Merry Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas! Our holiday this year was cold but lovely and filled with family, friends, and good food. We kept it fairly simple--but not boring--and had for dinner a big, cheesy lasagna and salad. For dessert, we had a creamy peppermint bark cheesecake. The cake includes peppermint bark both inside and on top as well as peppermint whipped cream.  The recipe is pretty simple.  For the base cake, I made a variation on the Barefoot Contessa cheesecake (which, yes, makes a lot), but I used one less egg yolk, no lemon zest, and about 2 tsp of vanilla.  I also added 8-10 oz of broken up peppermint bark (this is a guess--use enough so you can see it mixed in, though it will sink down when baking.)  Once baked and chilled, I topped the cake with fresh whipped cream mixed with a few drops of peppermint extract (it's strong stuff, so go slowly ... I didn't want a ton of peppermint in the cream) and then decorated with crushed candy canes and more peppermint bark.

Just a slice ...


Just another slice ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We had 10 people at our table for Thanksgiving this year--and, of course, enough food for many, many more. I'm only just recovering from the food coma that was Thursday, though a long walk around the zoo today helped. We cover the traditionals at our holiday meal--there are no theme Thanksgivings around here--and it was all very, very good. We had turkey with gravy, apple-pecan stuffing, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, asparagus, cranberry-0range sauce, and more. Not surprisingly, dessert was my focus, and with four (yes, 4) options, I think we covered all the bases. The above picture is of a caramel-apple cheesecake tart, a great recipe I found at Annie's Eats, that essentially combined pecan pie, apple pie, and a cheesecake all in one. The sides: mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy The big three: turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing Broad beans, olives, asparagus with a lemon vinaigrette, cranberry sauce, gravy Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans Homemade toasted coconut-macaroon ice cream with dark chocolate chunks, made with the effort and inspiration of SwimmerGirl The final round-up: (from the top) carrot cake, caramel-apple cheesecake tart, and pumpkin chiffon pie

Triple Berry Cheesecake for a Party

We went to a party last night, and I brought a triple berry cheesecake. I covered the top of the cheesecake with (strained) black raspberry jam, a combination of fresh red raspberries and blackberries, and then a thin drizzle of caramel. The cheesecake recipe is originally from the Barefoot Contessa, but I used a ginger-pecan crust instead of graham crackers, light cream cheese instead of the regular, and Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.

Strawberry Cheesecake

I brought a strawberry cheesecake to the Passover seder last night. Originally, it was going to be key lime, but then I couldn't find the recipe I wanted, so I switched to the Barefoot Contessa's raspberry cheesecake. But then I couldn't find any raspberries in the stores, so I switched to strawberry and played around with the recipe. You can't use flour during Passover, so I made my own crust using ground almonds, matzoh, fresh ginger and other good things. Turned out pretty well, I think. For the cheesecake part, I used less sugar, about a quarter of the lemon zest, low-fat sour cream, and neufchatel cheese instead of full-fat cream cheese, and I switched around the topping too, because I didn't want the berries to get smushed using Ina's method. Oh, and I used a larger (10.5-inch) springform pan, as there's no way a nine-inch pan would have worked for all that filling. I served this with chocolate dipped strawberries and lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Can one have too many desserts? We had four--for eight people, but some things are "must haves" and then others are ones I want to try as well. So here's the Thanksgiving wrap-up, from turkey to stuffing to the many desserts:

Apple pie (based on this recipe)


Pumpkin-Praline Cheesecake


Pumpkin Chiffon Pie (from Joy of Cooking)


Chocolate-Pecan Pie with Fresh Cranberries


The bird and a mountain of mashed potatoes


Stuffing (cornbread, apples, cranberries, pecans etc)


Butternut squash, green beans, cranberry-orange sauce, gravy

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

2 c brown sugar (plus more for adjusting)

3 c water

1 c freshly squeezed orange juice (about 3 oranges)

zest of the oranges

3 12 oz bags of cranberries
1 Tbs or so freshly grated ginger

Wash cranberries and check them for stems and/or mushy berries. Combine brown sugar, water, orange juice, and zest in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. When boiling, add the cranberries and return to a boil; they will start to pop open. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10-15 min., til they start to thicken. Carefully test sauce for sweet/tartness and add more sugar as necessary (depending on how you like it). Let cool completely and then refrigerate.