Caramel-Brownie cheesecake

What do you get the guy who has everything? A new type of cheesecake every month :) well that was the idea behind my Moms birthday present a couple years ago for Kyle. It never paned out, lets face it when you have kids and work you are lucky to even get dinner on the table let alone make a cheesecake so she gave me her awesome Cheesecake cookbook and recently I made this amazing Caramel-Brownie Cheesecake. It was really easy. It calls for boxed Brownies (I used Ghiradelli mix) and caramel candies. You could make homemade Brownies and Caramel if you wanted and I’m sure it would be even better but I have not had a lot of success with caramel so I stuck with the pre made candies. It was a big hit with Kyle and our friends.

1 3/4 cup vanilla Wafer Crumbs
1/3-cup butter melted
1 (14oz) package caramel candies
1(5oz) can evaporated milk
2 1/2 cups coarsely crumbled brownies
3 (8oz) packages cream cheese
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar *
3 large eggs
1 (8oz) container sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Garnish with Whipped Cream

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. I leave my stuff out over night.

-Prepare brownies according to package. Allow cooling completely.
-Combine vanilla wafer crumbs and butter; firmly press into bottom and 2 inches up sides of a lightly greased 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 350 for 5 minutes. Cook on a wire rack,
-Combine caramels and evaporated milk in a small heavy saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring often, until caramels melt. Pour caramel mixture over crust. Sprinkle crumbled brownies over caramel.
-Beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes or until fluffy. Gradually add brown sugar, mixing well. Add eggs one at a time. Beating after each addition just until blended. Stir in sour cream and vanilla.
-Pour batter over brownies in crust. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until almost set. Remove from oven: cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. Gently run a knife around edge of cheesecake to release sides of pan, carefully remove pan.

The top of my cake cracked so I covered the top with whipped cream it was so yummy.



*I used Dark brown sugar because that’s all I had and it was really good.

I finally mastered the chocolate chip cookie

2 sticks of unsalted butter

¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. Brown sugar

¾ cup plus 2 tbsp. white sugar

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 ¼ cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 ½ cups chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar. I learned that you should cream them together for a good 7-10 minutes it really helps give it a smoother texture and fluffier.

Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time make sure each egg is incorporated well before adding the next one.

I could be crazy but I think it’s really important to always sift the dry ingredients so sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together then add to your wet ingredients.

DO NOT OVER MIX or you will have chewy cookies not fluffy cookies.

Fold in the chocolate chips. I don’t like a lot of chips so you could add way more then a cup and a half.

I line my cookie sheets with foil (don’t know if it matters)

I use an ice cream scoop (that my wonderful mother gave me) so that my cookies are all the same size that way they cook evenly.

I also only cook 8 cookies at a time so they have room and they don’t crowed together.

I cook them for a total of 10 minutes.

I cook them for 5 minutes then rotate the pan and do it for another 5.

When I say I mastered it I mean I mastered it so that it’s the perfect soft in the middle and crunchy on the out side based on my oven and cookie sheets so it may not be the same for your oven :)

Lentil soup

This may be the healthiest thing in my repertoire that I make. If you know me you know I like things deep-fried or loaded with sugar :) but this meal is so yummy and very hearty. I make my soup with chicken broth but if you made it with vegetable stock it would be a great vegetarian meal. It’s also a great gluten free meal.


3 carrots
2 celery stocks
1 large yellow onion
2 garlic cloves
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ tsp. dried Oregano
2 ½ tsp. dried Basil
2 Bay leaves
2 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1 lb. lentils
5 oz fresh chopped spinach
3 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt to taste (I used 2 tsp.)
















Chop carrots, celery, onion, and garlic. Sauté with the ¼ cup olive oil until all the veggies are tender and the onions become translucent about 5-7 minutes add the oregano, basil and bay leaves cook for 2 minutes then put in crock-pot. Add tomatoes, chicken broth, water, and lentils. Cook for 6 hours or medium depends on your crock-pot settings (you can just cook in a large pot on the stove for less time. I just like to get it all done in the morning and let it cook on low all day) When you are ready to serve add the chopped spinach, balsamic, and Worcestershire sauce.

I like to serve my soup with Greek yogurt I think it gives it a little added kick :)

Bakerella

I stumbled across this web site bakerella.com a couple weeks ago and got so excited to try out some of her ideas she is so creative and she also takes great photos of her pops. I wish I could come up with the great ideas that she does. I am a decent cook/baker I’m just not a decorator. I decided to try out these Easter egg cake pops. They took me a really long time and they were very frustrating to decorate but I think that was all my fault. I’m impatient so I tried to take short cuts and that’s a big NO lol.

Bakerella uses box cake and pre made frosting. I used box cake this time to save me a trip to the store, but next time I will make it from scratch I think home made always taste better. I used a white cake mix and made it as directed on the box but to add some flare I puréed some strawberries and added them to the batter. I made a cream cheese frosting to go with it. One stick butter, one 8oz container of cream cheese, 3 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla extract.

In addition to the cake and frosting you will need

Candy melts (what ever colors you want)

Sprinkles

Light corn syrup

Paper lollipop sticks

Styrofoam block

Bake the cake as directed

After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl (I used my food processor)

Mix in frosting to taste. I used all of the frosting that I made but next time I will use less it was to sweet for me.

Shape the cake balls into an egg shape put the pop stick in at this point and place int

o the freezer for about 30 min or until firm

Dip in candy coating color of your choice.

Let sit in the

Styrofoam block until dry.

When the eggs are dry brush on corn syrup in desired location to make stripes ect. And cover with the sprinkles.

Carrot cake

For some reason I have been craving something sweet other then chocolate lately. Crazy I know what kind of woman doesn’t want chocolate haha. I decided on carrot cake. Something I rarely ever have and something I have never made before. My grandmother has a great back yard garden and right now carrots are in season and she has a bunch of them so I was lucky enough to make my cake with some fresh organic carrots :)

I looked through about 30 different recipes before I came across this one from Tyler Florence on Food Net Work. It was different from the rest of them so I thought itwould be worth a try. I made a couple changes I used half granulated sugar and half brown sugar instead of all brown sugar. I did not add the walnuts into the batter my husband doesn’t eat nuts so I garnished half the cake with the nuts. For the cream cheese frosting I only used half of the cream cheese that it calls for and I add about ½ cup more powdered sugar. When I make this cake again I will probably add an extra ½ cup of carrots. I made this cake into a three-tiered cake. The layers kept sliding because of the frosting so I took some straws and spaced out 4 of them around the cake and it worked great to keep them in place.

Original recipe

1½ cups finely minced carrots

½ cup crushed pineapple, drained
¾ cup finely chopped walnuts
2½ cups, all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
A pinch of kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
¼ molasses
4 large eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
1½ cup dark brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Take the carrots and chop into large pieces, then mince in a food processor until you have a fine texture. Drain pineapple and finely chop walnuts. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl add flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices together. In a separate bowl mix buttermilk, molasses, eggs, vegetable oil, and dark brown sugar together.

Now combine wet and dry ingredients together to make a batter then fold in the carrots, pineapple, and walnuts. Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 20-30 minutes until cake set and springs back when pressed in the middle. Cool cake completely before you frost.

Original frosting
2 lb cream cheese, room temp

2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups powdered sugar
Beat together cream cheese and butter until fluffy add vanilla & sugar.

Fish tacos

This evening I made some delicious fish tacos. In my house we eat a lot of fish. It’s a great source of protein but I run out of ways to cook it. My mother came across this recipe in one of her MANY cooking magazines. It has a great balance of heat from the chipotle pepper and coolness (for lack of a better word) from the sour cream. It’s light in calories if you are watching your figure. I use corn tortillas and light sour cream to cut back on some of the calories and “bad” fat. I also add cabbage for crunch and diced avocados.

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup chopped red onion

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon canned chipotle pepper

1 8oz ahi tuna steak, cut into ¾ inch pieces

1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Place the tuna in medium bowl; sprinkle with taco seasoning. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add tuna; sauté to desired doneness, about 3 minutes for medium. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in sour cream mixture. Cook just until heated through, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes. Garnish with whatever extra veggies you like :)

sweet treats

They say the way to a man’s heart is with food. Well for my hubby it’s SWEETS. I married a man with a crazy sweet tooth. I developed a passion for baking when Kyle and I started dating. I started off small with the occasional batch of chocolate chip cookies but as our relationship grew so did my love of baking and my husbands belly :) I want to share my recipes and life with the world so I started a blog like the rest of the world ;)