Tiny Cheesecake

We regularly bring in treats for my office workgroup on birthdays, holidays or other special days we deem worthy of sweets and snacks. To celebrate a birthday this week, I brought in mini cheesecakes. Using a recipe from Paula Deen, I made the small graham cracker crusts and plain cheesecake. I like this recipe for portion control -- eat one cupcake-sized cheesecake and you're all set. Plus, I've always thought cheesecake was pretty rich, so I can enjoy the flavor without feeling like I've eaten a truck of cheese afterward.

The recipe does make about 12 small cheesecakes, but I found that I had some crust mixture left over. I do recommend being liberal with the crust -- the cheesecakes are better with more crust, believe it or not. I dropped about a tablespoon and a half of crust mixture into each muffin cup and pressed it down with a shot glass.

Although this recipe calls for peanut butter cup centers, I omitted them. I think this would work well with some fresh fruit topping like blueberries or strawberries. That doesn't work well for the office because it's a bit messy.

The plain cheesecakes are good all on their own!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Minis

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
12 bite-size peanut butter cups

Filling:
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or almond extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place a paper cupcake liner in each cup of a standard muffin pan.

To make crust, in a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter until crumbs are moistened. Press crust into bottom of each muffin cup. Put 1 peanut butter cup into the center of each crust.

Beat cream cheese with a handheld electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, flour, and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Spoon cream cheese mixture over peanut butter cups and graham cracker crusts. Bake until just set, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Recipe from Paula's Home Cooking, Food Network

Homemade Ice Cream

Last week, I bought a Rival ice cream maker to replace an older, countertop maker that I've never really liked. I am planning to make homemade ice cream for my daughter's upcoming birthday party. Of course, I think it's a good idea to try out any new appliance prior to a big event. This weekend I made homemade chocolate ice cream and I think it turned out very well.

There is nothing better on a hot summer day than a big bowl of soft ice cream, fresh from the canister. I decided to make this on Sunday evening, with the temperature outdoors about 100 degrees in the shade. I might reconsider for next time. Visualize this scene: it's 100 degrees outside, I'm running back and forth to our ice cream maker (located about 20 steps from our deck outside the back doors) with ice and rock salt. When I'm not running to the ice cream maker, I'm checking the salmon on the grill and watching the ravioli that's cooking on the stovetop. My husband was feeding our daughter in her high chair (she was busy feeding the wiener dogs her macaroni and cheese over the side of the chair). It was really quite a scene. And the ice cream still came out well.

Chocolate Ice Cream

1 1/2 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder, approximately 1/2 cup
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
9 ounces sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Place the cocoa powder along with 1 cup of the half-and-half into a medium saucepan over medium heat and whisk to combine. Add the remaining half-and-half and the heavy cream. Bring the mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove from the heat.

In a medium mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they lighten in color. Gradually add the sugar and whisk to combine. Temper the cream mixture into the eggs and sugar by gradually adding small amounts, until about 1/3 of the cream mixture has been added. Pour in the remainder and return the entire mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon and reaches 170 to 175 degrees F. Pour the mixture into a container and allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Stir in the vanilla extract. Place the mixture into the refrigerator and once it is cool enough not to form condensation on the lid, cover and store for 4 to 8 hours or until the temperature reaches 40 degrees F or below.

Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions. This should take approximately 25 to 35 minutes. Serve as is for soft serve or freeze for another 3 to 4 hours to allow the ice cream to harden.

From Alton Brown, Good Eats on Food Network

How to Plan a Week of Meals.....Almost

I have been so busy lately. Cooking dinner has been a bit of a challenge. I decided to try a new approach: plan meals on the weekend, prep as much as possible on Sunday night and throw dinner together during the week. I used a meal plan from Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller.

This plan included three meals. Two of the three worked out pretty well. I've documented my week.

Sunday evening
I chopped all the vegetables for the week. It was a little bit of work, but I had everything prepped in under an hour. I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was confident the week would go well.

Meal number one: Maple Orange Chicken with Acorn Squash and Sweet Potatoes
Monday night
I classify this meal as a complete disaster. My husband agreed it was the second worst meal I've ever made. The worst meal was a goulash-like dish I cooked back in 1999 or 2000. I made that meal on the same night I got mugged outside my apartment. It was a bad night all around. I can't really pinpoint one problem with this meal. The chicken was dry, the vegetables were too mushy and everything tasted like overcooked leeks. I cooked this for the recommended amount of time, but that may have been too long. I still feel pretty certain that this meal would have been gross no matter how long I cooked it. We didn't order a pizza, but we did end up splitting an old cinnamon roll for dinner since this was pretty much inedible.

Meal number two: Black Bean Soup with Crab and Andouille Sausage
Tuesday night
This was a success. The soup was very easy to put together and it was tasty. I would definitely make it again.

Meal number three: White Pizza with Chicken, Pesto and Pine Nuts
Thursday night
This pizza was delicious. The idea is to use one of the chicken breasts from the first dinner for the pizza. It worked out quite well. I put it together in about 5 minutes and it took only about 10 minutes in the oven. I served a salad alongside and it was a perfect weeknight meal. I omitted the pine nuts this time around because I was out of them. I also thought some sun-dried tomatoes would be an excellent addition to this pizza. You could also add some other meat, like Italian sausage. There so many options and it's still quick and easy.

Next week, in a quest to find easier ways to get dinner on the table, I'm going to try making a set of 12 meals at Menu Makers. I'm very excited and I can't wait to see how it goes.