CARAMEL APPLE CHEESECAKE

I saw this gem of a recipe on Food Network a year or so ago while watching Paul Deen. Melvin was drooling so I promised I would make it for him. It turned out fabulous and I have made it for him many times since. I also make it for his family get togethers and people offer to pay me to make it for them! It's that good! I make different designs with the pecans each time. Sometimes I crush half of them, sometimes I leave all of them whole. Do what you like!

Ingredients

• 1 (20 ounce) can apple pie filling
• 1 (10 inch) graham cracker crust
• 16 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup caramel topping
• 12 pecan halves
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Reserve 3/4 cup apple filling, and set aside.

3. Spoon remaining apple filling into the crust.

4. Beat together in large bowl, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs. Pour over pie filling.

5. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool.

6. Meanwhile, mix reserved pie filling and caramel topping and heat for 1 minute in a small saucepan.

7. Spread warm topping evenly over cooked, cooled cheesecake.

8. Decorate entire edge of cake with the 12 pecan halves, and sprinkle middle of cheesecake with chopped pecans.

9. Refrigerate, share, and enjoy!

Devil's Cake Balls

This is a recipe I have seen online many times but tonight I saw a version of these with red velvet cake inside and chocolate outside. I was dying to try it, as they were stunning with the red insides. However since this recipe calls for Red Velvet Boxed Cake Mix and after checking two different stores in my area, they did not have any. So I decided to do my own version and used Devil's Food mix instead. I thought about doing a white chocolate outside, but knew it would be very hard to coat it fully and not be able to see the dark chocolate inside. You can however, use any mixture you like. You can choose any kind of cake mix, any kind of frosting, and any kind of meltable chocolate for the outside. Craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael's often have a good selection.

These turned out great!

DEVIL'S CAKE BALLS

• 1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix ( I used Duncan Hines, also make sure you have ingredients needed to prepare cake. Usually oil, eggs, and water)
  
• 1 16oz container cream cheese frosting (do not buy the "whipped" kind, and also do not use regular cream cheese. Buy the frosting sold right by the cake mix boxes.
• 1 package chocolate for melting. I used a big block of almond bark. You can use any kind of chocolate used for melting. Don't just use regular chocolate chips.
  
• Wax paper or foil (lightly sprayed with cooking spray)

1. Prepare cake as directed in a 13x9 pan, or any other easy method. Cool completely.
2. Once cake is cooled, crumble cake into a large mixing bowl. Discard any hard chunks around the edges.
3. Dump entire container of cream cheese into crumbled cake. Mix well. I had to use my hands. It's messy but wasn't quite working with a fork.
4. Put bowl in freezer for 15 minutes or fridge 30 minutes.
5. Line 2 cookie sheets with wax paper or foil (lightly spray foil) and using your hands, form balls into tablespoon sized balls. Place on cookie sheets.
6. Freeze balls for 30 minutes.
7. Melt a few blocks of chocolate bark at a time. Don't do all at once. Using a slotted spoon or fork, dip cold balls into chocolate, tap utensil against side and let ball slide off spoon and back onto the cold cookie sheet. Continue until all balls are coated. They will start to harden immediately.
8. If you have any left over melted chocolate, put it into the corner of a little baggie and cut the tip off. Use as a "cake decorator" and drizzle little designs all over your devil balls.
9. You can keep these in the fridge in an air tight container or on the counter in an air tight container.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

My Melvin said this cake on a scale of 1-10 is a 20!!! My camera is out of batteries right now so I can't post a picture... that is if there is any left. But I just wanted to share this recipe with anyone who loves peanut butter. Mel usually slathers peanut butter on most sweet things. Banana bread, cookies, etc.... so this recipe worked out great!

I do cheat. Yes you caught me! I used a box cake mix for this recipe. Any dark chocolate is fine... devils food cake mix, chocolate butter cake mix, etc. How can you even go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate? You can even make cupcakes and then frost each one. Maybe top with a few reeses pieces or one reeses peanut butter cup. Yum.

Ok, so obviously you need to make your cake. Let cool completely. This time I used a bundt pan, but I also thought about doing to 9" rounds and putting a layer of frosting in the middle. Very tempting. Once the cake is done and completely cooled, frost!

Peanut Butter Frosting

3/4 cup peanut butter (creamy if you want smooth, crunchy if you want crunch)
1/2 cup margerine (1 stick, softened)
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
1-3 tablespoons milk (ONLY if it's too thick for your liking)

• In a large bowl, add softened margerine and peanut butter. Beat with electric mixer until creamy and smooth.
• Add powdered sugar and beat about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
• If it's a little thick for your liking, add 1-3 tablespoons milk. I used about 1 tablespoon. Beat until desired consistancy is reached.
• Frost cake, enjoy a slice, then go to the gym :)

No recipe, just blogging nonsense!

So Christmas is just around the corner, why am I feeling like the Grinch?

I we put up some Christmas lights and a mini Christmas tree but what is a holiday without a bunch of little ones running around? I know the way I used to light up and be just estatic for Christmas when I was little....I'd like to experience that again with my own kids.

I've been doing some baking.... cookies, pies, cheesecakes, cakes, etc which Melvin loves. As of Decemember he is temporarily out of work until February. This will be a bit of a hard period but we do have things figured out and our stability is not at stake. The bright side is he will be home a lot more and we will have tons of time to spend together. Of course I will still be working but that is quite necessary so I can get out of the house and not go crazy :)

It sure is hard to get in the Christmas spirit while living in Southern California. In Decemember it's been in the 80's and it's very annoying. Obviously no snow and only a day of rain so far to speak of. I miss Seattle and would love to spend a Christmas in a snowy place, maybe next year.

Turkey Noodle Soup - OMG it's heavenly!

So since we knew we were spending Thanksgiving at Mel's Mom's house, I wanted to make a turkey a few days before Thanksgiving so we could have our own bird!! **You can do any and all of these recipes with chicken as well** After I finished stripping all the meat off of my turkey, I put all the bones in my crockpot. I added about 8 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, and some salt and put my crockpot on low overnight for 8 hours. In the morning I took all the big bones out, strained, it and then I had amazing Turkey Broth for my soup the next day! I stored it in a tupperware in the fridge.



The first night we had an amazing Turkey dinner... turkey slices, mashed garlic potatoes, and I made a delicious gravy from the turkey drippings. It was easy and came out so full of flavor:



Turkey gravy: In a small saucepan melt 1/4 cup butter or margarine. Add in 1/4 cup flour and stir constantly for about 2 minutes until smooth. Add black pepper, the more the better. Add 2 cups turkey drippings (so obviously you make your gravy when the turkey is done, while it's resting) and stir constantly for a few minutes, it will continue to get thicker and thicker. Taste test and add more black pepper if needed. SOOOOOO GOOOD.



So anyways, the next night we had some delicious turkey sandwiches. It was nice to have such an easy dinner after a night of lots of cooking and dishes with the turkey!! The night after that I was so excited to make my Turkey Noodle Soup. The best part? Homemade NOODLES!! Yum. You will never want storebought noodles again after you try this. Here goes -



Homemade Noodles

2 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

• In a large bowl mix flour and salt. Create a hole in the middle, and add beaten eggs, oil, and water. Mix well with the flour mix.


• Form dough into a big ball and on a well floured surface, knead dough for about 8 minutes until smooth. Cover and let rest 10 minutes.


• Divide dough into 4 parts. Using a rolling pin, flatten each part (on a floured surface) until pretty thin, but not too thin. Let sit out on the counter 2-3 hours.


• When soup is pretty much done, start cutting up your flat pieces of dough into small strips. You can make them as fat/skinny, long/short and any shape you want. They will stay the same shape even when cooked in the soup.

Ok while your dough is sitting out for a couple of hours, you can start your soup!

Turkey Noodle Soup (or chicken!)

2 tablespoons oil

1/2 onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced into little carrott rounds

2 celery stalks

4 garlic cloves, minced

6-8 cups turkey broth (or chicken) depending on how soupy you like your soup. You can add 6 to start off with, and add more later near end of cooking time if you like

2 bay leaves

1/2 tablespoon thyme

1/2 tablespoon sage

3-4 cups cooked, shredded turkey

Salt and pepper to taste. The more pepper, the better.

• Ok so using a large dutch oven or big soup pot, heat the oil. Chop up your carrots, onion, garlic, and celery. Put in hot oil and stir fry for about 5 minutes until semi tender.


• Add desired amount of turkey broth, and turn up heat to bring to a low boil


• Add spices and shredded turkey


• Turn down heat to a low simmer and simmer uncovered about 1 hour to let flavors blend.


• Add noodles during last 5 minutes of cooking time. Serve with crusty bread.


• Enjoy !

"Olive Garden's" Sausage Potato Soup

Melvin is not a big soup lover but this warmed us up tonight. It's very cheap to make and I had mine ready in just over half hour. Perfect for weeknight cooking. This is about enough for 3 or so people, so just double it if you're feeding more or want leftovers. To me it tastes like the soup they serve at Olive Garden!

Sausage Potato Soup

1lb sausage (breakfast or italian)
1 small onion, diced
14 oz. can chicken broth
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 large potato, diced in small bite size pieces (leave skin on)
8oz evaporated milk
1-2 handfulls shredded cheddar cheese

In a large sauce pan or dutch oven brown sausage and onion. Drain and add back to pain.

Add chicken broth and spices, and bring to a boil.

Add potatoes, and simmer medium heat for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are very soft and some skins fall off.

Take off heat, stir in milk and cheese. Serve.

SO FREAKIN EASY!

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

It's Halloween time again!! I was in full force pumpkin mode today. I made these amazing seeds (thought up the recipe as I went along), carved 2 pumpkins, and also made a pumpkin cheesecake. I was really happy with my "old man with a mustache" pumpkin then I made the mistake of going fast with the little carving knife and I cut the swirl off one side of his mustache. I was so sad... there was no going back!!

Shhhh heeheee, I'm eating the seeds as I blog! Oh, also this recipe is for the pumpkin seeds of two regular sized carving pumpkins. I know each pumpkin is different, but just go by what you think is the right taste for your family. And from what I've learned, bigger pumpkins don't have more seeds, they just have bigger seeds!

Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Once you have all the seeds out of your pumpkin, place in a large bowl. Fill bowl with warm water. All the pumpkin guts and stringy stuff will sink to the bottom, and all the seeds will float to the top. Take out seeds with hands or a slotted spoon place into another clean bowl. If there is a little bit of the guts still on the seeds, it's ok.

Boil a pot of water. You want about 2 cups of water for each 1/2 cup of seeds. Once boiling, add about 1/8th cup of salt. Add seeds and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Watch, or they will boil over. Very important to keep stirring. Preheat oven to 350.

Once 10 minutes is up, pour seeds and water into a colander and shake all excess water off. Put your clean, boiled seeds back into the bowl without the pumpkin gunk. Add the following to the bowl, and mix well with a large spoon:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce (mix, then add spices)

1 tablespoon cajun seasoning

few dashes cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon seasoning salt

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie seasonings

Mix well. Coat a large cookie sheet with foil. Spread pumpkins out as much as possible. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes. Stir. Bake another 20 minutes. Stir. Bake another 10 minutes and eat one. If they are done, great! If not, bake another 10 minutes. Seeds should be perfectly crunchy (you eat the shell and all) at about 50-60 minutes total baking time.

Store in an air tight container or zip lock bag. Yum!