Cheesecake

Delish cheesecake! Barefoot Contessa does it again! Want the recipe? Check out food network! The only difference was that i topped my cheesecake with a thin layer of sour cream, strawberry jelly (melted like she recommends) and then with the raspberry coulis from her Eton Mess recipe. (Which you can view from one of my earlier posts, here.)

Homemade Mac and Cheese

I love Mac and Cheese, but sometimes i feel like it takes forever to make. This one i was able to pop into the oven within 30 min. Delish!

Start out by melting butter. I used 1/4 cup.
Add your flour. I add it by the tbsp till i get the desired consistency. (All over med low heat.) Mix mix mix mix mix! Cook and stir till it turns into a lovely light golden color, cause you want to cook off the flour taste.
Add your milk, i added it in about 2 cups, then by eye till the sauce was as thick as i like it. Add in your pepper, and some salt.
Here is where i added in the cheese. Normally i chop up half a block of velveeta into small cubes, then i grate half of a 900g block, throw it all in. I also had half a block of cream cheese i threw in this time, cut up in cubes. (Feel free to use whatever cheese you have on hand!)
Stir and stir and stir until all the cheese melts. Then i boiled up some macaroni noodles, (a whole box.) Drain them, and then add them to the cheese sauce. I switched to a wooden spoon at this point to gently fold in the noodles.
Pour it into a baking dish, and cook at 350 degrees until the top is golden and bubbly.
As you can see the finished result was gone before i could get a picture of it. Just imagine the top pic all golden and bubbly. Sometimes i throw more cheese on top, sometimes i throw breadcrumbs. Sometimes i throw in a can of diced tomatoes and cooked ground beef to make a more hearty meal.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins

With a small child in the house, the breakfast for adults usually gets put on the back burner. Last night i decided we needed something, quick, easy, and delicious in the mornings to go with our coffee. I flipped through one of my favorite cookbook authors, (Ina Garten,) for a muffin recipe.

(Image courtey Foodnetwork.com)

I was very pleased with the results, fluffy, light cake like in texture, and the blueberries just added the right amount of fruit. Delicious! The recipe was very easy to follow, and quick!

For the full recipe, head on over to the Foodnetwork or just click on the link below to buy the whole book, including the recipe.

We're blog rolling it this morning!

I totally get it. A heat wave has hit us out here, and yet after stumbling across this blog with a delicious hot and sour soup, i can't help but want to make it too!

It's done in the slow cooker, literally throwing all the ingredients into the pot! How easy is that?

Check out Mrs. H over at My Happily Ever After for this awesome soup!

It's almost June! You know what that means, end of the year teacher appreciation gift. What to do?

Well, over at Fake It Frugal she has the right idea for a low cost, very thoughtful gift.
Check it out!

Eton Mess by the Barefoot Contessa

Honestly the majority of my favorite recipes come from the Barefoot Contessa collection. I do own them all, and i love to go through them. Not only does she have fantastic, easy, fresh recipes, but also many, many tips on food, flowers, entertaining and hosting.

One thing i have always wanted to make, but been very weary of creating, is meringues. So when i came across a recipe on how to make a very easy version of Eton Mess, (mounds of whip cream, crunchy bits of meringues drizzled with a fresh raspberry coulis...It really does not get any better then that!)

The easy Eton Mess recipe came out of my new book below!


I started out making a very easy coulis, basically i bought a 500g container of frozen raspberries. Divide them in half. One half into a pot over medium heat, to which i added 1 & 1/2 cup sugar (although my little two cents, i prefer a tart fruit coulis, so next time i will only add 1 cup.) Bring to a boil over medium heat, crush the raspberries with a fork. (I used my stirring thing-a-ma-bob.) Turn heat down to simmer for another few minutes until it is syrupy. Throw in the rest of the berries, and stir. Pop it into the fridge to chill.



Now, Barefoot says you can buy your meringues pre-made at a bakery, and she is right! Whip up your cream with a tsp vanilla, and 3 tbsp sugar (for 500g of cream.) Layer the meringues with whip and syrup over and over in a decorative glass, or a bowl. As you can see the end picture is missing. There was no time. It was too delicious. If you look closely at the cover of her book, that is what they look like. It is my new favorite dessert.

And now, if you are adventurous, and would like to make your own meringues, i got the recipe out of her book, Barefoot in Paris.



I think it called for five egg whites, some sugar and 1/4tsp cream of tartar. I used my kitchen aid and was so impressed by the beautiful, silken and cloud like texture. I was kind of in a rush to get the meringues fluff into my pastry bag that i did not really take a before picture. This is an after picture.

My first time piping, it totally could of been worse, but whatever, i was impressed, and not to forget, your going to BREAK them up!

A close up. (For a trick, trace a cup with a pencil over the parchment paper, then turn the paper over and use that for your circle outline.)


I popped them into the oven at 225 degrees for two hours, then left them in the oven with the heat off for four hours. Delicious! I really suggest trying it! What out for those humid days, they get all sticky!

The best bread ever, my BBA challenge #2

Yes, seriously! Casateillo, a bread with salami and cheese. Delish!
The recipe is from a Bread Bakers Apprentice. (FYI, the best bread book i have ever baked from.)

Ok, here we go! I've read through the recipe a few times, everything seems to make sense!

Take 3/4c butter out of the fridge to get to room temp. I did this the night before.

Make your sponge,

1/2c bread flour
1tbsp instant yeast
1c buttermilk or whole milk which should be 90-100 degrees.

(i made my own buttermilk by using 1% milk and a tbsp of lemon juice. Also, i threw in a tsp of sugar into the sponge.)

Mix with wooden spoon. Cover with plastic wrap, then a dish towel, and forget about it for 1hr. (It will look like bubbly pancake batter.)

Now take

4 ounces dry cut up cured salami (or other cured meat, or sausage, or whatever you like to nom. I use mild salami.)
Cook it till its crispy. Drain it. Try not to eat all of it while making the bread.

Now mix together in your kitchen aid:

3 1/2c bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

in another bowl lightly whisk:

2 eggs.

Use paddle attachment and mix in the sponge (make sure you let it get fluffy for an hour!) and the eggs until you have a coarse ball. If there is loose flour dribble in some water or milk.

Now turn it all off and wait 10 minute.

Now you need the

3/4c butter room temp. Cut it into four pieces.

(i switched to a dough hook at this point.)

Mix at medium speed, adding in one piece of butter at a time. It looks like a tacky mess but it will be ok. This will take about 12 min of mixing. (Don't forget to scrape down your bowl.) If after 12 min its not a ball, sprinkle in some flour until it just comes off the sides of the bowl.

When the dough is smooth kneed in the meat. Then kneed in

6 ounces of cheese. ( I used 3 oz provolone, and 3 ounce med. gouda.)

Lightly oil a LARGE bowl and rub your ball of dough around in the oil. Now cover it with saran wrap, then a towel, and leave it alone for 90 minutes. (Or until it has risen 1 1/2 times.)

Now i took it out, cut it in half, and make two rectangles no bigger in length then my bread pans. Then i rolled them up and popped them down into the pans. (The pans that you greased up with oil, or butter, or whatever it needed.) Cover with saran. Cover with towel. Leave it alone for another 90 min. ( I know, by now you just want to eat it, but alas, it needs to rise AGAIN. It will be worth it!)

Let them puff! (or rise...)
Now preheat your oven to 350. Cook them for 20 min. Turn them 180 degrees. Cook them for another 20 min.

Now take them out of the tins. Onto a wire rack.

Stare at them for 1 hour. (We could only wait 35 min.)



Ok. Now you can cut into them.

Further directions include noming and not sharing.

*A little note of my own, next time i am gonna cut up my cheese into small chunks instead of grating it. Or maybe half and half. Delicious.

David's Tea

I'm in love with tea. All different kinds. My favorite lately seems to be one i stumbled upon at David's Tea. It seems slightly citrus, with a strong cinnamon flavor. I just adore it. Cinnamon Rooibos Chai.

It looks very pretty too. I've served it several times to friends, and everyone seems to really like it. I think the most delicious part of this tea is the fact that it reminds me of cinnamon cookies. In fact, i think i'm off to make some now.