Homemade Nutella and Reese's cheesecake

Yesterday I got a call to make dessert for a family dinner today. I guess I felt creative! I wanted to make a cheesecake. I have NEVER made a cheesecake and it looks tuff. I mean, you have to use a special form with a little release clasp. That makes it tuff to make right!?! It was so easy to do. I took a basic cheesecake recipe and folded in reese's cups and then decided to get real fancy and melt reese's chips with heavy cream and spread it on top! Looks delicious. Hopefully it doesn't poison my family. Haha!

 

Cheesecake recipe:

Master Recipe for Rich and Creamy Cheesecake (from allrecipe.com)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• 3 tablespoons crumbs from Famous Chocolate Wafers, graham crackers or ginger snaps, OR
• 1 (3 ounce) package soft ladyfingers (24 total) left whole, but trimmed to fit pan (optional)
• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• Heavy-duty foil for pan

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Brush interior of a 9-inch springform pan with butter. Add crumbs of choice and tilt pan in all directions to evenly coat, or line pan sides with ladyfingers. Tear off two long strips of heavy-duty foil, overlap in a cross pattern, and set the pan in the middle. Bring up sides, crimping around exterior top of the pan and forming a tight seal. Set it in a roasting pan large enough to hold it.
2. Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat on medium speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl sides and beat again until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl after each addition to ensure a creamy batter. Slowly beat in vanilla, then cream and sour cream. (Meanwhile, bring tea kettle of water to a boil, then turn off heat.)    In this step I added 9 Reese's peanut butter cups. Cut them up in 8 pieces and fold in.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Set the roasting pan on oven rack and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake until cake perimeter is set but center still jiggles, about 40 minutes (some flavor variations will take longer). Turn off heat and leave oven door ajar; let cheesecake sit in oven so the residual heat continues to cook it, about 30 minutes.
4. Remove pan from water; set on a wire rack. Let cool to room temperature. During cooling I made the glaze for the top. I melted 10 oz. of Reese's chips (in the chocolate chip area) in double broiler and mixed 1/2 cup heavy cream. While cheesecake was still cooling on cooling rack I spread over the top. Cover and refrigerate until well-chilled, about 3 hours (can be refrigerated up to 4 days). Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan, loosen the spring siding and serve.

I am excited to eat it tonight! Yummy.

I didn't stop there with my creative cooking though. I decided to make homemade Nutella! Yum. I love Nutella. (It is healthy right!?!) Ok that is a joke. Have you heard of the recent Nutella lawsuit. Someone is sueing Nutella for false advertising that Nutella is healthy. HAHA! Read labels people. Anyways, I made it. I couldn't believe that it was so simple and tastes just as good!

Roast 7 oz. hazelnuts for about 10 min on medium. Then cool completely

Stick hazelnuts in food prodecessor until smooth like peanut butter. Takes a while. (I was making the cheesecake at the same time!

 Over double broiler, melt 9 oz. dark chocolate

mix in 1 can sweetened condensed milk

 .

Then mix in the hazelnuts.

 It will be thick. So add milk until it is the consistency you want. I mixed about 1/4 cup of milk.

 Stick in jars/containers and enjoy. Unlike Nutella, you do have to refridgerate after making.

 Yummy!

Spaghetti squash and other stuff

Now that I have 1/2 my wedding finally posted, before I start on the other 1/2 (just like the first half, it will probably take me month to get that post done) I decided to write about some random things first.
Spaghetti squash! Heidi had told me how awesome spaghetti squash is and I have seen it on others blogs frequently. I always thought "I hate the taste of squash. And all squash is the same... nasty". Well, at the store last week I decided to pick one up. Not even sure why. I guess curiosity got the best of me. Rillz made it last night and we made spaghetti sauce and meatballs to put on top. LET ME TELL YOU!!! I basically ended up just eating the spaghetti squash by itself. So good! Has a nice nutty flavor and what a good substitute for noodles. Definitely a keeper. Rillz said he used spaghetti squash for all sorts of things in school. He even sprinkled sugar on it and then deep fried it. REALLY?!? That is on my to-do list now. Deep frying is the best way to make something completely healthy into something deliciously unhealthy. Anyways I highly recommend Spaghetti squash!


I am a little embarrassed to say this but... Rillz and I are actually pretty dang excited for the new Twilight movie to come out. We didn't read the books but have watched the other movies and come on, you have to complete what you started right?!? So watching that movie will be a must for us.


Can you believe November is half way over? The Delilah radio station has already started playing Christmas music 24/7. I have tried to listen to it but it doesn't feel quite right yet. What happened to the tradition of starting the 24/7 Christmas music on Thanksgiving? I think that date is way more appropriate. So, therefore, I will be holding off on the all the time Christmas station. Which is big for me because I LOVE Christmas music!!! Which, Thanksgiving is only a week away. Crazy! That's all for now.

Date Lunch

This week Rillz and I were out and about doing errands and I told him I wanted to take him to lunch. Somewhere we had never tried yet. The Creperie. We entered the place and found ourselves excited about the menu. The menu had pictures for all their crepes. Great for a visual person like me. I had coupons for buy a savory crepe and get a sweet one for free. Great! I ordered the Faux vegan and Rillz got the Soleil sunrise. We definitely were not disappointed. One is plenty big to fill you up. The sweet dessert ones were just as great! We had a difficult time picking which ones we were going to get. After both of us changing our minds a couple times I settled for the Thai banana coconut nutella. Oh my! They used coconut milk, not just shredded coconut. And Rillz got a peanut butter, banana ice cream one in a cone! What an awesome and delicious concept! We talked to the owner for a bit who was VERY nice! The Creperie was a really enjoyable experience and I love supporting great local business' so I will definitely be back!

Unfortunetely I was so excited to start eating my savory crepe that I forgot to take pictures of them. :)


But here are the sweet crepes.

Stop drooling and go to the Creperie if you live in or near Boise, Idaho!

Yellow tomato soup?!?

This week the little boy I nanny has been out of school so I have been working 12 hour days. Yesterday I wanted tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. I was looking in the pantry everywhere for tomato soup. I came upon a can that was yellow tomato soup. WHAT?!? Does that even exist. I was really excited about it after discovering the can so of course I had to make it. It tasted just the same, the yellow color kinda threw me off a bit but I was just surprised that Campbells made yellow tomato soup. Pretty neat.

Happy Anniversary Tracy's

To thank Ren for all his help with our house Rillz wanted to do a really special anniversary dinner for Ren and Heidi. Rillz and I were both pretty excited to do this dinner for them too. Rillz loves being able to be creative on his food. He got all his special gourmet books out for asian themed dish ideas. Through-out the week I picked things up to decorate with. Rillz and I were both happy and pleased with the way it turned out. We definitely didn't put the blood, sweat, and tears into it like Ren did for our kitchen. Ren wasn't even expecting anything in return when he volunteered to help with our kitchen. What great brother-in-laws I have! That said here is Heidi and Ren's thoughts about the whole experience:




Ren helped out Mindy and Rillz a lot the last few months with remodeling their kitchen and some plumbing issues and Rillz wanted to make a special anniversary dinner for us as a thank you. We weren't about to pass up a chance to be fed by the best chef out there!
When Ren first mentioned it I thought we were just going over to their house to have dinner with them. Then Mindy calls and says they are coming to our house, that we need to be out of the house for about 3 hrs and asks if there is anything in my living room that is off limits to move around. Turns out they had bigger plans for our evening!
They came over at 3PM and told us not to return until 6:30PM. It was nice to just go out and get some errands done and be anticipating the deliciousness that awaited us. We returned to a fancy table set for two in our living room, candle light and nice music playing. The whole night was Asian themed.
Pictures don't do it justice. All of the lanterns had lights in them and then they had set up a screen in between the living room and kitchen area so that we couldn't see the chef at work. I seriously felt like I was in a fancy restaurant in my own house, it was great.

Then came the food, oh my was it over the top. We had 5 courses.

Appetizer Sampler: Chicken saute with Thai peanut sauce, Shrimp saute with citrus chili and King crab salad on shrimp boat chip

Palate Cleanser:Ginger infused mango sherbet

Salad: Crisp mixed greens with Asian vinaigrette topped with a bacon wrapped scallop and papaya glazed cucumbers

Entree: Miso sockeye salmon with furikake and lemon rice with garlic hoisin sauce accompanied with kimchee green beans

Dessert: Apple banana lumpia with vanilla ice cream topped with toasted macadamia caramel sauce

Beverage: Fuji apple cranberry cider

Once again, pictures do not do it justice. Each place was like it's own little work of art and it tasted so D.I.V.I.N.E!!! There wasn't one part that we didn't like or even kind of didn't like. It totally ruined our ability to go out to eat and actually pay to eat any other food :) All we talk about now is how delicious that dinner was. It was truly the fanciest thing I have ever eaten in my life...and it was in my own house, so cool.

I know a ton of work and prepping went into our special night. Thanks Mindy and Rillz!

Rillz and I are happy to know they really enjoyed it. Our goal was to make them feel special and have an experience that typically doesn't happen. Since doing this dinner, we have had more than one offer to come help us with the next house project... lucky for them, my house is older and will always need a little TLC here and there.

P.S. Watch out Jeff and Kristi, your next!

Eating out

Since our kitchen is torn apart we really can't prepare meals besides cereal, sandwiches, and cup a noodles, we have eaten out A LOT! To much of a good thing is no longer a good thing. Last night had to be the worst. Rillz wanted Hawaiian food. We were getting bored of burger, fries, and shake type things. We went to CK BBQ in Boise. IT WAS TERRIBLE. The costumer service was NOT there. The guy was rude and made us feel like we were inconveniencing him. And the food was just gross. I got the Loco Moco and the hamburger patty was way over done and the egg wasn't even over easy. The macaroni salad was unedible. The only good thing was the rice. I will NEVER give them service again. Not just because the food was terrible but because the service and that guy was SO RUDE.

Even the box was nicer then the guy. It told us to have a nice day!
CK BBQ food. It actually looks better than it was.

On a good note, Rillz and I were really wanting a home cooked meal. We decided to BBQ! Rillz grilled bbq chicken and squash from the garden. We had a nice spinach salad (thanks Kristi) and watermelon (thanks mom). It was a much needed dinner. The dogs enjoyed us outside and got to eat some watermelon... and maybe a marshmellow accidentally fell on the ground :)

Home cooked dinner!!

Yummy! I love colorful food.

Then, we made smores on the rest of the hot flames.

Puppy treats. Malu is a picky eater.

Simon eats anything and everything!

Sprinkled drumsticks

Rillz and I were at Walmart and went down the ice cream aisle. Probably supposed to just be window shopping at goodies. Well, one thing caught our eyes... Sprinkled drumsticks! What! When did this amazing invention happen. We love drumsticks! So we got them. One of the flavors is even a new vanilla with cherry in the middle.

We get home and immediately rip open the box. Both of us go for the vanilla cherry. (We love trying any new foods, it's both our weakness). Anyways, we ate it and then discussed. Our mutual decision was that they weren't very amazing. The cherry in the middle was just sticky sugar that wasn't memorable. I didn't mind the sprinkles (mostly because I just like chewing the sprinkles individually between my front teeth), Rillz does not care for the sprinkles. Needless to say we will stick with other flavors of drumsticks. The Sprinkled ones were simply appealing because they were new. No need for us to purchase them again.

Milkshakes, bird seed, and well... still the unfinished bed

On Tuesday I had a 2 hour brake from work. I was able to do some school work and other things I needed done. I decided to stop at a little local hamburger joint down the street called Burger Time. I wanted something to eat but not sure what. I got a corn dog, cheese curds (that looked like deer poop but tasted fantasticely fattening) and a wonderful jolly rancher watermelon milkshake. I ordered it kinda skeptically. The lady at the window said if I didn't like it she would make me a different one free of charge. Isn't that super nice! That is fast food service you would NEVER get at McDonalds or Burger King. I love local places! But it turned out being SO yummy!
I have had it in my possession for about 5 minutes and already done some deep damage to the milkshake. You can't go wrong with anything pink either!

I have a bird feeder that I got at a yard sale last year in the fall. I hung it up on a hook right outside my kitchen window. I LOVE looking at it. I wasn't able to fill it with bird seed for a while though because it was winter. Well, I filled it about a month ago and the birds love it... therefore, I except the HUGE mess they make and leave behind. Remember that pretty window box I have, well the flowers and dirt are filled with bird seed. Oh well, the birds are worth it so the bird feeder stays.

Crappy picture of my bird feeder. The bright blue Napa auto part store wall and blue dumpster kinda take the pretty and nature out of the beauty of the birds and feeder. Oh well, I try.

See all those little things in the dirt... no it is not flower food or miracle grow. It is the bird seed that the birds scatter everywhere!

Still working on the bed frame. I stained the footboard and the...well almost the whole headboard but then tragic struck. I had gotten free stain from my dad which is great. Saves me money right?!? Well, I ran out. I looked at stores and on the internet for this brand and stain color. The brand DID NOT exist. Are you serious? Turns out the brand had been bought out to a different company. I did end up getting a different brand of the same color name, which is Salem Maple, and the stain colors matched perfectly. Thank goodness! Last night I stained the rest of the headboard. Then Rillz polyerothained the pieces. I would be done with the stinkin bed frame if it wasn't for chasing down the stain. Oh well. I must say it is looking pretty good!

First of all, staining inside the house is NOT a good idea. Can I say passing out from the fumes! Oh well, beats being freezing and in the dark outside. Anyways, this is the headboard before being coated with the clear gloss. Just looks shiny from the camera flash. This is the stain color though. I can definitely say I am no good at staining! It is kinda hard and can't believe my first staining project was such a big piece of furniture.

This is the footboard after it's first coat of clear gloss.

Hopefully the bed frame is complete tomorrow and I can have my living room and kitchen back. Not mention I can continue on my bedroom makeover and finally get to those terribly out of place red curtains.

Happy Thursday everyone!

Fruity Pebbles

So after a 12 hour work day I came home to a nice quiet home. Rillz is out with the guys, because his friend from Hawaii is here, yeh know. I decided to make myself a gourmet meal. Decided on Fruity Pebbles. What flavor did I choose you ask? Well the new Cupcake Fruity Pebbles of course. I know you are now thinking... Wow Fruity Pebbles has a cupcake flavor now? Why yes they do.


Now I know you are asking...Well, I wonder if they are good. Let me tell you what my taste buds say, NO. They smell really good like frosting, but the taste is bland. Just taste like frosted pebbles (You know like frosted flakes or something except in pebble form). They get soggy fast and doesn't even make your milk taste delish at the end. Oh well. And should you really eat something for breakfast that has the word cupcake in it... probably not.

Something odd I AM obsessed with eating right now, though, is Capers! I love them. I even eat them plain sometimes. So good! Like fireworks for the mouth. Did you know Capers are a fruit? People mainly eat them in pickled form.