White Chocolate Cheesecake with Strawberries

First attempt at blogging from my phone AND making a cheesecake! Will update with photos and a recipe once it's finished!

Pumpkin Oreo Cheesecake Bites

I have these in the oven right now.... They were VERY easy to put together. (I'm omitting the last steps where you top with whipped cream and sprinkles. I'm sure it would be good, but I'm just feeling like something quick and easy right now.) I only wish I had two muffin pans. It would make my life much easier. I guess that's going on my Christmas list. As is another bowl... (See bottom of this post.)

Pumpkin Oreo Cheesecake
from Inside BruCrew Life

2-8 oz pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp. sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. canned pumpkin
oreos
whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350* Place cupcake liners in a muffin pan. Beat the cream cheese until creamy. Add the sugar and cream again. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each one. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat again. Place one whole oreo in the bottom of the cupcake liners and fill up the liner 3/4 full with the cheesecake batter. Push another whole oreo into the top of the batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Cool in pan for 15-20 min before removing and placing on a wire rack to finish cooling. Keep refrigerated. Top with whipped cream and oreo sprinkles before serving. Makes 24.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Carmel Frosting

Stop what you are doing right now and GO MAKE THESE CINNAMON ROLLS!!!!!!!!!

They are THAT GOOD!!!!

I made them for a bake sale at work, and haven't heard a complaint yet. :) I saved a few "ugly" ones for myself and it was the best breakfast I've had in a while! They are pumpkin-y, but not over the top. If you're looking for something different, this is definitely it.

I will be making these for years and years to come--no joke!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Carmel Frosting
The Girl Who Ate Everything
(my notes in green)

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons if you use yeast in a jar)

2 cups bread flour (you can use regular all purpose flour (I did!!) but bread flour makes them lighter)

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons melted butter

CARAMEL FROSTING

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 dash salt

3/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In small saucepan, heat milk and 2 tablespoons butter just until warm and butter is almost melted, stirring constantly. (I did this in the microwave and it worked just fine.) In large mixer bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add milk mixture and beat with electric mixer until well mixed. Beat in egg and yeast.

2. Add half of the flour to pumpkin mixture. Beat mixture on low speed 5 minutes, scraping sides of bowl frequently. Add remaining flour and mix thoroughly (dough will be very soft (VERY!!)). Turn into lightly greased bowl, then grease surface of dough lightly. (I just sprayed my bowl with non-stick cooking spray, then sprayed the top of the dough a little bit.)

3. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. (I like to run a kitchen towel under really hot water, ring it out, then place it over the bowl. This keeps some heat inside the bowl and helps the dough rise.) Punch dough down. Spray a surface with cooking spray or turn onto floured surface. Knead a few turns to form a smooth dough, sprinkling with enough additional flour to make dough easy enough to handle. (I used a ton of flour to knead the dough--just keep adding flour until it's not as sticky and makes a nice smooth ball of dough.) Roll dough into 12x10 inch rectangle.

4. In small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon. Brush surface of dough with melted butter. (I've tried both ways, but it's much easier to just spread on butter out of a tub-just like you're spreading it on a piece of bread. I don't notice a difference.) Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Beginning with long side of dough (I think I began with the short side... whoops!), roll up jellyroll style. Pinch seam to seal. With sharp knife, cut roll into 12 1- inch slices. Place rolls, cut side up, in greased 11X17 inch square baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, 30 to 45 minutes. (Mine was definitely closer to 45. Maybe even an hour.)

5. Bake rolls at 350 degrees about 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan to waxed paper-lined wire rack. Cool 10 to 15 minutes. Drizzle with Caramel frosting. Makes 12 rolls.

Caramel Frosting:

In small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and milk.

Stir in brown sugar and milk. Cook over medium low heat 1 minute.

Transfer to small mixer bowl and cool mixture. Stir in vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and confectioners' sugar. Beat with electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more confectioners' sugar for desired consistency.

Note: When making the frosting, try not to knock over your bowl, spilling sticky carmel sauce all over your kitchen rug and cracking your bowl in half.... Just sayin...

Cinnamon Butter Puffs

This recipe comes from my mom. I'm not sure where she originally got it, but these are one of the things I always remember her making when I was younger. They are my dad's favorite breakfast item and our whole family always fights over who gets the last ones! My sisters and were always quick to tally up who had how many so no one would get more than the other! :) They are so good and very easy to make!!

Cinnamon Butter Puffs

1/3 c. shortening

½ c. sugar

1 egg

1 ½ c. flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. nutmeg

½ cup milk

Topping:

½ c. butter, melted

½ c. sugar combined with 1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat Oven 350 degrees.

Put shortening, sugar and egg in a mixing bowl. Beat well. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg and add to the first mixture. Pour in the milk and beat until blended and smooth. (I usually “alternate” the flour and milk until I use it all versus putting all of flour in and then all of milk in).

Fill muffins 2/3 full. Bake about 20 minutes (depending on your oven). For topping – as soon as puffs are done, remove from pan and dip the tops, one by one into melted butter and then dip in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Makes about 12.

Chocolate Cobbler

I made this tonight and it was amazing. I was a little weirded out by the way you make it, but it worked and was so easy!! Basically you make a batter (similar to a brownie or chocolate cake batter) and pour/spread it into your pan. Next, you mix up some brown sugar, sugar, and cocoa powder and sprinkle that on top. Then, you just pour 1 1/2 cups of hot tap water on top of everything (without stirring it up!) and put it in the oven for 40 minutes. It comes out like a brownie with a crunchy top oozing with this chocolate lava. SO GOOD!!! We didn't have any ice cream, but it would be amazing with some vanilla ice cream right on top!! I'll definitely be making this again!

Chocolate Cobbler
by Susan Hawkins at Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• 7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
• 1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided
• ½ cups Milk
• ⅓ cups Melted Butter
• 1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
• 1-½ cup Hot Tap Water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.

Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish. I prefer my small oval Corning Ware glass dish.

In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Let stand for a few minutes if you can hold yourself back. Serve with homemade ice cream using the gooey sauce to spoon over all.

If I were throwing a LOST party...

...this is what I would do:

1. Decorate the front door with the Dharma symbol, like you're walking into The Hatch.

2. Plaster all the foods with Dharma labels... Dharma crackers, chips, beer, beans, peanut butter, etc.

3. Have buckets full of airplane-sized liquor bottles, just for the occasion.

4. Make airplane shaped cookies and make yummy flavored cupcakes simply decorated with "the numbers." Also, possibly a coconut cake (in keeping with the "island" theme!) decorated with the Dharma symbol.

5. Use this as inspiration for my invites.

6. Serve KFC buckets of chicken, but replace the labels with Mr. Cluck's Fried Chicken.

7. Crank up the Drive Shaft (and other LOST-themed music)--until LOST starts, that is. The second it starts, everyone has to cover their mouths with duct tape! :)

8. Each guest picks up a lottery ticket at the door, and at the end, we draw numbers for a door prize (possibly a stuffed polar bear??).

9. This is out there, but maybe try to rig up a simple command-line program that asks for the numbers every 108 minutes. Run it in a full-screen green-on-black terminal window and cover your return key with the word "execute." I'd definitely need some help with that one. HA!

10. Have some games set up like Backgammon, Connect Four, etc.

11. Black and white stones everywhere.

Any more ideas??? I know this is super last minute, seeing how the whole shebang starts in about 30 minutes, but still!! If any of you guys went to a LOST party, let me know how it was!! If I had enough friends around here who actually watch LOST, I would have totally thrown this party! But sadly, I don't. :(

Mac & Cheese, Round Two

You may remember my post about the secret to making the best mac & cheese. (You can find it here.) Well, I tried out a different recipe tonight and it was just as good--if not better. I used Monterrey Jack cheese (bought in a block and shredded myself) which gave it a little kick. And when I say little, I mean little--Matt didn't think it was spicy at all and I could taste the spice, but didn't think it was spicy if that makes sense. It also uses Worcestershire sauce which I thought was interesting. It didn't take too long to make, but there were a lot more steps than the other recipe, where you basically throw everything into a pot until it thickens up. I will have to try out my original recipe with Monterrey Jack cheese before I decide which one I truly like the best. We shall see. In the meantime, here is the recipe (my notes in italics). If you're stuck in a mac & cheese rut, try this--you won't be disappointed!

One other thing: I did not bake it at the end. For one, I am too impatient and I was hungry! Second, I don't always like the taste of baked mac & cheese. If you like it baked, then go for it!

Ooey Gooey Mac and Cheese
by digitalgrrl on Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Uncooked Elbow Pasta (I used shells-I love how they fill up with sauce! Yum!)
  
• ¼ cups Butter
• ¼ cups Flour
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Pepper
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Mustard
• ¼ teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 cups Milk
• 2 cups Shredded Cheese (I used Monterrey Jack)
  

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. (I skipped this step.)

Cook pasta and drain.

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. (I made the sauce as the pasta was cooking and it worked out to about the same time for each--the pasta cooked a little faster, but it was fine to just sit there for a minute (I added a bit of oil so it wouldn't clump up) while I finished the sauce.)

Stir in flour, salt, pepper, ground mustard and Worcestershire sauce.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat.

Stir in milk.

Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. (This takes a while, just like the other recipe, but you will know when it's finished--one minute it's thin and the next second it's really thick. You will know.)

Boil and stir for 1 minute.

Add cheese. Cook and stir until cheese is melted.

Stir pasta into cheese sauce.

(Again, I skipped this last step, but feel free to bake it if you wish. It definitely won't hurt anything. If you're impatient like me, just dish it up and enjoy!)

Pour into ungreased baking dish (I like to use to use my Pyrex 2 qt. round baking dish. It seems to dry out if you use a more shallow dish.)

Add some extra shredded cheese to cover top.

Bake uncovered for about 25 minutes, until bubbly.

Broil for a few minutes, until cheese on top browns.