My First Ever Cheesecake

With MLK day yesterday, I had time to work on making my first cheesecake. I know cheesecakes can be really hard, so I really wanted to focus on this.

So the raspberry sauce and the filling came together pretty easily. I will admit, I couldn't find what I needed for the crust, so I just bought a premade crust. But the difficult part is the cooking. While filling the pie crust, I soon realized I had too much filling, so I cooked the rest afterward in a small corning ware container:

It came out perfectly, but the main cheesecake ended up looking a little funky because... I burned the top! LOL! I think this happened because I overfilled the pie.

Oh man these photos suck... Anyway, It's hard to see, but it's brown on top. Luckily the raspberry sauce hides it a bit. But it tastes spot on, and the texture is perfect, too. I am quite pleased with the results for my first attempt at something so difficult, and you can even see where Landon stole a few chunks.

Sunday Breakfast: Eggs & Bacon Quesadillas

Sunday Breakfasts are proving to be a lot of fun, mostly because it forces Landon out of bed before 10 a.m.
So, this Sunday I made these:

So it turned out I only had 3 tortillas left, so I couldn't layer them so I folded them instead. This is basically what it says, bacon and eggs as a quesadillas! But you can't really go wrong with bacon and eggs, so with juice on the side, and the left over filling split between us, we had a yummy breakfast together.

Italian Sausage Skillet

It's been a few days since I last posted, not that I haven't been cooking! Quite the opposite actually, which you will see with the next few posts.
Over the few days we went to other people's houses for dinner and I remade some recipes to use up the ingredients before they went bad. But I did make this dinner.

The great thing about this book is how simple the meals are. They use only a few ingredients and usually they are thing I usually have in the house anyway or are inexpensive. This came together very quickly, I think the thing that took the longest was slicing the veg.

I did add some "Italian" spices to give it some extra flavor, ad Landon thinks a can of tomato paste to thicken the juice would be great next time too. But all in all, it was a hit! Landon loved it, Missy Moo ate about half her bowl, so yay!

Day Seven: Potato-Leek Soup with Ham

So my poor husband has been sick all day. This made up my mind about making this today. Something gentle and warm for his stomach.

One thing though; always check your ingredients haven't gone bad before you start cooking. I went to open our cream and found it sour and moldy. Seriously, ew. So I had Landon watch the soup while I rushed up to the store to get fresh cream.

What I liked about the recipe instructions was the detailed way it told me how to prepare leeks. I've always noticed the dirt that gets in it, and struggled with separating the rings. But this says cut the length-ways first, then slice normally, then rinse in cold water. It's so simple I couldn't believe I didn't think of it before.

This soup was quick and very easy, also very flavorful. Landon loved it. I'm thinking with Missy Moo soups are a great way to get her to eat veg. This one, like the other soup, she devoured every last bite.

We had a leftover baguette from Sunday's family dinner, so to avoid wasting it, we sliced it up and made garlic bread to go with the soup. Fabulous winter dinner!

Day Six: Key West Burgers

So, I've been a bit slack the last few days. I did make this one, but I've found we have a build up of left overs. Since I really don't want to waste food, I will be remaking recipes with the left over ingredients to avoid throwing money in the trash. So, if you don't see something pop up, that's what's happened: Leftover/repeat night. If my repeat turns out better, I'll post about it!

Anyway, onto business!

I actually made this on Friday. Very quick and easy, I think the "hardest" part was the sauce for it. Although, I put it all together in about 30 minutes.

I liked the lime taste to it, but I don't think it will join the family favorites list.

Looking at these pictures, I've decided we need new counter tops. Seriously, whoever installed these didn't have great taste... or it was the 80's.

Sunday Breakfast #1: Oatmeal

We have 1pm church this year, which works great with my cooking goals because it gives me time to make Sunday morning breakfasts! As I said last week, I couldn't make this due to fast Sunday, so here it is now.

This is the only winter breakfast recipe in this book. Oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts, so I love it. Very simple, you mix the dry ingredients together, oats, brown sugar, baking powder... and in another bowl mix the dry ingredients, then combine, then bake.

I wasn't sure if Landon would eat this as he's not an oatmeal fan, but he did! Whoo! Lilly is really good about eating breakfast, so she devoured hers. I thought it was delicious, and skipped lunch because it was so filling. A great winter Sunday morning meal.

Day Five: Vegetable and Beef Soup

Technically this one was supposed to have barley too, but I decided not to bother. It tastes great without it, and Landon is "Happy, Happy, Happy."

Again, very simple. Chopped some veg, opened a few cans, and sprinkled some spices, then let it sit for about an hour and a half.

Oe of Landon's friends came over just as we were serving, so he had dinner with us. Both men enjoyed. Yay!

Little Missy even ate most of her bowlful, even with the spicy kick the red pepper flakes gave it.

So, I had a thought, if you would like to purchase this book you can buy it at Deseret Book.

Day Four: Stuffed Shells with Sausage an Mushrooms

Back into the fray today. Something I've noticed while doing this is how clean my kitchen is staying. I can't stand working in a messy kitchen, and I need to keep on top of my dishes so I have cooking utensils. Plus, when I'm cooking I clean as I go, and then promptly feel the overwhelming desire to fill the dishwasher. It's great!
Anyways, onto the cooking... I underestimated how long my preparation would be for this one, and my compulsive clean as I go probably didn't help. But the little one did insist on climbing into the cupboard where I was working, and my vegetable slicing still needs work. I'm pretty slow at that.

During that time, Missy Moo decided to go out the back and play with the dog. Meanwhile, Landon came home and I pretty much kicked him out of the kitchen. So he went out and had quality time with Missy helping her ride her tricycle. Aw!!! I'm starting to see this adventure will benefit our family in more ways than a home made meal and saving some money.
Again, this recipe was fairly simple. Make a ricotta mixture, cook some mushrooms and turkey sausage, splice up some spinach, add cheese, and fill the shells. The only set back with this is it has a long baking time, so making sure you have it in the oven well in advance is something I will need to remember.

Taste: Yum. Good flavor, but we agreed it needs a bit more zing, so next time we will try some red pepper flakes.

Because we went out....

We went out for dinner tonight, so I couldn't cook dinner. We had RA sushi instead with a gift card! Whoo! I love sushi.

So instead, I'll introduce you to one of the other books I'll be working from to fill the gaps: 101 Easy Everyday Recipes. You'll see me using this one this week.

Landon gave me a three book set of these, so the other two will probably pop up down the road and I'll introduce them then.

Happy eating!

Day Three: Peppercinni Beef Sandwhiches

With church today, this was perfect. I threw the roast and peppercinnis in the slow cooker and voila! Dinner was ready when we got home to break the fast.

Once the meat was done, it pulled apart perfectly and the juices were divine! We simply removed the gristle, (which Addy, the dog loved us for!) grilled the cheese on top and wow!

We tossed together a Cesar salad, and we filled up without seconds. Everyone loved this one, including the dog, and it's so simple and perfect for a Sunday.

I was going to make breakfast this morning too, but I remembered just after I climbed out of bed that it was fast Sunday. So, you'll get the results for that next week.

Day Two: Fillet Mignon with Walnut Citrus Salad

Tonight I made Fillet Mignon and Walnut Citrus Salad. I made several mistakes on these, but they turned out tasting fine, even if the salad dressing was a bit too salty.

So, to start with, I bought the wrong meat cuts. Yup, I'm a genius. But, I worked with it. The meat ended up well-done instead of medium. The butter and herb mixture turned out great though. All up, it was pretty good. Definitely room for improvement on my part, but still yummy.

Next was the salad. I made the dressing and everything for this, with some help from Landon who prepared the lettuce and spinach for me while I made the dressing.

It turned out quite delicious. The dressing is quite strong, so next time I'll add more salad, raisins, and oranges to balance it out a bit.

All in all, I was pretty happy with it. Landon ate it and said he enjoyed the salad, and Missy Moo, well, she rarely eats, so two leaves of spinach and a piece of orange will do!

Day One: Enchiladas

So today begins the beginning of my cooking quest. First up, I opened to the first winter recipe; Beef Enchiladas with Red Sauce.

Before I started, I went through our spice cupboard. Wow we have a lot! And a ton of duplicates too. I went through and filled my refillable dispensers and reduced how many items we have. My spice rack in now filled, and I can see all my spices in the cupboard.
This matters because most of those ingredients you see are spices!
A few things I already know is I need to learn how to chop vegetables. My onion chopping needs some serious practice. Also, we need a new can opener!
Prep was fairly easy though, and the meat filling tasted great. I love the hint of lime.

So here it is right out of the oven -

So my presentation needs some work, but here it is -

It was quite delicious! But how can I judge it? Well, since I'm cooking for my hubby and three-year-old, I will judge it on their reactions.
Hubs - Didn't complain once. Since he considers himself a bit of a food critic, this is a good sign. He even went back for seconds!
Small daughter - She rarely eats anything other than candy and chicken nuggets, so the facts she ate several mouthfuls means this is a keeper!


Stay tuned! Tomorrow I'm cooking Fillet Mignon and Walnut Citrus Salad.

New Years Goal: Cooking

For Christmas I received a butt load of cookbooks. I felt like someone was giving me a hint! So, my plan for the new year is to go through and cook the meals in my cookbooks. The book I will be focusing on will be:

This book is organized into seasons, so I will cook the meals for the season each season, and fill the rest in with my other cookbooks.

My plan is to do a Julie and Julia thing, although there are lots of sweets in it and I really don't need the sugar, so I probably won't cook everything in the book. But I hope to cook something everyday, including trying to do breakfasts on the weekend, and document it here.
Last night, Landon and I hit the store and bought a bunch of ingredients to get started. He's excited because I'm talking about doing pork and sausages which I usually avoid like the plague. But I want to do this right and try new things. Hopefully in the long run it will save us money by having home cooked meals every night and help us lose some pounds! We might even start having the missionaries over again so I have taste testers.

I'm hoping keeping this blog will keep me accountable thinking someone is watching me lol. So, wish me luck!