Cheesecake in a Jar

Last night my girls group made cheesecake in a jar (yes, we are that cool!). The little cheesecakes turned out awesome! Kelly got the idea off of Pinterest which is our newest addiction. I wish I would have kept track of how many times we mentioned something cool that we saw on Pinterest - it was a lot! What can I say? There are such creative things there. So fun! Anyway, you have to try this. Here is the recipe:

Cheesecake in a Jar

24 4 oz. regular mouth jars

2 cups graham cracker crumbs (16 whole graham crackers, ground)

2 Tbs. sugar

8 Tbs. butter, melted 

4 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

1 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp. vanilla bean paste

zest of 1 lemon

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

Spray the jelly jars with non-stick cooking spray, making sure to spray the bottoms so the crust doesn't stick.

Blend the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a bowl.  Place about 1 heaping tablespoon of the crumbs into each jelly jar and tamp down to make the crust.

In a large mixer bowl, mix the room temperature cream cheese with the sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.  Add the sour cream, vanilla and lemon zest and mix until well incorporated. Fill each jelly jar with about 1/3 cup of the filling, leaving room at the top for your topping.

Place the jars in a large roasting pan or two deep baking dishes.  Fill the pan with hot water halfway up the jelly jars.  Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove jars and place on a wire rack to cool.

Top with fruit filling or chocolate or caramel or anything you want!

Awesome cake!

Here are some pictures of the cake I helped Jen, from No More Boring Cakes, with last week. It was a groom's cake for a man who finds rare coins and things with his hobby of metal detecting. The cake is a treasure chest surrounded by sand and coins and stuff. 

My part was pretty small, to be honest. I made the rocks (look closely in the sand, they are there), the leaves, the lock and corner pieces on the chest, and the metal detector on the top of the chest (that is what that long, skinny thing is). Anyway, I am having a great time learning how to do this kind of thing and major props to Jen who is super talented! Seriously... isn't this cake the coolest thing? 

Here is a close up of my leaves:

And here is the actual cake:

I was duped!

Once, when I was in the fourth grade, I went through the cafeteria line at lunch and got a nice big scoop of applesauce. I love applesauce. It looked delicious! I saved it for the very end of my lunch. I figured it would be a nice palette cleanser to chase down my sloppy joe.  I took a nice big bite of the juicy sauce only to discover that it was sauerkraut! Being a mere fourth grader, this was my first experience with sauerkraut. It was an unpleasant one, to be sure! And honestly... who serves sauerkraut to kids in their school lunch?!? Talk about traumatizing their taste buds!

Anyway, this got me thinking, much of our enjoyment of things come from our expectations. When reality lines up with our expectation, we are happy. When things are different than what we were wanting, we are let down. This definitely is true with food. That is often why people want to know ahead of time what is for dinner. We want to get our taste buds ready for it. If I am expecting spicy, chicken enchiladas for dinner but then get served pot roast, I am not going to enjoy it as much. Not because I dislike pot roast, but because I was expecting Mexican food and my taste buds weren't prepared for pot roast.

I find that this is also true for entertainment. Movies in particular. I went and saw the movie "One Day" today. It just came out in theaters so I won't give away any spoilers or anything but let me just say, I felt a bit duped. From the previews, it looked like a quirky romantic comedy starring Anne Hathaway. I was in the mood for a feel-good movie. It was set in Europe and looked to be along the lines of "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" (two EXCELLENT movies, by the way) Well, I walked away with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes and a bit of resentment at the fact that I was now totally depressed.

I will admit, there is a morbid side of me that deliberately watches sad movies sometimes just to make myself cry. Sometimes I kind of want to be depressed and sob over a pint of Ben and Jerry's and just be miserable. Today was not that day, yet I was forced into misery. Thanks a lot Anne Hathaway. I am now depressed and teary and have no Ben and Jerry's because I was not prepared for this. I think I will go watch something ridiculously funny to pull myself out of the dumps. Any suggestions?

Oh, and by the way, "One Day" was a good movie. I recommend it, just don't expect to be happy when you leave the theater because you won't be.

Breaking out of the Cube

So for the last three years I have worked faithfully in cubical-land.

At first, I thought I would go crazy in an environment like that but it really wasn't too bad. I even had a window seat so I was able to watch the sun rise every morning from my cube. Yes, I said, watch the sun RISE. I went to work at 5:00 a.m. and have pretty much been living like the walking dead for the last few years. Fast forward to today - I got a promotion at work (woo-hoo) and am now a supervisor. Good bye 5:00 a.m.!!!

Yesterday was my last day in my old job and I got to move out of my cube into my new office! Well.... ok, it isn't really an office, I have to climb a little higher up the corporate ladder for that. But it is a cube that is about three times larger than my old one and it is raised up on a platform above all the other cubes so I can feel all high and mighty and stuff.

My OCD REALLY kicked in yesterday. I usually just think that I am mildly OCD and like any other person, I just like things neat and clean. Then there are days like yesterday when I think I might have a mental illness and should seek treatment! It started when I went to examine the space I was moving into. The guy who occupied the space before me was kind enough to leave anything and everything he wasn't taking with him. The space was filled with old papers, random cords and computer paraphernalia (side thought - isn't paraphernalia a cool way to say "stuff"?) and garbage. There was even old food left. I found a jar of pickles in the desk drawer! Who keeps pickles at work?!? Anyway, I disposed of all of this junk then started cleaning. I think I used a whole container of Clorox disinfectant wipes cleaning the desk.

So far, this sounds pretty normal right? Just cleaning a dirty space. Well then it starts to get a bit weird. I notice that my computer keyboard is disgusting! Generally speaking I get totally skeeved out by things like a mouse, keyboard, and phone since they are germ magnets. I start working on the keyboard. I wadded up a disinfectant wipe into a tiny little point and started cleaning in between each individual key. For the dust that I just couldn't reach, I used an unwound paper clip to pick up the specks. If you can lift the speck out without touching a key you got it, if it touches the key it falls off and you have to try again. (it is kind of like playing Operation with dirt - super fun!) In my old cube, no one would notice me doing this because I was in my own little corner, but in this space, I am front and center and people were definitely noticing me spend an hour perfecting my keyboard. I started to realize that this might not be completely normal.

Once everything was clean enough for me to move in, I brought over all of my stuff. Being organized is just as important as being clean and I was going crazy that I had things like paper clips, push pins, and staples and just an open drawer to put them in. This simply would not work. After I got everything settled, I had a big pile of these random things that needed a home. So after work I drove down to the Container Store (which is a store designed specifically for people with OCD) and bought an desk drawer organizer. I then went back to work. Now keep in mind that I am done working for the day and don't have to be back until Thursday but being a bit sick in the head knew that I wouldn't be able to truly enjoy my day off knowing that there was a whole pile of junk on my desk that needed to be sorted. So I went back to work and finished organizing my desk.

When it was all said and done I was able to look at my sparkling clean and thoroughly organized desk and smile with satisfaction. Ok, NOW I can start my job... and maybe start looking for a therapist.

Camping Food

So, this blog is coming a little late. I just wasn't in a "bloggy" mood this week but this is a good recipe so I need to post it for those of you who collect good recipes! It is a recipe for homemade granola bars. I love making granola for my breakfast and it is so versatile. You can literally put anything in it and it tastes great. The same holds true for granola bars. This recipe is peanut butter/chocolate chip so it is on the sweet side, kind of a candy bar type of granola bar. But you could experiment with more nuts and dried fruit and make a healthier version. These bars are pretty hearty too. One will definitely last for a while. 


The reason I made homemade granola bars was that I went camping last weekend with a group of friends up to Yosemite National Park. I was in charge of the food. Four days/ nine people. It was quite an undertaking, let me tell you. It was fun though. The organizational part of me LOVED pre-cooking and pre-chopping all of the food and having everything labeled in ziplock bags and ready to pack. It was about three full days of prep work but when we were actually camping, meals were a breeze because so much was done ahead of time. It was definitely the way to go. 


We did a lot of hiking and sight seeing while we were there. The first day we hiked Yosemite Falls. Well, I hiked half of it anyway. It was a pretty big hike! Beautiful though!

The next day we hiked Sentinel Dome which was much less strenuous but had a killer view at the top. When we were initially planning our trip we were talking about hiking the Half Dome. I was all for it until I got there and saw it:

Yikes! That is a 17 mile hike with a good portion of it nearly vertical! Definitely not for me. You can't do everything and this is one of the things I can't do! But as you know, I can cook, so here is the recipe for the granola bars, enjoy!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted coconut
2/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup oat bran
1 Tbs. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups honey
1/4 cup melted butter
8 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 inch pan with aluminum foil.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix in peanut butter, honey, and melted butter. Stir in chocolate chips. Press mixture firmly and evenly into prepared pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool then refrigerate until hard, about 1 hour. Take out of pan and cut into bars (one 9x13 pan makes about 16 bars). Wrap each bar individually in Saran Wrap and freeze. This solidifies them so that they won’t crumble when you try to eat them.

OPA!

Last night our Community Group had a Greek dinner for Abby's birthday. We had a delicious spread! Kelly brought Souvlaki (grilled pork kebabs). Tricia made yogurt marinated kebabs, Colin did tzatziki sauce and Abby made homemade pita bread. Yuuummmm!
I brought dessert (as always) and made baklava. It turned out really good and it was very easy to make. Here is the recipe for those who might like to try a Greek dessert sometime.


Baklava
4 cups chopped walnuts
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. cloves
¾ cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
½ cup honey
1 cup water

Combine walnuts, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Brush large glass rectangular baking dish with some of the melted butter. Layer 3 phyllo sheets, brush with butter, 2 more sheets, brush with butter.

Then place ⅓ of nut mixture on top. Repeat 2 more times.

Bake at 350°F for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, bring all ingredients for syrup to a boil, reduce heat and summer for 10 minutes.

Cut hot baklava into pieces with a sharp knife. Pour syrup evenly over baklava. Let stand for 2-3 hours.

All in the name of research

I just started interning with Jen, a cake decorator from my church who is AWESOME! Seriously, go check out her webpage: No More Boring Cakes. If I can produce anything half as impressive, I will be pretty stoked! Anyway, we were talking the other night about different types of buttercream frosting and she mentioned Italian Buttercream which is a really light and fluffy frosting. It works really well for wedding cakes in the summer because it holds up well in heat and doesn't lose it's shape. I don't really like traditional buttercream all that much, I usually scrape off most of it. It feels a bit heavy and greasy to me, it is kind of a necessary evil when it comes to cake decorating. I am very interested in other alternatives.

Jen mentioned a cupcake shop in Vista that uses primarily Italian Buttercream on their cupcakes. Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen. I LOVE cupcake shops! Cupcakes are so cute and fun. In fact, a few years ago I had the bright idea to open a cupcake shop but upon doing some research I discovered that they already existed and were actually really trendy. I abandoned my bright idea since apparently someone had already thought of it. It is really too bad, too, because these places must make a killing! When Sprinkles in La Jolla opened up they had a line around the block of people waiting for a tiny piece of cake! Crazy!!!

Since I am doing Dave and Ellie's cake this fall, I decided that I needed to do some "frosting research" if I was going to be a responsible cake decorator. I owed it to them to taste some of this Italian Buttercream. So I took myself on over to Little Cakes Cupcake Kitchen to try the goods.

OH EM GEE!!!

I never use that phrase because, well, I am not 13 year old girl. But in this case, it is the only phrase that fits! These were the best cupcakes I have ever tasted! They blew Sprinkles right out of the water! Over the last few months I have become somewhat of a cake connoisseur and I feel like I can give an educated review. The cake was perfectly moist. Not too heavy, not too dry, seriously... perfect. And the Italian Buttercream? I am sold! It is so yummy! It almost has the consistency of whipped cream. It is not too sweet and it is very light and airy. I always wondered about cupcakes with the frosting piled high on it. It seemed like WAY too much! Not so with Italian Buttercream - load it on!

I am definitely going to try my hand at making it. I think it would be perfect for the wedding cake. (although I might have to taste it a few more times... just to make sure. I want to be thorough in my research) Do yourselves a favor and go get a cupcake. Now. You won't be sorry! Here are a few pictures from their website to whet the pallat:

YUM!

Where have all the good men gone?

I am a single woman in my 30's. For the most part, I am ok with this. Do I want to fall in love, get married and have a family? Of course! Whenever it happens, it happens and it will be great when it does. Until then, I am enjoying my life as it is. What cracks me up is when people try to "fix my problem" and tell me how to go about snagging a man. I get all kinds of advice. In fact, I should compile a list of all the things people suggest to me. It would be quite humorous, believe me! A few years ago I was home visiting my family in Idaho and a friend of my mom's went on and on about how I should move to Alaska to find a husband.

Apparently the odds are good in Alaska! Something like ten single men for every single woman. In fact, there are books and magazines on the subject (check out this article that I found: How to marry an Alaskan man) and dating sites and even Oprah had an episode devoted to helping these poor Alaskan men find a wife. It seems that Alaska is an untapped resource, overflowing with an abundance of single men! Hmm.... why on earth am I in Southern California?

Yesterday, I was with my friend, Marby, and she was telling me how she totally sees me with a rugged, mountain man type. It makes sense I guess. I grew up in the mountains of Idaho so I am familiar with living in the middle of nowhere and having to drive an hour to go to the store. I am not freaked out by the idea of camping, fishing, hunting game, and having to learn how to make venison taste good. And I have to say that I happen to think every man looks sexy in a pair of Carhartts!

See what I mean? *swoon!*

Yeah, I can totally see my self living in the wild wilderness with some Alaskan hunk of a man. So thank you for the suggestion, ladies! Next step in life - move to Alaska and go on a man hunt! Any single ladies want to join me? There will be plenty to go around. Although, I will pass along one word of caution that I picked up from others that have gone on this journey before me, "The odds may be good, but the goods are odd!"
Maybe there is a reason all of those men are single! YIKES!

Lemon and Lime

I have been in the kitchen a lot lately making all kinds of treats for various events. It was more enjoyable than usual this week because I got to break in my new KitchenAid mixer! I have no idea how I have survived so long without one of these. Let me tell you, making five batches of frosting was WAY easier with this than my wimpy old hand mixer! I know a mixer shouldn't be this exciting, but it is. LOVE IT!!!

This week I made a couple of desserts: Lemon Crinkle Cookies for the cake decorating party and Key Lime Pie for last night's Mexican fiesta. Both turned out very yummy. I love light, citrus-y flavors for the summer. The cookies were very light and airy. If you didn't pick them up carefully they would break in half. I have decided that this is a very good quality for a cookie to have. It is definitely a recipe that I plan on using again. The Key Lime Pie was very good too. I never used to think that I liked Key Lime Pie but I proved myself wrong. Deeelightful! Here are the recipes:

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

½ cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1½ cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking powder
⅛ tsp. baking soda
½ cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease light colored baking sheets with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again.
Sift together all dry ingredients (except powdered sugar) and add to the wet mixture slowly until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.
Chill dough for about 30 minutes. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar.
Freeze formed cookie balls overnight. This keeps them from spreading too much when they bake.
Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottom of cookies begin to barely brown and cookies have a matte finish (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

(this picture is compliments of Google because I spaced on picture taking when I made these. But this is what they looked like - ok, these ones are prettier)

Key Lime Pie
2 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
½ cup butter, melted
2 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
½ cup sour cream
¾ cup key lime juice (about 20 limes)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
⅛ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350° F. Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until well blended. Press mixture into a 9” pie plate. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Refrigerate until cool.
In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, and lime juice. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust. Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. Chill pie thoroughly. In a large bowl, whip cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Top chilled pie with whipped cream and serve.

So much talent in one room!

In the summer our Community Groups kind of go on hiatus and we split up into guys and girls and meet that way. Our girl's group does Bible study every other week and on the other weeks we do something creative or crafty. Last year we made pie, learned how to line dance and made wine charms (just to name a few). I must say, we are very well rounded women.

Last night it was my turn to host the craftiness and I decided to share the wealth of my cake decorating knowledge. I attempted to squeeze about a month worth of classes into one night. It definitely wasn't comprehensive but we had a lot of fun. There was icing everywhere (sorry for the mess, Tricia!) and because it is summer and a bit on the warm side, the icing didn't stay stiff enough to work with easily. It was very soft and floopy, but in spite of that, everyone did great. I was especially impressed with Aubree's roses. Roses are a bit challenging. It was her first time making them and in spite of the floopy icing, they looked totally legit!

I will showcase the beautiful cakes that were made for your viewing pleasure:

Kelly's cake:
(notice the detailed basket weave, very impressive! This would be a perfect cake for Easter)

Cheryl's cake:
(I love the writing, it is looks whimsical and childlike but in a deliberate way, unlike my writing which usually looks like a 5 year old did it, literally)

Tricia's cake:
(LOVE the abundance of flowers, this is just such a happy cake!)

Aubree's cake:
(Notice the very professional roses. I let her use some of my sparkle dust. If you look closely you can see that the peach roses have a gold shimmer, it is a very cool effect).

There you have it, cake decorating 101 - success! Give a round of applause for the very talented ladies! Oh, and Abby and Ellie we totally missed you!