Valentine's Day Cheesecake

For Valentines Day, I made Branden a cheesecake, not just any cheesecake, though. I went all out for this one. First off, here is the marbled cheesecake....
Then I added a strawberry I had cut to look like a heart and surrounded the perimeter of the cheesecake with raspberries. I used frozen ones so as they thawed, they ran a bit on the cake but it still turned out quite nice. I then melted chocolate chips a mixed them with a tablespoon of butter to thin. I put that in a wax paper bag and cut a hole in a corner. I squeezed out chocolate hearts on another piece of wax paper and put them in the freezer to cool. I put the chocolate hearts on the cheesecake. The cheesecake was still a bit warm so the hearts melted and it turned out perfect! This picture is of the finished product chilling in my refrigerator.

This is me and my cheesecake, I'm so proud of it!!!!

oh yeah and that's my new red hair! :)

Cheesecake recipe
source: Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book

Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 45 minutes
Cool: 1 3/4 hours
Chill: 4 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups finely crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 c finely chopped walnuts (optional)... I omitted these
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 1/2 c butter, melted

• 3 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 c sugar
• 2 T all purpose flour
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 c milk

• 2 packages/envelopes Nestle Chocobake
  
• approximately 1T sugar
• approximately 1 T milk (I just kind of poured so I'm not sure on the exact measurement I used)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. CRUST: combine crushed crackers, walnuts, cinnamon. Stir in butter. Press mixture into bottom of springform pan
3. FILLING: beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla with electric mixer. Add eggs and egg yolk, beating on low until just combined. Stir in milk
1. For chocolate swirl, remove half of filling mixture and add 2 packages Nestle Chocobake (pre-melted unsweetened chocolate), more sugar for taste and milk to thin to same consistency as rest of filling
4. Pour chocolate filling in first, add plain filling on top of that
5. Use a knife or spatula to swirl
6. Bake 35-40 minutes for 9" springform pan, 40-45 minutes for the 8" springform pan, until center appears nearly set when gently shaken
7. Cool for at least 15 mintues before taking a knife and gently loosening edges
8. Cool for at least another 30 minutes before adding pretty effects on top (chocolate hearts, raspberries and strawberries)
9. Chill 4 hours
   
10. SAVOR!
    

*NOTES:

• I am still learning the fine art of making a good graham cracker crust. I would probably try to use more butter to make the crust pack better.
• Frozen berries just didn't work as well as fresh ones would have

Stuffed Shells

The picture isn't much to look at, but these turned out FABULOUS! I am really pleased with how this recipe turned out. It's a bit tedious to stuff each of the shells but it's not so bad if you have someone helping.

Recipe:

STUFFED JUMBO PASTA SHELLS

Sauce and meat as with spaghetti CHEESE FILLING: 2 lbs. ricotta or cottage cheese 1/2 lb. Mozzarella cheese, grated 2 eggs 1/2 c. Parmesan, grated 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 tsp. parsley Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta shells. Bring water to boil and then add pasta, boil pasta approximately 15 minutes. Prepare cheese filling. Beat eggs; add ricotta, Mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese; mix in seasonings. Using a large casserole dish, layer sauce, meat, and pasta shells which are stuffed with the cheese filling. Bake 45 minutes.

NOTES:

• To cook the ground beef: I added crushed red pepper, salt and pepper to the beef.
• I used cottage cheese because I find ricotta to dry out the dish too much (prior experience with lasagne)
• 2lbs of cottage cheese would have been way too much. 1.5 lbs was too much when I made the recipe. (consider cutting cheese stuffing recipe in half)
• To stuff the shells, lay out a piece of wax paper and put all the shells on them right after straining to prevent them from sticking together and ripping.
  
• Instead of 45 minutes, I baked it for 45 minutes, covered, and then 10 minutes uncovered.

First Post

mmmm......... cake! Double layer chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and rasperries to be specific. I made this awhile ago and thought it would only be appropriate to start my blog with a picture of food.

I've decided to make this a blog about all the yummy things that I attempt to cook, as well as the yummy things I eat at restaurants. But I do plan on this being more about what I make and will post recipes of things I make when I can.

My inspiration for this attempt at a food blog is E. She has had her food blog up for quite a while and I always stare at the delectible food she posts. I don't cook a lot, but when I do, I'm quite proud of it. So here we go, the inaugural post of my food blog.