Food Adventures: Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Hello, friends!

Guess what, guys! I made a cheesecake! :D

Mr. Kyle requested a cheesecake for his sweet this weekend. His one detail in the request was that it have pumpkin in it. So I went to the interwebs for a pumpkin cheesecake recipe. I found this one by Paula Deen (so you know it's good), but I decided that I didn't want to follow the recipe all that closely. I wanted to live dangerously. ;) And I wanted to get some chocolate in there, because pumpkin and chocolate are a beautiful couple.

I practically didn't follow this recipe at all... except for the the crust, which was a great crust recipe.

So here's my cheesecake recipe!

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

For Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

For Filling:

• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3 (8-ounce) packages of cream cheese or Neufchâtel cheese (1/3 less fat), room temperature
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream (or light sour cream)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (15-ounce) can of pureed pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice\

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Follow the "For crust" instructions from this recipe. 
3. Get two double boilers (or two small pans of water with glass bowls that fit over them to work as double boilers) ready to melt chocolate. 
4. Place 1 cup of milk chocolate chips in one double boiler to melt and place 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips to melt in the other double boiler. 
5. Melt the chocolate and let cool slightly, so it is not hot, but not to the point where it begins to harden. 
6. While the chocolate melts, beat cream cheese until smooth. 
7. Add eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar, flour, and vanilla. 
8. Beat until well combined. 
9. Scoop two cups of cream cheese mixture out of the "mother" mixture and divide into two small bowls, one cup of cream cheese mixture into each bowl. 
10. Mix the melted and cooled milk chocolate chips into the cream cheese mixture in one of the two small bowls that contains one cup of cream cheese mixture, until well mixed. 
11. Repeat with the semi-sweet chocolate and remaining small bowl of cream cheese mixture. 
12. Beat 2/3 of the can of pumpkin puree and the pumpkin pie spice into the remaining cream cheese mixture (the mother mixture).
13. Pour half of the pumpkin cream cheese mixture into the prepared crust and spread evenly. 
14. Dollop the milk chocolate cream cheese mixture into the pumpkin mixture in the crust, making spots in the pumpkin mix like you would see on dice. Use a knife to swirl the chocolate mix around. 
15. Pour the remaining half of the pumpkin cream cheese mixture into the crust, spread evenly. 
16. Dollop the semi-sweet chocolate mixture into the pumpkin mixture just as was done with the milk chocolate mixture. Use a knife to swirl the chocolate mix around. 
17. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour. 
18. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes. 
19. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. 

There you have it!!

I made mine with the lighter version of the ingredients, just to save some calories and fat. It was delicious! The pumpkin and chocolate are SO GOOD. I hope you enjoy it! I know we did!

Until next time, friends!
Stay excellent!

- Jenny -

Food Adventures with Alivia!

Hello, friends!

As you know by now, I oft am running around working and visiting my man and that means I don't get much time to hang with my friends. It's a little sad, really, but my friends are great; the bestest of the best and I always seem to work it out. :)

Alivia is one of the bestest of the best, for sure!

She came by one evening this past week to hang out, eat some pizza, make some cake batter truffles, and drink some Silly Cow Farms Hot Chocolate! It was a fantastic time, fun and funny and just a nice break from everything else in life. :)

I love Alivia. She's pretty much the greatest! Heehee!

I sprinkled the sprinkles while Alivia coated the truffles in almond bark. Teamwork, that's what that is.

This is her "spider face."

After we made the truffles, we found our favorite mugs (per the instructions ;) ) and made us some Silly Cow Farms Chocolate Truffle hot chocolate. Yummmmmmmmmmm. I was so excited to see this when Alivia brought it over. I had actually seen this hot chocolate on a blog somewhere down the line and thought it was the cutest and coolest thing. Now I'm excited to know it can be found here! Awesomeness all around!

The truffles were pretty good too! They were a lot like cookie dough without the eggs. The end result truffle is really good with its coating. I think all around it was a great success. :) Tasty tasty! Here, you will see an interesting phenomenon that we noticed. As the inside of the truffles warmed up from being chilled in the freezer, it expanded and poked through the weakest part of the coating. Silly!

(Alivia, I did that thinking about it much too hard thing and asked Kyle what caused it to happen and he was like "duh" and told me. And I was like, "....duh." Haha!)

I hope that wherever you are and however busy you are, you get chances to hang out with friends. :) I cherish every moment I get. And Anna, Alivia and I look forward to the next time we can all hang out SO much. We need to do a bean dip and movie sleepover for sure. 

Friends of 2FT, this slumber event is somewhat of an old tradition. Do you have awesome traditions with friends? What do you do?! We'd love to hear from you, so drop a line! 

Until next time, stay excellent! 

- Jenny - 

Food Adventures: Valentine's Day Crepes!

Hello, friends!

So Valentine's day has come and gone. For some, I'm sure that you're relieved to see it go. I have once been one of those anti-Valentine's day people. I disapproved of the idea of having media and retailers demand and pressure us into purchasing items to display our affections. Of course, I was also without a Valentine on those days - but that was beside the point! or at least that's what I told myself then.

To be truly honest, with or without a Valentine, I love Valentine's day.

Here's what I posted to my Facebook as my status on Valentine's day:

"On this day, whether walking to your own beat or joining a special someone's melody, remember that today is a day to remember to love and to live in love. Don't let the day make you bitter and remember that love is far more than romance, the famed center of retail and media on this holiday. To live in love and to know love is to care for others, be they friends, family, lovers, or simply fellow humans. I think of it as an awareness day, making me aware of what not to take for granted in this life. Just my two cents."

That is really how I feel, too.

Just ask Anna, I love love and I love to love love. It's always been more than romance to me. I have so much love in my life. There are a couple friendships that come to mind that really take my breath away; I honestly can't even believe that some of my memories actually happened. They seem like they were taken straight from a movie or a book... Maybe one day I'll write a book, using those moments. Yes, *scribbles in life to-do list*

But, really, I love love. I love to volunteer in my community. I haven't in a long while and I'm looking to become more active again within the coming months; just have to find a project/organization to join or rejoin. :) The more I can do to make anyone feel more loved, the better everything is. That's my view at least.

With all of that, I also love romantic love, of course. I have a great man and I did have the opportunity to remind him of how much he means to me. An opportunity that I get every day and try to take advantage of every day.

So, because I only kind of give into the retail side of the holiday, I got him  a small box of chocolates and gathered him a movie date night pack, for us to enjoy. :) Then I made him a card and set out to make dinner and breakfast! Since Valentine's day landed on a Thursday, we postponed the foods until the following days. Below are some photos of his card. I'm pretty proud of it! I made a shnazzy popup card!

I visit him almost every weekend. I tallied up how many times I visited and calculated how many miles that's been. Impressive, eh? ;)

I cooked up some mixed veggies and New York strip steaks for the dinner; that was all fairly commonplace as it is kind of my go to date night dinner. O.o

My real adventure was my first stab at crepes! It was a real success! They were delicious, beautiful, and so fun! I was SO excited to have succeeded at this; I love crepes!

I followed this recipe for chocolate crepes with strawberries and cream cheese. I followed the batter and cream recipes to a "t." I made the batter in my blender the night before and allowed it to chill and settle overnight.

This recipe doesn't tell you much about how to cook the crepes, but don't worry I'll let ya in on my secrets. ;)

I don't have a crepe pan. I don't expect that many people do. Instead I used a ~10 inch nonstick saute pan.

I set my pan on the stove to heat at medium heat. As the pan heated, I brushed the cooking surface with some canola oil, using a basting brush. When I was confident the pan was fully heated, I scooped out 4 tablespoons of batter onto the pan and tilted the pan in a circular motion to cover the pan with a thin layer of batter.

It only takes about 10-20 seconds for the crepe to cook on that side. You want to go to flip the crepe when the edges start to curl a bit. Slide your spatula under the crepe... Then with a flick of the wrist - Flip! Then about 10 more seconds on that side and your crepe is finished! Out of the pan and on to a plate for cream and strawberries, followed by any method of folding or rolling for final presentation and eating!

Glorious!

They were so good. I know you're jealous - don't be! They're easy to make! Just have a little confidence & fun and crepes are a cinch!

Whether you were enjoying Valentine's day with your special someone or kicking it, enjoying the soundtrack of your own heart - I hope you had a great Valentine's day.

I send you love, all of you.

Until next time, friends - Stay excellent!

- Jenny -

Food Adventures: Boston Clam Chowder

Hello, friends!

I got a chance to have a nice foodie hoorah in the kitchen this Friday night. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy cooking and it's a great way for me to unwind. I was craving some clam chowder, specifically a recipe that Kyle and I had made for his parents over his Christmas break. We have made it a couple of times with slightly different brands of ingredients, so I knew exactly what I wanted for this go around.

We discovered this recipe for Emeril's Boston Clam Chowder, which is from his book Emeril's TV Dinners. It's easy to follow and tremendously delicious.

Because of the pace of the cooking of this chowder, I strongly recommend prepping everything before you get cooking. Chop up all the veggies and herbs and chop up the bacon. It's just easier to have it all ready to be added to the pot before you turn on the heat. ;)

As for the clams, we're not real close to the ocean in our neck of the woods, though we do have little neck clams available in our grocery store. However, I was a bit lazy for the prep that is involved for the clams. So instead of buying them whole, in-shell and cleaning and shucking them, I bought canned. I know, I know - not ideal, but! The clams we have found actually give a great end result chowder, despite the fact that we use canned clams. We used Snow's by Bumble Bee Chopped Clams in Clam Juice, the first time we attempted this recipe and it was delicious! We used a different brand the second time (I can't recall the brand); they were whole baby clams in water --- Not good. It resulted in a fishy and oft grainy chowder. No good at all.

So this time around, I went back to Snow's. It's also nice because Snow's also sells clam juice - though you nearly have enough of it after draining the chopped clams from their clam juice.

And I always serve my clam chowder with a delicious sour dough bread. I might even serve it in sour dough bread bowls, if I can find some.

Not only did I make the Boston clam chowder, I made a mocha chip cheesecake and some coconut walnut chip cookie bars for dessert!

The mocha chip cheesecake was super tasty but it wasn't really photogenic so you'll have to use your imagination. ;)

I love cooking and I don't get much of a chance during the work week so I revel in the times I get to on the weekend. Hope that you each have something (or many things, like me) that helps you unwind and enjoy your free time. Everyone deserves a hobby/passion outside of work to make life a little more exciting, and maybe even tasty. ;)

Stay excellent!
- Jenny -

Twenty Thirteen (Plus+: Food Adventures: Cinnamon Swirl Bread)

Hello friends,

It has been a busy beginning of the year! Mostly, I have been fighting this ridiculous flu/cold thing. I got sick the day after Christmas, saw the peak of my symptoms that Friday, but have maintained this damned cough and sinus congestion since then. That's right, I still have a cough and sinus congestion.. *grr face*

Oh well! I am feeling better overall and I think the cough is finally beginning to ebb. *fingers crossed*

I thought I'd post real quick about my plans for 2013. Posting it here will probably give me more motivation to keep up on my plans - even if the readers of this blog are few and sporadic. :) This year, I have made a few resolutions. I do most every year and last year I kept the one that I made - to begin journaling again. My calendar journal was a yearlong endeavor to personalize and create. Granted some of the cards have yet to be stamped with their dates, I was able to write a little bit about each day of 2012. I am back to doing something I used to love to do - keep a daily journal. I have to say that with a calendar journal it really does get better with the years - I can already tell that I am really going to love looking at the previous entries every day when I go to write a new one. :)

So for this year, I am being a little ambitious and I set a few resolutions - not just the one. This year, I have the following resolutions (bear with me, one of them is pretty cliche):

• Let go. 

I have held a.... I don't know if the word "grudge" fits it quite right, but for lack of a better word , we'll go with it... grudge. During the majority of 2012, I experienced a lot of injustice on the friendship front. It was unjust, unfair, and, frankly, immature what some people have decided was appropriate to do and say. I have held on to the anger that I felt at the time these events occurred for much too long. I held on to it and let it fester long enough. So I told myself in December, that I could indulge in this nonsense only until the end of the year. In 2013, I will let it go. I am currently sketching a song lyric to commemorate the letting go of this anger and frustration. Once it is complete, I will not hold on to the anger any longer. Those people don't care, so I shouldn't either. 

• Learn more about personal finance. 

I have really good money habits - I don't spend much and I save everything. I'm frugal, always looking for the better buy. And I never make impulse buys. If I'm buying something, I've thoroughly thought through buying it. The more expensive the item, the more thinking occurs. I also don't go out drinking (SUPER expensive & completely frivolous in my eyes...) and buy inexpensively when I go out to eat. So I have a great foundation for ensuring that I have money when I need it most and ensuring that I make my money work for me. I am already saving a good portion of my paycheck into my 401K, I've got a $10,000 "emergency" fund saved up (in case I lose my job and need to live off of what I have, in case I get seriously injured, etc.), and I've got another fund building for my big buy (probably a down payment on a house). BUT I need to learn more about how to have my money grow - investment and other sources of income, etc. Thus, this resolution. I have already borrowed a book on personal finance from the library and begun to read it. Onward and upward!

• Be more active. 

So here's the cliche. Everyone and their dog makes this resolution and many of them have not kept it, even already. I am a healthy person. I eat healthfully and do my best to keep my health in check. But I recognize that I am not as active as I should be. I have used the excuse that I am at work for 9.5 hours a day and drive to and from work for 2 hours a day to avoid trying to find a fitness routine that suits me. There's always time for health, so I'm making the time. I have purchased a jump rope and have found a routine that I can do most days of the week, even those days that I work. When Kyle and I are reunited later this year, once everything from the transitions settles down, we're going to go to a gym class. Maybe spinning, maybe kickboxing - those are the two that I want to do. :D I enjoy being active, as long as it's not just running. 

So there you go, those are my resolutions. I have other things that I want to improve as well - I always do. But I think it's better that the most urgent things be my resolutions and the other less urgent things be amorphous goals that I keep in mind as I tackle everyday life. I will make them resolutions at a later date if that's what it takes to get me to keep up on them.

On to the yummies!!
The first weekend that Kyle and I were back at his apartment from his winter break - I decided that I wanted to make bread, because who doesn't love homemade bread, fresh from the oven?? I'll admit that on some matters - I'm not too big a fan of bread. Like sandwiches - too much bread on a sandwich is a bad thing. Same thing with pizza - too thick of crust can ruin a pizza for me. But bread for the sake of bread - that's a different story. I looooooovvveeee bread for the sake of bread! So here's the bread that I decided to make for the sake of that delicious baked good, bread.

Cinnamon swirl bread!

I followed a recipe I found here via bakedbyrachel.com.
It was easy, albeit a little slow given the two rises it goes through, but I think it's not a problem at all on a day that you're going to be around the house most of the day. Little effort goes into making it and it's delicious! I loved this bread and Kyle ate what was left after I left for the week in about a day. :) This one is definitely staying in my personal recipe book.

I hope you're enjoying your twenty thirteen so far and that your resolutions are holding up! Don't give up! Even if you falter, just keep on a-plugging!

Stay excellent!
- Jenny -

Food Adventures: A Feast Fit for a Father

Happy Fathers' Day to all of those dads, stepdads, granddads, and male role models!
You are all pivotal in so many lives and you deserve a day to bask in the glory of the love you have helped bring into this world!

For my dad on Fathers' Day, my sister and I have collaborated to create a dinner! We also got him seasons 1 and 2 of Bones and my sis made him a card for us. Aren't we just the greatest?? ;)

As for the food,
I tried to incorporate my dad's favorite foods, so I landed on:

• 13 Bean Soup
• Homemade Dinner Rolls
• Home-baked Cookies 

So I went in search of recipes. I found this great recipe for bean soup with a search of "bean soup" on foodgawker.com (I love foodgawker.com). And to accompany this hearty, savory soup, I found a recipe for these rosemary garlic butter rolls. I let my sister decide what kind of cookies we should make and she decided that we should make peanut butter (those are my dad's favorite) with chocolate kisses on top. 

This was quite the food adventure. My sister and I worked from about 12:15 in the afternoon until 4:00pm, making these dishes (soup simmered for just under two hours after that). Everything went relatively well! I mean, the soup is still simmering (so we'll see how that turns out in the end.... Cross your fingers!). The rolls look delicious and smell crazy good and the cookies are wonderful (I already ate a couple). 

We did have a few missteps along the way, but what adventure doesn't have a few unexpected turns??

• I forgot to soak the beans overnight, seeing as they are dried beans. But, before I freaked out and scratched the entire idea, I looked up alternative methods for soaking beans (google search: "alternative bean soak"). Found out that you can bring the beans and water (2.25 cups of water per cup or 8 oz. of beans) to a boil and then remove from heat, cover, and let sit for one hour. This method seems to be working for me! I just tasted a bean in the soup and it is softening right on schedule! Hooray for the internets!
• While baking the cookies, my sister removed a sheet of cookies and placed them on the stove. While she was pressing kisses into them she smelled burning cookie. Sure enough, the cookies on one half of the sheet were indeed burning! We were really confused, until we realized that the burner under that side of the sheet was still hot from bringing the beans to a boil! Whoops! We only lost three cookies, though - so it wasn't such a big deal. :P 
• UPDATE: In fear of having my beans not fully cooked - I ended up cooking them a bit too long. :P Oh well, the soup was still delicious! It was just past its perfect consistency. 

So here are some pics of the feast fit for a father! If you're interested in these recipes - be sure to check out the original sources! I didn't change them by much and they are delish; definitely keepers in my book. ;) My dad was particularly impressed with the rolls (as was I!! Yummmmm <3).

Happy fathers' day! 

Stay excellent! 

- Jenny -

Rosemary Garlic Butter Rolls

Peanut Butter Chocolate Kisses Cookies

Thirteen Bean Soup

Don't worry, I removed the ham hock before serving. ;)

Food Adventures: My Perfect Meatloaf & More

Hello all!
I am back with a couple more simple, yet delicious recipes. I have done some pretty extravagant and involved recipes in the past and they have all turned out well - but man, did they take some effort! Maybe someday I will get around to sharing some of those more intensive recipes but for now let's stick to the quick, simple, and beloved recipes. :)

One of my favorite comfort food dinners is meatloaf and potatoes. Meatloaf is one of those dishes that can be made in so many ways and everyone has their favorite (and if you ask anyone who makes the best, their answer will be "My mom!"). This recipe is pretty good in my book and it's easy too! I made this last night with some baked potatoes and I was a happy camper!

The ingredients are things that you most likely already have in your pantry and fridge, making this an easy go-to dinner if you don't have one planned ahead.

So here's my recipe, I hope you enjoy it! And if you have any suggestions or favorite meatloaf recipes to share, feel free to drop a line. 

Last night, I also made dessert and it turned out deliciously! I can tell it was good because it's almost gone now and it hasn't even been 24 hours. Haha.

 

This is the "Too Much Chocolate" Cake. The recipe can be found here. It's not from scratch, it's just a doctored cake mix recipe, but that's what makes it easy!

When I made this recipe, I lightened it up a bit to make it a little less deadly. I replaced the one cup of oil with one cup of unsweetened applesauce and used light sour cream instead of regular. It turned out brilliantly and you wouldn't even know the difference! Needless to say, I had a delightedly yummy evening last night and had fun making some good food. 

Hope you have a great week! Talk to ya next weekend. 

- Jenny - 

Food Adventures: Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Hi, all! I am posting tonight instead of tomorrow because I will be leaving early in the morning for the second annual AIChE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) at WSU (Washington State University) Ski Trip! :) We're going to Lookout Pass in Idaho for two days of fun on the slopes. Anyway!  That means that I am unable to post tomorrow. So here is my post now!

Over the years of "living on my own," I have developed a real love of food. I have fallen in love with cooking and baking and many say that I'm pretty good at it. I think they're all silly - Cooking is easy! Especially with a slow cooker. Take this week for example: it was my first week back to classes after the winter break and my classes went straight to work - no easing us back into the swing of things. Haha. I guess that's what happens when you're a senior Chemical Engineering major... But! I still found time to make dinner, even on what ended up being my busiest day of the week - this Thursday. It was my first day back in my 3-hour lab and I had to run errands on my break. But I fell back on a great recipe that is not only easy but delicious and pretty healthy.

I found the recipe that I adapted a bit to get the recipe shown below, while I was browsing foodgawker.com. I hope you enjoy it! (Picture of the chili shown on the recipe is also from amybites.com)

 Have a great weekend! 

- Jenny -