Food Porn Anyone?

As many of you know, I cook a lot. All the time it seems. I am always messing with recipes and making changes, adding flavors and changing textures. With the cold we have had I have been doing a LOT of baking. So much so that we have had plenty to share with friends.


During the last cold snap we were stuck at our house for 4 days. No fun at all. My dear friend Lynette was unable to share our cinnamon bread pudding, strawberry scones and pineapple upside down cake. So this time I decided to bake a day in advance. The bad weather is due tomorrow so today I have baked 3 delicious cheesecakes. We have almond amaretto, chocolate kahlua, and parrot bay coconut!



Did you notice a theme? Yes, they are all alcohol cheesecakes! I made them with Lynette's home made amaretto and kaluha and my own rum. What could be better to snuggle with on a cold wintry day? Is there anything more comforting that delicious food made with love from friends? No, I don't think so either. We often do shared meals where we all prepare what we have and combine it with what our friends have. It is a great way to use a little bit of groceries and have a feast for all. For anyone who may want it, the recipe for the basic cheesecake is as follows:
3 blocks cream cheese
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 T. lemon juice
1 t. vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients, pour into graham cracker crust and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool at least 4 hours before serving.

For the extras I added :
3 T. cocoa
1/2 c. kaluha for the chocolate kaluha cheesecake

2 t. almond extract
1/2 c. amaretto
sliced almonds on top for the almond amaretto




1 cup shredded coconut soaked in 1/2 cup parrot bay coconut rum for 30 minutes for the coconut cheesecake

Hope everyone enjoys!

Cuppa coffee anyone?

How do you make the PERFECT cup of coffee? I honestly do not know because this is how I make coffee :
First, I open one eye half way and sound like I am breaking bones as I stand to stumble to the bathroom. Bump the kitchen table on my way with my hip (ouch)then have difficulty finding the bathroom doorknob as the eye I have half open is blurry. Then have a minor heart attack as I sit down, OMG that's cold. Stumble back to kitchen rubbing closed eye in hopes it will open too and voila! Both eyes open and somewhat focused...time for coffee.
Get a cup of filtered water and pour in with only minor spills. Add great coffee, turn on and wait. Stretch and yawn and finally I hear the final sputters of my one cup coffee pot. Yay!! Coffee is done. Grab cup...oops. Knock over cup onto hand. Shake hand vigorously to remove scalding coffee. Grab paper towels and throw them on huge mess in floor. Run for sink, rinse hand, pat dry. Grab burn spray and lightly coat. Go to get paper towels out of floor.
Chase the Poo's chihuahua puppy AKA the little prince while saying "DROP IT! DROP IT!" in the meanest voice you can muster while trying not to wake up the Poo. Finally get said paper towels from mischievious puppy just as he gets on the couch. Slip in the mess he has made dragging paper towels through house and wonder to yourself if it is just coffee or if you scared the pee out of the poor dog.
Go wash hands and feet in bathtub as now you are certain it is a coffee and pee mix. Get mop.
Here the pitter patter of little feet and know your whole morning is shot. No quiet time to reflect for you. "momma is that you? Why are you making so much noise? Prince didn't mean to be bad. He is just a puppy and he is still learning."
Mop up mess while feeling guilty about scaring the innocent puppy who seemed really guilty and wrong just moments before. Realize as you have mopped a strip about a foot wide and 30 feet long, just how bad that made the rest of the floor look. Stand and stare at really clean line going through the middle of your house and decide if you want to mop the rest of the floor or just make that part dirty again so it matches. Decide to mop tonight after everyone lays down so there are no footprints in the clean floor as it dries.
Go back to coffee pot and finish cleaning. Wash hands and add burn spray again.
At this point , do you try again or just all load up in jammies and snuggies and go to see Lynette who you know always has fresh coffee and currently a lot of liquor to go in it?
She practically invented mornings. Just ask her Dear Hubby. She goes outside at the buttcrack of dawn and tells it to hurry up, she has things to do and doesn't like doing them in the dark. Yes to Lynette's we will go. I know she will offer me a cup before I can ask if she has any fresh. Then as I tell her about my morning she may even offer to hold the alcohol jugs up for me so I can stand under the tap with my mouth open.
Bundled up we are and open the front door to see this.
Yuck. The roads have been driven on and re-frozen in a solid sheet of black ice. Back inside we go.
So if anyone knows how to get the perfect cuppa coffee please share one with me. I need this, desperately.

Snow Day

Well, after 75 degrees on Saturday we reached a high of 23 degrees here today! Woohoo! I know its colder other places but this just doesn't happen here. We have what looks like snow but upon closer inspection is really a sleet, ice and snow mix. Very crunchy and not fun to play in at all. I have to say when I got up this morning I very excitedly went to the door because I had heard it start last night. I am from a more northern place in Texas so I wanted to build a snowman and make snow angels. Unfortunately the Poo still has a nasty cough and I could not drag her out on 25 mile per hour winds to play(much to her dismay).
So instead we decided to have a snow day. What is a snow day you ask? Well, I will tell you. For us, we decided silly string would be great fun.



We even attempted to ambush the Papa when he came home from work but our string wouldn't spray. The can I left attached to the front door for him miraculously worked great. Talk about karma!
Our poor dogs could not find a good place to hide as we chased each other with silly string through the house. Neither of us were aiming at them but you could not have convinced them of that fact. Also, since our house is old and drafty(like the windows are wide open drafty) we decided to bake to keep the house warmer. The Poo loves to mix and add ingredients so that was lots of fun for her. We even put together a princess puzzle and wore our princess power rings.
Loads of fun for a little princess. We managed to make a large bread pudding with dulce de leche to put on top, a cinnamon swirl bread, chocolate chip cookies, and baked spaghetti with garlic bread.
Not a bad day at all. She had a good time and I got some cleaning done.
Most importantly we stayed WARM!!

OOPSIE!!

Well as everyone here knows the cold weather has struck. I brought in my ivy that Kevin got me last week. I know it was a little late as I lost a few leaves but it is recouping nicely. Well, I went to get something out of the car a minute ago and easily got sidetracked as I am prone to do. My handsome kitty came up and wanted love and when I was petting him I SAW it. Emma's plant. Tropical plant.
The story goes that when we go to a store, if she behaves very well she will get a "comprise" as she calls it. We usually keep it under a dollar. Just a little something to let her know she did a good job.
Anyway, a few months ago we had to get groceries, lots of them because I had pretty much let us run out of everything. So armed with my circulars and coupons we set out to find the best deals. Some here in town, some at walmart , piggly wiggly going out of business, and heb. You see how taxing this can be for a child of 2 at the time. 4 stores, 1 comprise. Heb was our last stop. As we walking in the door they had a plant stand as most grocery stores do. Her little face lit up. We had been planting the garden and fruit trees all week. She saw the plants and said "thats it momma, thats my comprise!". So we get over to them and they are pathetic. Wilted and dry and dying off. They are marked 1 dollar each and she quickly found 4 she wanted.One even had pink dots on the leaves, perfect for a princess she tells me. I concede she went to 4 stores and she could have all of them. However, when we go to check out I ask if they are on sale due to the poor condition. The nice lady at the register tells me they are not but she would call the manager to see what we could do. He comes and we got them all for a buck. All summer she has watered her plants with her watering can and I, the forgetful momma has let them freeze.
Well all is not lost I hope. 2 of them look ok, the other 2 not so great. But the one with the pink dots will make it I think. So we are now on the mission of repotting them in hopes that it will help to get more dirt around the roots as they are root bound.
On another note, Poo is feeling a bit better. I however feel like my legs are made of jello thats not quite set yet but at least I have quit shivering and shaking so bad. Please pray for the princess plants. Love ya