Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Lemon Bar Cheesecake

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Friday evening we are having some friends over for dinner. When I came across this recipe from Southern Living Feb issue, I knew it would be our dessert for tonight. I love saving the magazines and going back through them. It reminds me of different scriptures that you have read a million times in the Bible, but just when you are needing a certain word from the Lord, you come across the same scripture and it just has a whole new meaning, depending on your circumstances. It is just the Word you are needing to hear. So it is with old recipes, you can read them a hundred times, but sometimes one just sticks out to you as you are going through your recipe stack and there it is…the perfect recipe you have been looking for.

As Southerners,  we love our Bible, a true treasure and God’s love letter to us. Southern Living Magazine is a gift to us also, provides us with treasured recipes, which made with love, we share with our families and friends. This will be a favorite and treasured recipe.

If you use a dark springform pan, it will ensure a golden brown crust without having to bake before adding the filling.

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cubed

2 egg yolks

1 to 2 tables ice-cold water

4 (8 oz) softened cream cheese

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

2 teas vanilla

2 cups Lemon Curd, divided (I use already prepared lemon curd I get at grocery store)

Candied Lemon Slices (opt)

Pulse first 3 ingredients in a food processor 3-4 times or just until blended. Add butter and pulse 5-6 times or until crumbly. Whisk together 2 egg yolks and 1 tables ice-cold water in a small bowl; add to butter mixture and process until dough forms a ball and pulls away from sides of bowl, adding up to 1 tables remaining ice-cold water if necessary. Shape dough into a disk; wrap in plastic and chill at least 4 hours (up to 24 hours).

Roll dough into a 14″ circle on a lightly floured surface. Fit dough into a lightly greased 9″ dark springform pan; trim and discard excess dough. Chill 30 mins.

Preheat oven to 325. Beat cream cheese at medium speed with mixer 3 min or until smooth. Gradually add sugar, beating until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

Pour 2/3 of cheesecake batter (about 4 cups) into prepared crust; dollop 1 cup lemon curd over batter in pan and gently swirl with a knife. Spoon remaining batter into pan.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min or just until center is set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven with door closed for 15 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven and gently run a knife around outer edge to loosen sides of pan. Do not remove sides of the pan. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack about 1 hour. Cover and chill at least 8 hours.

Remove sides of pan and transfer to a serving plate. Spoon remaining 1 cup lemon curd over top of cheesecake. If desired top with candied lemon slices and whipped cream.

Uncategorized

Here A Cheerio, There A Cheerio, Everywhere A Cheerio

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Cheerio Treats

Melt In microwave:

3 tables butter

10 oz miniature marshmallows

1/2 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy

Add:

5 cups plain cheerios

1 cup M&M’s

Mix well and quickly. It cools before you realize and becomes unworkable.

Press into long glass pyrex 9×13 (greased) pan. Cool and cut into squares.

The kids drove out of the driveway this morning and all is quiet on the home front. Except for the crunch every time I step on a Cheerio or petrified blueberry muffin from a few days ago. All that remains are sticky little fingerprints all over the place. Now I do have to admit that they are the cutest little fingerprints that you have every seen, but…because of how sticky they are, they will probably remain for quite some time, as it will take a couple of cleaning jobs to get them all off.

As they were walking out the door with the last of the bags, Caleb, the 3 year old, looked at me and began to tear up. My heart just melted. I picked him up and told him that Nana would come see him before too long or he could come back here whenever they wanted to come. I started to tear up and it was such an emotional moment until…he said that he needed to whisper to his mom. Of course, I knew what he would be whispering, “do I really have to leave Nana, I will miss her so much, please don’t make me go.” But because he was now crying full throttle, she had to ask him about 3 times what he was saying. Tears are still running down my cheek as my heart is breaking that he is hurting, having to leave. All of a sudden, Jodi begins to laugh and tells me that I can quit crying. He was upset because he was having to leave my Ipad. He said that my Ipad had more games on it and he didn’t want to leave the Ipad.

Once again, my bubble is burst. We all began to laugh, as we carried him downstairs to the minivan. (yes the same one that carried Thelma and Louise across the desert a few weeks ago).

The floors are now clean, the fingerprints are almost gone and the house is quiet. Guess I will sit and play one of Caleb’s games on my Ipad for a while. It’s weird. I thought for sure I would be glad when I didn’t have to share it with Caleb.  But I guess it wasn’t so bad having to share it.  I already miss his cute little voice saying, “let’s get this party started.” After being with them for 8 days, I almost don’t know what to do with myself. All the “breakables” are already put back in place and no more dirty diapers from Noah to remind me to take the trash out. Think I will go make the Cheerio treats now.  If there is not enough left in the box, I will gather the ones up that I have found in every nook and cranny.

 

Daily Thoughts

Every Thing You Ever Wanted to Know About Your Mom (but have been afraid to ask)

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

This past week we have spent a couple of days with some of our adult kids in San Diego. There were times that in conversation, different things about myself were said that surprised our kids. When I mentioned that we were in my “homeland” of where I was born, my daughter in law and son in law told me that they never had heard that before and asked why they didn’t know that. I told them I guess they had never ask. It was at that point that I realized that as parents of adult children, all they know about us is what we have wanted them to know or what they have imagined us to be, as parents, never just a “person”.

We were out on Sunday night on the beach with a fire pit and having a s’mores night. It was a beautiful full moon, perfect temperature,  when I realized that as we were all sitting around in these little beach chairs (I commented that I could just stay here forever when Randy whispered that we might have to, he didn’t know if he could ever get up out of that “cute little beach chair”) that we were on the same level. Not really children and parents, but just people who were enjoying each others company, sharing stories and laughing as old friends. It was truly a Hallmark moment. Each day just got better and better as we listened to each other and shared experiences from our past that told much of what and who we were, as “people”. Suddenly, we found that we actually enjoyed being around each other, even though we were family, all different ages, different seasons of life and different likes and dislikes. But it worked. We ended our time together determined to get together more often. Jason and Tracy, thank you for initiating this time and inviting all of us to share your vacation.  Jodi and Eric, even though I know it takes great effort to pack and haul little ones around and work around their nap schedules, we are so glad you made the effort.  It was pure joy for us to be together and to experience you as really nice and gracious people, not just being our  “kids”.

Over a year ago when my dad died and different people got up to give stories about what he had done for them or tell about his likes and dislikes, I realized that he was a different person that I truly didn’t know. It made me sad that I never really knew my dad, other than just the man who took care of us. He was always so quiet and never talked much, so there was a lot I didn’t ever know. So, on a lighter note, thinking that our kids might not know certain things about me that might surprise them, I thought I would just write out different things about myself.

1. Yes, I was really born in a naval hospital in San Diego, Ca and lived there until I was two and my mom moved to Corpus Christi, TX.

2. Lived in a housing project until I was 5 with mother and daddy.

3. Learned to drive sitting on my dads lap when I was 10.

4. Said a really bad word (without knowing what it meant) when I was in 4th grade and was sent to the principles office. Only time in my life I was sent to the Principle.

5. Always wanted to be a flight attendant or movie star, but wouldn’t have traded being a mom for anything in the world.

6. Love to sit and read or play Candy Crush for hours, but guilt sets in and doesn’t allow me to do that for over an hour.

7. Still dream about having that special day when we would be able to get all 5 of our kids together with their families for a trip and have those pictures taken of the whole family with everyone wearing kaki pants and white shirts, standing at the edge of the water on the beach.

8. One of the most things I am proud of in my life (besides our kids and grandkids) is that I have almost competed a book to be published.

9. My bucket list includes:

1. Taking a cooking class in Italy

2. Going on a river boat cruise through Europe

3. Seeing all our grandkids loving Christ and serving Him.

4. One day having one of our grandchildren blow me a kiss or wink at me while they are playing an athletic event or the stage before they perform their skill.

5. Learning Zumba

6. Leading someone to Christ

7. Having our kids all present for a Christmas Eve service

8. Take acting lessons

9. Be in a commercial

10. That all our kids and kids-in-laws would know how much we truly love them and want the best for them.

My favorite color is shades of yellow, green and blue.

My favorite shows are The Middle and AGT

All time favorite movie is Pretty Woman

I love to name my cars, to give them a little personality

My favorite candy is Ethyl M and Dove

I don’t like to have my nails done, but like how it makes them look.

Would rather go out to eat than eat at home, but since I write a cooking blog, I make myself cook things other than desserts of which I love to make.

Love writing more than shopping

Going adventuring to different places or restaurants with Randy.

Would move every two years to a different house.

Love meeting people and getting to know them.

I enjoy and love my life and feel so blessed.

To each of our kids, I love you and enjoy being with you. Thank you for the grace you extend to us “oldies” and for letting us share different parts of your lives. Gives me lots of laughs and material for the blog.  Remember that when you are with me, what happens doesn’t stay just between us…it goes on Chocolate Castles! This sweet memory might have been a little less “sweet” had it been longer than a couple of days, but in my perfect little imaginary world, I like to think it would have just gotten better each day.

Daily Thoughts
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This is one of the 3 reasons I’m not posting on the blog for a few days. The other 2 have taken over all the computers and ipads in the house. Things will return to normal on Tuesday!

Cookies · Desserts

Lemon Tassies

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I couldn’t wait to share these with you. Going through my Martha Stewart Cookie Cookbook today looking for my usual Chocolate Biscotti recipe, I found these. They just sound to good not to bake today. I am so glad I listened to my heart yesterday that said, “go ahead and pick up that pretty little lemon, you just might need it this week” So I don’t have to run to the store to get lemon zest. It is already here.

For the crust:

2 cups flour

10 tables (1 1/4 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1/4 cup plus 2 tables sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 teas vanilla extract

2 teas finely grated lemon zest

1/4 teas salt

Vegetable oil or cooking spray

Filling:

8 oz room temp cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

3 tables finely grated lemon zest

1 tables fresh lemon juice

1/2 teas vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Coat two 24-cup mini-muffin tins with cooking spray.
Make crusts: process flour and butter in a food processor until mixture is the consistency of fine crumbs. Add sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, lemon zest and salt. Process just until combined and sandy in texture. Do not over process.

Divide dough into quarters. Divide each quarter into 12 equal pieces and shape into balls. Place each ball in a muffin cup. Press into cup, stretching dough up the sides. Set each muffin tin on a baking sheet.
Bake crusts 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned all over. Tap down any puffed centers of the shells with the end of a wooden spoon. Transfer muffin tins to wire racks to cool.

Make filling by combing cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon zest, juice and vanilla. Mix on medium speed until well combined. Using a 1″ round melon scoop or a spoon, fill the cooled crusts with filling, evenly dividing the filling between the 24 crusts.

Bake the cookies until filling is set and just beginning to color at the edges, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks again to cool. Tassies can be refrigerated in airtight containers up to 3 days.

Makes 4 dozen tassies

 

Daily Thoughts

Blue Collar to Starched Collar

Chocolate Castles1 Comment
  • Sitting here on this Monday night, we are watching Diner, Drive-Ins & Dives and planning what dessert I will make next. While we are contemplating this decision, we were thinking back over the weekend and the different experiences that we had. Saturday found us driving around doing our normal errands. Around lunch time we began to think about what would taste good. Several friends have told us about Dinah’s Fried Chicken over in Glendale so we headed that direction. The bright yellow sign with black giant letters lets you know you have arrived at this 10 table restaurant. We walk in and immediately are met with, “hi honey, just sit wherever there is a place and we will be with you in a minute.” We are sitting there with people who you know are on their lunch hour from driving trucks which were in the parking lot so we knew the food had to be good. to just neighborhood folks who have been coming in there for years. Our waitress welcomed us with a glass of tea and a menu that looked like it had been around since disposable diapers were invented. We ordered our chicken, all the while taking in the conversation around us, when we hear a loud motorcycle pull up right outside the door. Randy tells me to turn around and look at the couple getting off the bike. They had to be in their late 70’s or early 80’s. He with long gray hair and she with spiked gray hair, shorts and boots up to her knees. As they came in the door, they were seated at their apparently regular table in back. Corn on the cob, cole slaw and baskets of chicken kept passing us by, until finally our plate of fried chicken was placed right in front of us. We just looked at each other and our mouths began to drool. The chicken was amazing. We thought we had been picked up in the Spirit and placed right in the middle of Kentucky. We were shocked that Dinah’s was actually some of the best fried chicken we had ever had. Col Sanders, eat your heart out. Because some friends were taking us out that same night to a restaurant in Beverly Hills, we knew we needed to have tummy room. We head home and google Providence, the restaurant where we will be going tonight. By looking at their web site, we knew that fried chicken would not be on the menu. It had food items I couldn’t begin to pronounce.
    The pictures of some of the food were prettier than pictures at the Norton Simon Museum. Oh my gosh, I didn’t know we were going to someplace that I needed to apparently wear Spanx and heals. Quickly I began to access my clothes closet and discovered that no matter what I would wear, I was never going to look like all the cute little trophy wives that would be ordering quail egg soup with tartare.
    After putting in our destination into the GPS, we head out to Beverly Hills to meet our friends. When the GPS tells us that we have arrived, we look around and cannot seem to find it and continue down a couple of blocks. Randy says that he bets that our GPS is wrong, as it is not used to going to such foo foo places. But seeing the addresses on the building, we know that we have passed the restaurant. We do a Uie (U-turn) and there in letters that are no bigger than the letters on our medicine bottles, is the word Providence. Guess we didn’t recognize it because there were only Masarati’s and Mercedes parked out front, no motorbikes like we saw at Dinah’s. Apparently, the smaller the letters and sign, the classier the restaurant. Randy said that he didn’t realize that we should have gone to get money out of savings to be able to valet our car. When the valet price is more than we usually pay for lunch, we tend to know right away that this will be a place where we will both be holding our breaths to be able to walk in without our tummies walking through the door before the rest of our bodies. Since I am still trying to breathe (it is just so hard to do that with spanx on) I quickly find a chair in the lounge so I can let my breath out. Our friends arrive and I was so thankful that I had had a few minutes to look around without them noticing that I was trying to take this all in. When the words, “gawally, this is just the fanciest place we have been in” came out of my mouth, Randy quickly stuffed a cheese wafer in to keep me quiet. We had to admit, the food was truly an experience. Even the food that I couldn’t pronounce was just scrumptious. The evening had been so delightful (yes, when you are leaving a place like Providence, you use the word delightful. When you leaving a place like Dinah’s, you describe the food as , “darn good”.
    As soon as we got in the car, off came the Spanx and the heals. Since our drive home took 30 minutes, that gave me time to send pictures of our dinner to our kids who think that we sit at home every Saturday night watching 48 Hour reruns.
    We have learned something this weekend. No matter if you are eating in a diner with motorbikes parked outside the door or a 5 star restaurant, where our car was the only one that was parked out back, each experience can be a great memory. It just depends on which collar you are wearing, blue or starched.

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Pineapple Pudding Cake

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This week has just been a week of wanting to do nothing by bake. Major baking mood, so I went to a couple of new spots on the internet, one being called, Just Desserts, and found this new recipe. Sounds perfect for those warm summer nights when we are wanting something that is cool and refreshing, but yet, delicious and tantalizing. So here it is, will become a summer favorite.

1 Duncan Hines Yellow or Pineapple Cake mix, baked according to directions for a 9×13 pan.

When baked and completely cooled spread the following over the cake:

1 (8z) package of softened cream cheese mixed 1 (20 oz) can drained well, crushed pineapple and 1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix.

When mixed well, spread over cooled cake.

Either using a (8 oz) tub of thawed Cool Whip or 2 cups sweetened, whipping cream, spread whipped topping over pudding mixture.(You know which one I will use, the most fattening one of course….real whipping cream)  Sprinkle with chopped nuts and maraschino cherries, if desired.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Cover and keep in fridge.

Serves 12-14

Cakes · Fruit

Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

When I saw this recipe on Just A Pinch, I could only imagine how good this would be until this morning. Just ate my first one. Yum! They gave it as a layer cake, but had to make cupcakes because I wanted to share some and didn’t know quite how many I would eat before actually getting them out the door. So glad it made 29 cupcakes. I could have 5 of them all to myself. With this new computer, I have not figured out how to get the pics from my phone to this blog, so cannot post a picture yet, but will learn as soon as my daughter gets here next week.

Recipe worth sharing:

1 white Duncan Hines Cake mix

1 small box strawberry jello ( not the sugar free)
1 cup of sweetened, undrained mashed strawberries

1 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

4 eggs

Mix all ingredients for cake and pour into 2 9″ greased cake pans, 1 9×11 pan or cupcake liners.

Bake until cake or cupcakes tests done.

When cooled, frost with the following:

1 stick butter, softened

1 (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 box of powdered sugar  (3 1/2 cups powdered sugar)

A little of the strawberry juice left over from the thawed strawberries to flavor and color the frosting. If you don’t want to use cream cheese use the following recipe

1 box powdered sugar

1 stick softened butter

1/2 cup mashed strawberries, drained

Mix until smooth and frost cake

Daily Thoughts

Trudyfest Week

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What a great week this has been. It seems that the older we get, the better people treat you for your birthday. Is the fact that since most of my friends are a couple years older than I am that they are just excited that I am nearing the age of entering AARPVILLE? Or is it that the older we become, the more time people have to make special days,special? When Randy and I married, my mom told him that it was up to him now to handle Trudyfest. She had done it long enough and she was handing that responsibility over to him. It took me a few years to train him on how to celebrate Trudyfest, but he has finally got the hang of it. In years gone by, BR (before Randy), Trudyfest began July 1st and ran every day until July 11th. Because I was an only child, I was just a little spoiled, just a little. My aunt and uncle didn’t have children, so they  treated me as theirs. My aunt would give me a little present every day from the 1st through the 11th. Then when they passed, mother took that responsibility on. It wasn’t easy. Each day was suppose to top the previous day and because mother didn’t like to shop, she was just so glad when Randy stepped into the picture.

If I had realized that Randy’s birthday was July 2nd,our marriage might not have taken place, after all it now meant  that I now had to share some of “my days” with him. But, being the giving person that I am, I told him I would give him those two days and he wouldn’t even have to think about my birthday until July 3rd, but…the 3rd was as long as Trudyfest could wait. He said that if he marries again, he will look for someone whose birthday is the 1st of the month. When he complained that he only got two days to celebrate his special day, I told him that it wasn’t my fault that he was born on the 2nd. I was due on the 4th, but came a week later, probably because even then, I knew it would be smart to have that extra week. Girls just know those kind of things. Well, this year, we celebrated his birthday up in the mountains with some friends. The fact that he had ice cream several times during his 2 day celebration made him a happy camper. I made him a German Chocolate cake and never even mentioned out loud that he was now officially a senior citizen. I informed him that he better not dare think of wearing shorts and black socks together, just because he was “older”.  I made up some rules (why does he keep telling me I am controlling?) of what he can and cannot do, just because he was now 65.

1. He cannot allow the hair in his ears and eyebrows to grow longer than his mustache

2. When we are out with friends, he cannot talk about bowel movements or bathroom habits.

3. We cannot get to resturants before 6:00, even if they have blue plate specials up till 4:30

4. We will not start getting up at 5:30 a.m. just to get ahead of lines at the grocery stores or banks.

5. We will NOT start having our 3 pm. coffee break at McDonalds

And last, but not least…we will not sit and watch the weather channel, no matter if we are bored and have nothing else to do.

So..back to today. This week has truly been a great reminder of how blessed I am with sweet friends and a very sweet, thoughtful husband. Twice a year, he buys me scratch off lotto tickets, Christmas and my birthday. Tuesday night as Trudyfest was in full swing, we went out to eat and he presented me with a card with the tickets. He is so patient as I sit there during the meal and scratch off tickets, just knowing that this is the year I will hit it big. I did….$3.00.

He made up his rules for me…I cannot ever join the Red Hat Society or have blue hair

So Saturday, we will begin our day with a Mexican food breakfast and go shopping to spend my $3.00. It will be such a great way to end a week of celebration and fun. But it won’t end until 8 since we cannot eat before 6, it would make us look old.

Chocolate · Desserts

Frozen German Sweet Chocolate Pie

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Prep for this amazing pie is only 20 minutes, plus freezing time.

1 pkg (4 oz) Bakers German Sweet Chocolate

1/3 cup milk, divided

4 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened

2 tables sugar

2 cups thawed Cool Whip or real whipped cream

1 graham cracker crust or chocolate cookie crust

Microwave chocolate and 2 tables milk *(I like to use either evaporated milk or whipping cream to give it a more creamy flavor) and cook for 2 minutes. Stop after the first minute to stir and return to microwave and cook for another min., maybe 2 more minutes. Stirring between the minutes to stir and chocolate is completely melted.

Add cream cheese, sugar and remaining milk; beat with mixer until well blended. Refrigerate for 10 min. Stir in Cool Whip or 2 cups of already whipped cream; spoon into crust.

Freeze 4 hours or until firm. Let stand at room temp 15 min before cutting to serve.