daily

Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake. Possibly the best cheesecake ever. Try it for yourself:

Crust:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

8 tablespoons butter

Filling:

4 1/2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

1 2/3 cups sugar

5 eggs

1 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions:

Combine all the crust ingredients, mix well. Press into and 1 inch up the sides of a greased 10 inch springform pan. Back at 325 degrees for 10 minutes, cool.

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar, mix well. Add the eggs, Bailey's Irish Cream and vanilla, until just combined. Pour into cooled crust. Bake at 325 for 55-65 minutes or until center is almost set. Let cool at room temperature for 1 hour. Refrigerate overnight.

beverage

Yesterday I was cutting up my watermelon for the salsa I made today, and my roommate asked me if we could make the watermelon-strawberry drink I had mentioned a week or two ago when she went strawberry picking and came back with more strawberries than she knew what to do with. I had extra watermelon, she bought some strawberries, I bike to the grocery store and got some fresh ginger -- and tonight we had yummy drinks.

They go like this:

Simmer 1/2 cup water with 1/4 cup sugar until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add six or so thin slices of fresh ginger and two mint sprigs. Let sit for 10 minutes, then strain into a blender. Add 2 cups watermelon, 2 cups strawberries, and puree. Then pour over ice, toss in a pretty straw, and drink up! It only makes enough for two though -- if you want more, double up!

chops

I made pork chops for lunch today. Another Cooking Light magazine recipe. My dad really likes pork chops but I've never been much of a pork chop person. They're fine, but I'd rather have chicken. However, the monotony of chicken has been getting to me a little bit lately. So when I saw this recipe for Grilled Pork Chops with Two Melon Salsa, I thought, ooo. Pork Chops. And melon. Summery. Yummy. Let's try it.

One of the things they suggest in the recipe is switching up the fruits and using any, instead of just watermelon and honeydew. I don't really care for honeydew, so I used pineapple instead. It turned out really good. It's spicy though, decently hot, so if you don't like hot you might want to forgo the jalapeno and lessen the chili powder.

Salsa:
1 cup chopped seedless watermelon
1 cup chopped pineapple
3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Pork chops:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 (4 ounce) boneless center-cut pork chops, trimmed

1- To prepare salsa, combine salsa ingredients, set aside.
2- To prepare pork chops, heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Combine oil, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and ground pepper in a small bowl. Rub oil mixture over both sides of port chops. Coat a pan with cooking spray. Add pork to pan; cook four minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.
3- Serve with salsa.

smoothie

One of my favorite things to do is read magazines. I get excited when one comes in the mail, I get distracted when one's on my desk, they pass by the elliptical time like none other. I read them cover to cover and love every bit of them.

Recently, I've started getting cooking magazines. Food and Wine and Cooking Light. They're so fun because they have ideas for seasonal recipes. They're what got me hooked on sorbet for summer, and they open up a lot of easy possibilities for food. Which brings me to my latest trend.

Smoothies. Yummy, fruity healthy smoothies. They've also proven to be quite helpful for my summer class -- it runs from nine to noon and if I don't grab myself a snack all I can think about is the fact that I am SO HUNGRY. But for the last class period I brought along a banana smoothie, and wasn't hungry until after class was done.

What's also good about smoothies is how easily they can be mixed up. Just throw a different kind of fruit in and you've got a different smoothie!

Crucial thing about smoothies though :: a blender. Until this week I didn't own one. But on Monday I was at Younkers(getting those great shoes super cheap!) and finding this blender. $40 on sale for $13. It was a happy day!

Below is a recipe from Cooking Light for the banana smoothie I had this week.

Ingredients:
1 cup sliced ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk
2 tablespoons whole wheat graham cracker crumbs (about 1/2 cookie sheet)
1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ice cubes (about 1/4 cup)
Graham cracker crumbs

Preparation:
Arrange banana slices in a single layer on a baking sheet, and freeze until firm (about 1 hour).

Place frozen banana and remaining ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information
Calories:216 (12% from fat)
Fat:2.8g (sat 1.5g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.3g)
Protein:9.8g
Carbohydrate:39.3g
Fiber:1.9g
Cholesterol:9mg
Iron:0.4mg
Sodium:145mg
Calcium:315mg

pistachio

I was at my dad's house this past weekend because I had a wedding nearby and then my cousin's baby shower the next day -- so we had our Father's Day celebration a day early. My dad likes me to cook for him for his birthday. I like baking a bit more than I like cooking, so I made a dessert to go with the meal. He likes pistachios -- so I found a recipe for a white chocolate pistachio cheesecake. And it was good.

Also, I pretended I was Rachael Ray and took pictures of each step to share with you along with the recipe. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

Crust
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I used regular graham crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling
20 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
4 eggs
1 (3.4-oz.) pkg. instant pistachio pudding and pie filling mix
1 (12-oz.) pkg. (2 cups) white vanilla chips
1/2 cup chopped shelled pistachios
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DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar; mix well. Stir in butter. Press crumb mixture in bottom of ungreased 9-inch springform pan.

2. Bake at 350°F. for 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Wrap outside of pan, bottom and sides, with heavy-duty foil.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Beat cream cheese in large bowl at medium speed until creamy. Beat in 3/4 cup sugar until very soft and creamy. Add sour cream and almond extract; beat well. Reduce speed to low; add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition.

4. With wire whisk, beat in pudding mix until well mixed. Stir in vanilla chips. Pour into crust-lined pan. Sprinkle pistachios over top.

5. Bake at 325°F. for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until sides of cheesecake are set and slightly puffed but center still moves slightly when pan is tapped. Cool cheesecake in pan on wire rack for 1 hour. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

6. To serve, remove sides of pan. Cut cheesecake into wedges.

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Now, I altered the recipe a bit. They didn't have pistachios at the grocery store where my dad lives, so I omitted them. Instead, I used some extra white chocolate chips and melted them down in a saucepan on the stove. White chocolate doesn't melt like normal chocolate, so to get it to the proper consistency I added some vegetable oil -- stirring the whole time until I got the chocolate to drizzle.

Then I made squiggle designs on cookie sheet covered with wax paper and stuck them in the freezer for a few hours, until the cheesecake was pretty cold itself. Then just peel the designs off the paper and set them on the cake. Voila! It's pretty.

daily

Check out the awesome sky. It was cold and rainy, so I stayed inside and made banana walnut muffins. Here's the recipe:

3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 package banana cream pudding mix
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 large eggs
4 very ripe large bananas, mashed (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and dry pudding mix in bowl. In another bowl, combine mashed bananas, buttermilk, and eggs. Using a mixer, combine butter and brown sugar, then add eggs one at a time, beating after each egg.

Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with wet ingredients and ending with dry. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you mix. Stir in walnuts. Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full.

Bake cupcakes until a toothpick tester stuck into the middle comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes. Place tins on wire rack to cool.

And then enjoy! They're especially good still warm, mmmm.