Fridgg: What's For Dinner?

Grandma Day’s Cheesecake

Grandma Day’s Cheesecake

I should not be left alone with a cheesecake. It’s dangerous – both for the well-being of the cheesecake and for my waistline. So when I discovered how incredibly easy the cheesecake that my aunt makes for all our family gatherings really is… well, I can kiss my girlish figure goodbye.

Cheesecake is easily one of my favorite desserts. The crumbly graham cracker crust, the rich, creamy filling… especially the tangy-sweet sour cream topping. Son and I have been known to consume an entire cheesecake in a weekend. An entire cheesecake… for just the two of us. It’s entirely possible we have a cheesecake problem. We might need help. The big problem is, this cheesecake is so ridiculously easy to make. Just mix, bake, mix, bake, refrigerate, eat! Perhaps not quite as easy as those no-bake cheesecakes, or those pre-made cheesecake fillings you can buy, but the tiny bit of added effort is entirely worth it.

Make this cheesecake once, and then try – just try – to not make it again when the first one is gone. It’s just. That. Good.

This is my paternal grandmother’s recipe – my aunt (on my mom’s side) got it from her at my mother’s wedding shower and has made it quite often since then.

Grandma Day’s Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 ready-made graham cracker crust

Cheesecake:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 8 oz cream cheese

Topping:

• 8 oz sour cream
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Beat eggs until thick.
3. Beat 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and cream cheese into the eggs, until smooth.
4. Bake at 375° for 30 minutes or until firm.
5. Cool about 15-20 minutes until top is firm.
6. Preheat oven to 400°.
7. Mix sour cream, 4 tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla until well combined.
8. Pour on top of cream cheese layer and smooth out.
9. Bake at 400° for 10 min or until firm.
10. Chill 6 hours or overnight

Pecan Pie Muffins

Pecan Pie Muffins

I love pecan pie. Son loves pecan pie even more than I do. Pecan pie is a regular at my family functions – Thanksgiving, Christmas, sometimes even Easter or the Fourth of July. Son first tried pecan pie around the first time he had spinach dip and deviled eggs – at my family’s Fourth of July barbecue in 2005. As much as he loves apple pie, which was the other offering, he couldn’t get enough of my mom’s pecan pie. (No, I will not show you her apple pie recipe… yet. Last time I tried making it, the apple pie ended up looking more like a turkey… epic FAIL.)

I have not yet tried making her pecan pie recipe. As you can see, I do not get along well with pie crusts… I swear they have something against me. However, if I can find something that tastes just like pecan pie but is infinitely easier to make? Heck yeah I’m making it!

That is what happened when I found these pecan pie muffins. They are unbelievably easy to make – only five ingredients, and at most they take half an hour to make. Half an hour! For a recipe – any recipe – that is incredibly fast. You might be thinking, “Sure, they’re quick and easy. But are they any good?” A resounding “Yes!” If I hadn’t stopped him, Son would have downed the entire batch in a day. The pecan pie lover gave these his seal of approval and is, as I type this, asking me to make more. I’d say that’s a good sign.

The original recipe says it makes 18 mini muffins, but I made 36 and could have easily gotten more out of the batch.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Combine everything in a bowl.
3. Spray 2 mini muffin tins about 3/4 full.
4. Bake 18 minutes.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Cheese Age

Cheese Age

I was apprehensive at first. Although I am learning to love spicy foods, my sensitive little tongue can still only take so much. The first nibble got only fried won ton; the second a bit of melted cheese. The third bite… ohmygoodness spicy! Normally after one bite of overwhelming heat, I would have made Son eat the rest. But with these… more please?

I first tried Cheese Age (pronounced ah-gay) when I took Son to Honda-Ya for his birthday last year. These cheese and jalapeño filled won tons were one dish that we knew we would have to try to replicate at home. Although they were quite spicy (I was grabbing for a glass of water, while Son had no problem at all with them) they are one of the few spicy foods I can’t get enough of.

I’m not the only one who adores them. The first time I made them, I took them to a Christmas party with my mother’s side of the family. Everyone liked them, and my Great-Aunt loved them so much, she kept going back for more and even took the rest of them home with her.

They do take a bit of effort to make, but I promise you it’s worth it. (Great. Now I’ve got myself craving more cheese age. See how delicious they are?) Oh and I know it uses Velveeta, and I’m probably going to be banished from the foodie world because of this, but I really was just trying to replicate the original cheese age the best I could. Although I haven’t tried, you could probably make them with cheddar or some other type of *real* cheese, and they would be just as good.

Cheese Age

Ingredients

• 1 package of wonton skins
• 1 package of Velveeta individual cheese slices
• 1 jar of sliced jalapeños
• vegetable oil
• water

Cooking Directions

1. Lay down a wonton skin so one of the corners is pointing towards you.
2. Place a jalapeño slice just below the halfway point of the wonton skin.
3. Break the cheese slice into thirds.
4. Break each third of the cheese slice into pieces, arrange on top of and around the jalapeño.
5. Brush the bottom two edges of the wonton skin with water.
6. Fold the top half of the wonton skin down over the fillings.
7. Press the edges together to seal the wonton.
8. Pour enough oil into a frying pan so it is at least an inch deep, heat it until it is hot (sorry, I have no exact temperature for you).
9. Place one layer of the filled wontons into the pan.
10. Fry wontons until they are golden brown. When we did this, we found that they expanded quite a bit and would start to leak cheese if one of the sides hit the bottom of the hot pan (which is why we want the oil to be deep enough so this doesnt happen.
11. Let cool, and enjoy!

Cheese Age

Spaghetti

Spaghetti

One of my favorite comfort meals in the whole wide world is spaghetti. But not just any spaghetti. It has to be the recipe passed down to my mom from her mother. I’ve grown up eating her spaghetti, and now anything else just doesn’t measure up.

I’m a meat sauce girl. Always have been, always will be. Not meatballs, mind you, but rather many chunks of ground beef mixed into the thick sauce. The more meat, the better.

Making my mother’s spaghetti sauce recipe for the first time was a huge success for me, even more than usual. Not only did the sauce turn out tasting wonderful, which in itself was a great thing. This recipe turned out just like how mom makes it. Any person who has tried to replicate a parent’s recipes knows that is an awesome accomplishment. For some reason, nothing ever ends up tasting quite as good as mom’s. But when I made this sauce, for the first time ever I was able to make it just as tasty as how my mom makes it. That is a good feeling indeed.

Spaghetti

Ingredients

• 1 family size can tomato soup
• 1 regular can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 small can tomato sauce
• 1 small pkg Lawry’s Spaghetti sauce mix
• 1 pinch Italian seasoning
• 1 lb hamburger meat
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tbsp sugar
• salt, pepper, garlic salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 12 oz spaghetti
• parmesan cheese (optional)

Cooking Directions

1. Fry onion with hamburger meat and season with salt, pepper and garlic salt.
2. In large pan, combine soups and tomato sauce.
3. Add water, Italian seasoning and spaghetti mix.
4. Add meat and simmer 30 min.
5. Boil water in a large pot.
6. Salt water, then add the spaghetti to the water.
7. Boil for 8-10 minutes, or until al dente.
8. Serve spaghetti topped with the meat sauce, with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese if you prefer.

Spaghetti

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake – my favorite use for carrots. Sure, it’s not the healthiest option, but most people would look at you oddly if you accused me of being a health freak. Although I don’t eat nearly as much sugar as I did when I was younger, I do still love my occasional desserts.

When I received a bunch of carrots in my CSA box (Community Supported Agriculture), my mind immediately went to carrot cake. A quick internet search turned up so many recipes, but which should I make? I narrowed my results down to a few that didn’t contain any ingredients that I didn’t have, and then to pick the one that I would ultimately make… eeny meeny miny mo. Yes, a very scientific method of picking a recipe. 😉

What did I end up with? The perfectly moist cake, the sweet cream cheese frosting… my only caveat is I must be sure not to make this too often. (I think eeny meeny miny mo turned up a very good result indeed!) In an effort not to allow myself to eat the entire cake, my family and Son’s co-workers all got some carrot cake. All of them loved it just as much as I did… now to find some healthier recipes to use up carrots next time!

Carrot Cake

Here is the recipe, adapted from Tammy Elliot’s recipe on AllRecipes

Ingredients

Cake:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups grated carrots

Frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.
3. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
4. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
5. Stir in carrots.
6. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
9. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
10. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
11. Frost the cooled cake.

Carrot Cake