Minty Chocolate Cheeecake

The mid-month cheesecake for Benton County Mental Health is due Wednesday. I have bowling practice tomorrow. Tuesday, the night before wouldn't work. Just in case. I needed to make it today. First I needed to decide which kind of cheesecake to make. I flipped through my cookbook, but did not get very far. The sixth recipe in the book of 125 Best Cheesecake Recipes precisely. The Minty Chocolate Cheesecake.

I lined the sides of a 9-inch cheesecake pan with parchment paper. For the crust I used chocolate stuffed Oreos. Double stuffed chocolate Oreos. The cream filling serves as a binding agent for the crumbs, and the butter can be eliminated from the crust. I pressed the crumbs into the pan and popped it into the freezer.

I set out the rest of the ingredients, in order to let the eggs, sour cream and cream cheese to let them reach room temperature. This allows for better mixing of ingredients, and will allegedly help prevent cracking of the finished cheesecake.

Then I went back to watching baseball on a Sunday afternoon. For a few more hours.

The cream cheese and the sugar are mixed for three minutes. Eggs are added, one at a time. Then flour, sour cream, vanilla and peppermint extract are added. Three ounces of melted chocolate are then streamed into the batter, with the mixer running.

Finally, a cup of semisweet chocolate chips are mixed with a spoon of flour and then folded into the batter. I had some green mint chips, so I let my inner anarchist run free and substituted the green mint chips for the chocolate ones. (I know. I know. But I am not as young as I once was).

The cheesecake bakes at 350° for 45-55 minutes, until the top is light brown and there is a slight jiggle at the center.

Well, this is a bit embarrassing. A crack did develop on top of the cheesecake. Fortunately, it won't affect the taste, and these get eaten so quickly that the crack will swiftly become little more than a memory. A trivial one.

Bon appétit!

Beer Bread

In the Moving Guide section of the back to school issue of the Oregon Daily Emerald, a recipe caught my eye. Beer bread. It didn't catch my eye because of "beer," but because it billed itself as so simple to make, a dorm-dweller could make it.

Three cups flour, 4 tablespoons active dry yeast and 2 tablespoons of sugar are whisked together. A 12-ounce bottle of beer is added. I used a hefeweizen. That is it!

The batter is poured into a greased loaf pan and bakes at 350° for 45 minutes. Again, that is it!

While the other bread recipes, more traditional and not so traditional, produce a better result, I am not going to bash this one. It was OK. Good even. But nothing to rave about. Bummer. Maybe with a pale ale instead of hefeweizen. Maybe with a little ham or other deli meat.

Bon appétit!

Quick Pesto Pasta Salad

In need of a side dish, I thought quick. Or I quickly thought. Whichever. I have a variety of pastas in the cupboard. That's a start. Hmm. Let's see. Lots of homemade pesto. Sun dried tomatoes. Some diced prosciutto from when I made that pizza last week. And pitted kalamata olives as well. I think I have all I need.

I prepared a package of farfalle pasta. While the pasta cooked, I reconstituted some dried tomatoes by adding boiling water to them in a bowl. After draining the pasta, I added pesto, a bit at a time, and stirring until the farfalle was coated to my liking. I mixed in the prosciutto, chopped olives, and the tomatoes. Finally, I mixed in some grated Parmesan cheese. A pasta dish is just not complete without at least a little Parmesan. Seriously folks.

The result was, is, simply delicious. Especially when considering how minimal the effort to make it was.

Bon appétit!

Shu Mai-Style Burgers

A while back, in the venerable New York Times, I came across a recipe for something called Shu Mai-Style Burgers. The recipe was part of a larger article on how to get out of the plain old hamburger rut. This particular recipe looked really good. And there was a picture too!

One and a half pounds of boneless pork shoulder, with the fat, is ground. (A couple Christmases ago I received a grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. Maybe it was a birthday. Father's Day?) A half pound of shrimp are chopped up pretty finely, but not until mushy. The shrimp is added to the ground pork. Garlic, ginger, soy sauce chopped scallions and cilantro are added. Salt and pepper to taste finishes the mixture. I used my hands to mix everything together thoroughly.

I then formed the meat into six patties and placed them on a cookie tray and then into the refrigerator overnight.

On grilling day, or rather, eating day, I fired up the grill. All burners, all the way up. I placed the patties on the grill and let them cook for five minutes before turning them. I allowed them another five minutes on the second side, and after checking that they were cooked through, removed them from the grill.

These burgers are very flavorful and, in my opinion, do not need much in the way of condiments. I put a little (just a little!) barbecue sauce on a Kaiser roll I had sliced in half. Then came the burger, finished with a couple pieces of lettuce from the garden. And that is all. No mayo, mustard, relish, or anything else. And it was simply delicious! Just incredible.

Bon appétit!

Belgian Waffles

I'm not sure why, but I woke up this morning thinking about Belgian waffles. Not just eating them, but making them. There's something sorta zen about using a waffle iron. I went to an on-line recipe site and searched for Belgian waffles. There were two hits. After looking each over I went with the recipe that used yeast instead of self-rising flour. I have yeast.

The yeast is dissolved in some warm milk and set aside until creamy. Egg yolks, melted butter and more warm milk are whisked together. The yeast mixture is added along with sugar, salt and vanilla.

At this point, I used the electric mixer to whip egg whites until soft peaks formed.

Back to the batter, this time with the electric mixer. More warm milk, and flour are mixed in, alternately, "ending with the flour." That "ending with the flour" direction kind of irked me. Just a little. Why end with the flour? Why not the milk? What would happen if I just happened to end with the milk? What if I deliberately ended with the milk? Who would even know if I ended with the milk? Susie was still in bed, so it could be my little secret.

I ended with the flour.

The beaten egg whites are then folded into the batter and the bowl is covered tightly with plastic wrap, placed in a warm spot and allowed to rise for an hour.

It nearly doubled in size, making clear, that a half recipe, or even a quarter recipe would be plenty for both of us should I make this one again.

To the waffle iron! I used a 3/4 cup measuring cup to ladle the batter into the hot, oiled iron. Close the lid, the light goes on. A few minutes later, the light goes off, open the lid and remove the hot waffles.

When I had enough made to eat, Susie and I ate. The rest of the batter could wait a few minutes. I added homemade raspberry jam, whipped cream, caramel sauce and chopped pecans to mine. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

After we ate, Susie used the rest of the batter and cranked out waffles for the freezer. They are not Eggos. They are better. I just don't know if they'll re-heat like Eggos.

Bon appétit!

Grilled Pizza

Not really that novel, a grilled pizza is still something I have never tried. Until today. I wanted something I could put together pretty quickly after work and have dinner ready when Susie got home.

I turned on the far right burner on the gas grill and let that get hot. I started with a Boboli crust. Yep. Boboli. Doesn't get any easier than that. I sprayed olive oil on each side and placed it on the portion of the grill away from the burner. I let it cook, or rather, heat for a couple minutes on each side.

Time for toppings. I spread a layer of fresh homemade pesto over the entire surface of the crust. Then a not-too-heavy sprinkling of grated mozzarella cheese. In succession then came diced red onion, diced prosciutto, reconstituted home-dried tomatoes (red, yellow and orange), and halved kalamata olives. Another thin layer of mozzarella on top would keep everything in place.

Off the pizza peel and back onto the grill with my creation. Again, on the portion of the grill away from the burner. It took 18 minutes (I was counting!) before the pizza was ready to slice and serve.

Absolutely delicious!

Bon appétit!

Toasted Pecan Cheesecake

The guinea pigs at Benton County Mental Health will be enjoying a Toasted Pecan Cheesecake at their mid-month staff meeting this month. I must admit that after being out of cheesecake production for over a month because of vacation, it is good to be back. A co-worker of mine, who is retiring soon, selected this one for the upcoming payday. Now, to the practice version.

The crust is made from finely chopped toasted pecans, flour and melted butter. Susie roasted the pecans for me while I was at work. She spread the whole nuts on a baking sheet and toasted them at 350° for 5-10 minutes, keeping a close eye on them to keep them from burning.

When I got home, then pecans had cooled and I processed them and mixed the crust. I then pressed it into my parchment-lined cheesecake pan and popped it into the freezer.

The cheesecake batter itself is pretty simple. Cream cheese, plain yogurt and sugar are mixed for 3 minutes on medium high. Then eggs are added, one at a time, until incorporated. Vanilla and chopped pecans are folded in to complete the batter.

The mixture is poured over the frozen crust and baked in a 350° oven for 45-55 minutes, until gently browned on top. There should be a slight jiggle in the center on top when the pan is slightly shaken.

I garnished with whole toasted pecans.

Bon appétit!