Marble Cheesecake – Yum!

April 12, 2013April 12, 2013 / still a dreamer / 8 Comments

And now for a lighter – and more delicious – topic. (Vs. my last post, that is.)

Easter brings with it an invitation to the home of a friend and her family, and that means one thing for me … baking a delicious treat. Considering something that both adults and children might like isn’t always easy, and as I pored over yet-to-be-made recipes, I realized that many of them were more sophisticated in flavors than youngsters would like. So I hit my tried and true recipe box.

I came up with a marble cheesecake, and was happy to later learn that cheesecake is my friend’s husband’s all time favorite dessert. The original recipe calls for a crust made from dark chocolate wafers, but I like a traditional graham cracker crust made with butter just as well.

Above, the one slice I took home — as my host loved it so much, I left the rest there for him! Above right, fresh out of the oven with the crack that always appears.

I’ve had this recipe for so long I have no idea where I originally found it, and therefore cannot provide a link. So here it is below. Pretty easy to make and not for the cholesterol-conscious. Happy baking!

Marble Cheesecake

Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes

Crust:
18 chocolate wafers, crushed (1 cup)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Or: make traditional graham cracker crust. Just as good!

Filling:
6 squares semisweet chocolate
3 pkgs (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 container – 16 oz. – sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Make crust: Combine chocolate crumbs, butter and cinnamon in a small bowl. Press over bottom of 9” springform pan and chill.
2. Make filling: Melt chocolate over hot water; remove from heat, reserve.
3. Beat cream cheese with sugar in a large bowl with electric mixer `til fluffy.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time until well-blended. Blend in sour cream and vanilla until smooth.
5. Combine the melted chocolate with 1-1/2 cups of the cheese batter in a small bowl and blend thoroughly.
6. Pour 2-1/2 cups of the plain batter into chilled crust; place 1/4 cup chocolate batter on top pf plain batter. Cover with remaining plain batter.
7. Drop remaining chocolate batter by spoonfuls and pull a spatula through in swirls to marbleize.
8. Bake in a moderate over – 350 – for 1 hour and 10 minutes, Turn oven off and leave cake in oven for another hour. Remove to wire rack to cool. Refrigerate overnight. Enjoy!

Note: Top will crack and sink slightly.

p.s. I always wrap the bottom portion of the pan with aluminum foil, so the butter doesn’t drip onto the oven and burn.

Are We Done with the Snow Yet?

March 25, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Who wanted to hear reports of a possible 2-4″ of snow happening during the day? Or … according to some predictions, 4-8″. Neither are horrendous amounts, but can it just be over already?

Happy to say, all their predictions turned out to be wrong and this was a non-event in my neck of the woods; now it’s raining softly. But as it started to snow ever-so-lightly this morning, I took a couple of quick photos from the back porch. The snow had such a lovely quality.

See?

Yeah, that’s not it. I just had some fun in Photoshop because the snow, at that time, really was so fine you could barely see it. Although the dusting on the ground is pretty.

So I’m offering another quote on Spring ….

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland

I don’t know who Hal Borland is, but I hope he knows what he’s talking about.

A Brief (Muffin) Diversion

February 26, 2013February 26, 2013 / still a dreamer / 7 Comments

It’s a sad comment on how often I (don’t) bake that when I go into the kitchen and start getting out bowls and baking pans the cats show up to be fed. I mean … why else would I be coming into the kitchen at this odd hour, right? Sad, indeed.

However, much to their surprise, it was to bake something … muffins, in fact. I had pulled a page out of Parade Magazine’s monthly dash insert, (which is all about food), because it had a basic muffin recipe and a bunch of variations. Yes, it’s true – I am suckered in even by pictures of food. Figured I’d try them. By the way, the recipes featured in dash all come from bon appetit, Gourmet and epicurious.

What I liked about them was the low amount of sugar in the batch – only 1/4 cup – and they recommended canola oil, of which I have organic onhand. Made-from-scratch muffins really are incredibly easy to make and these were no exception. I decided to go simple and top them with a mix of cinnamon and the neat sanding sugar I’ve been waiting to use. You can see it best in the batter photo.

How did they come out? Beautiful, of course, but oddly enough, they could have done with a wee bit more sweetness. Want to try them? Find the recipe here with a link to the variations.

Does this Candle Make Me Look Fat?

February 19, 2013February 20, 2013 / still a dreamer / 2 Comments

In choosing candles, I am most often drawn to food scents. There are several reasons for this. One, it fills the house with a wonderful aroma, as if there were something tempting baking in the oven right now. Two, I have yet to be allergic to a food scent, whereas florals and some other scents can give me migraines or worse. Delicious food scented candles are nothing but pleasurable.

But I wonder …. do they make us look fat? That’s become an old joke by now*, but you have to wonder … considering all the research that has been done on things that inspire or drive us to do one thing or another, do food-scented candles make us fat? In other words, when that lemon pound cake candle is burning, does it make us want to get up and go eat something sweet or does it perhaps fulfill the urge to nibble on a sweetie?

I bet someone in the wide world of research has a grant on that but only you know for sure when you light that wick. The two candles pictured here, Lemon Pound Cake and Maple Butter, are both delicious and by Village Candle, one of the best candle makers I know. Village Candle is located in Maine, and all their candles are made at that location. So if you’re looking for a candle made in the USA, here’s one for you!

*One of the funnier examples of this was when a friend who rides had tacked up her horse – who she described as rather vain – and “overheard” him say to another horse, “Does this saddle make me look fat?”

The Simple Things

February 17, 2013 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Isn’t it good to have a few simple things in life that make you happy? I’ve found that one of the greatest joys in life can really come from simple things …. books, (often purchased at $1 – $2 at the library/sale), music, (streaming online while I work is wonderful), candles with scents that are just delicious, (and always available somewhere on sale or bestowed upon me as a gift), and … good coffee. OK, make that very good coffee.

Some people love wine, aged scotch, Coke … you can keep it all. My beverage of choice is coffee. And how lucky am I that excellent coffee is just on the other side of the river and a short drive away or is even available in a number of local shops? Homestead Coffee Roasters sells a variety of delicious brews, many of which are organic, Fair Trade coffee. They roast all coffee on the premises, buying all their beans green and sourced from a number of countries where the quality is outstanding. In addition to a caffeinated choice or two, I always have some decaf on hand and the last time there, I bought this Ethiopian water-processed decaf, full of flavor.

They do custom small batches and have their own signature blends like Ringing Rocks Roast, Peruvian Sunrise, Dead Man’s Brew, etc. They also make delicious seasonal flavored coffees such as Frosty Winter Morning, a blend of graham crackers, nuts and cinnamon. Yum. Pour that into one of my 4 new (different-colored) mugs, given as a gift to me from one of my animal-loving friends, and I am good to go.

So while some are out buying $300 shoes and the next and newest model classy car, I’ll curl up with my coffee and book, light a favorite candle and be perfectly content. Easy-peasy. And I have every confidence that many of you reading this post feel exactly the same way. It’s something simple that warms your heart, that speaks to you, and puts a smile on your face. Simple is good.