity is the mother of invention

I really wanted pie or a cobbler today. It wasn't happening. Sad. Then I discovered that Jeni(where I am staying this week!) had canned peaches, canned apricots, and craisins. I made an upside down fruit bowl cake. It turned out really good.(Well that is what they told me!) Added Madagascar vanilla, brown sugar and cinnamon to the fruit combo. Drained the fruit and then added it to the box of butter cake mix. TASTY! Serve warm with Blue Bell Homemade vanilla Ice cream and you have the most delightful twist on a pineapple upside down cake.

New England Boiled Dinner

One of my favorite comfort foods in March is a Boiled Dinner, why it is called New England has to do with the foods that are boiled together. It is the basis of a traditional New England meal, consisting of corned beef or a smoked "picnic ham" shoulder, with cabbage and added vegetable items, often including potato, carrot, and onion. The Other vegetables that are thrown in by different folks were the veges that would survive long term storage during New England winters prior to indoor refrigeration. Those other veges were parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas. When using a beef roast, this meal is often known simply as corned beef and cabbage even with the addition of other vegetables. Corned Beef and Cabbage has also become known as an Irish meal and has always been an important part to my celebration of St Patrick's Day.

I start out at the Top o' the mornin' prepping cutting onions, potatoes and carrots. Throwing them all in the Crockpot to simmer with the corned beef. Fill it with water and leave it alone while it simmers the day away.

Note: Lately the producers of Corned beef are lightening up on the salt they put in the beef. I have actually had to add salt to get the veges flavorful enough to our liking.