Cheesecake Cookie Cups

Cheesecake Cookie Cups are an easy make ahead recipe for any occasion.  You can also use any flavor topping and/or cookie crust.

Ingredients:
1 pkg (16.5 oz.) Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar Dough
2 pkgs (8 oz. each) cream cheese, room tempature
1 can (14 oz.) Nestle Carnation Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 325.
Paper-line 24 muffin cups.
Place one piece of cookie dough in each muffin cup.
Bake 10-12 minutes or until cookie has spread to the edge of the cup.
Beat cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth.
Pour about 3 Tablespoons cream cheese mixture in each cookie cup.
Bake for an additional 15-18 minutes or until set.
Cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
Top each with Tablespoon of pie filling.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Remove paper liners before serving.

Brown and Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

I make this every Thanksgiving and I just realized that I don't make this often enough. It really can go with anything all year round. Enjoy!

Brown and Wild Rice with Caramelized Onions and Cranberries

1 c wild rice
1 c brown rice
4 c veggie stock (or chicken stock)
3 medium onions (sliced in thin wedges)
1 bag dried craisins (about 1 cup)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons brown sugar
Zest of 1 orange

Cook rice in the broth until tender according to rice directions.
Melt butter over medium heat and add onion wedges and brown sugar.
Cook 10 minutes then reduce to low for 30 minutes.
Stir in craisins, cover, and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, until craisins swell.
Gently fold in the caramelized onions and orange zest into the cooked rice.

It's the Holiday Season...

I hope y'all had an amazing Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much and reflected on what all you had to be thankful for. I did a lot of cooking and baking, and enjoyed every minute of it! Even more I enjoyed the great company of my DC "family". I am hoping to post some of my menu items in the next few days week. As we all gear up for the hustle and bustle of Christmas please take time to slow down and realize the true meaning of the holiday, which is he who loved us. And love is so much more than something we receive. Be conscious and remember it's not about the gifts, parties, and decorations. Simply think of those individuals and families that have no one and nothing, there are a lot of people in need. Some of our brothers and sisters, young and old, are in dire need for the simple staples we take for granted like clothing, food, and even toiletries.

Share a smile, it really can brighten a day.

Merry Christmas!

Cranberry Sauce

Simple cranberry sauce that is best when made in advance and refrigerated.

1 bag fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice

Rinse cranberries.
In a medium size pan dissolve sugar in the orange juice and add cranberries.
Bring to a boil and turn heat down to medium low.
Continue to cook on medium low for about 10 minutes, you'll hear the cranberries popping. 
Remove from heat and let cool about 5 minutes before refrigerating. It will get thicker as it cools.
Refrigerate until serving.

Pumpkin Bars

Pumpkin Bars are one of the desserts I make every year for Thanksgiving. They can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Bars
3/4 c unsalted butter
2 c sugar
4 eggs beaten
1 (15oz) can pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 c all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional-1 cup chopped walnuts. I like to just sprinkle on top of the icing on half of them since some folks don't like them.

Icing
Beat...
3 oz cream cheese
1/3 c unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat 350
Butter a 10x15 jellyroll pan
Cream butter & sugar til light & fluffy
Beat in eggs one at a time
Stir in pumpkin
Combine flour, salt, spices, baking soda, & mix into pumpkin mixture
Bake 30-35 minutes or until center is set.

Spread on icing when cooled. Top with nuts if desired on all or half. Cut in squares.

Peach Blueberry Cobbler

I love peaches and blueberries together especially in cobbler. If you're not a fan of peaches or blueberries you can use the fresh or frozen fruit of your choice. You can also double this recipe for larger pans.

Ingredients

Batter:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large or jumbo size egg (2 eggs if medium sized)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Fruit mixture:
2 cans of peaches in light or heavy syrup, drain the juice leaving about 1/2 of one of the cans juice (do not use the no sugar added)
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (thaw, rinse and drain)
1 tablespoons of cornstarch
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375
Butter a 9x9 pan
Cream butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla
Add dry ingredients. Beat until the batter resembles a softer cookie dough.
Combine fruit with vanilla, cornstarch, cinnamon, and sugar.
Place fruit mixture in the 9x9 pan.
Spread dough mixture over the top of the fruit mixture.
Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cook times really depend on your oven, so you need to keep an eye on it. Check at the 15 minute mark and cover with aluminum foil if it is browning too quickly and the inside is not cooking as fast.

Serve warm. Refrigerate leftovers. 

Plantains

YUM! Best word I can think of to describe plantains is yum. Plantains are super easy to fix and super popular in the Caribbean or even South Florida. For those of you that have never tried a plantain let me give you a brief description. They look like a banana, but are larger, and harder to peel. Oh! And you don't eat them raw, you cook them first. They have stages to ripeness, but I won't bore you with all those here since the most flavorful stage in my opinion is when the skins have turned almost black, that means the plantains are fully ripe, and very aromatic and sweet. You can cook plantains many different ways, but I like mine best fried and served hot.

Ripe Plantains (peel and slice like you would a banana about 1 inch thick)
Vegetable oil or butter (enough to coat the bottom of the pan)

Over medium heat, heat the vegetable oil or melt butter and place plantains in a single layer the pan (don't crowd the pan you will do multiple batches)
Cook about 2-3 minutes on each side until they are a caramelized brown color
Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain any grease
Serve hot

How easy can that be. Serve as a side dish.