Blueberry Cheesecake

Blueberry Cheesecake, originally uploaded by predictablyhungry.

I had decided this Thanksgiving that I wanted to try and make a cheesecake. I'd pondered pumpkin cheesecake, but after realizing not all the guests liked pumpkin I had decided on a plain cheesecake. So I scoured the internet for cheesecake recipes. I looked through my library of food network magazine and searched all my favorite food blogs. After reading about 20 recipes to get an idea of what make a cheesecake I came up with my own. I know, flour isn't normally in cheesecake but I figured it would help it set to make it fool proof (since this was my first attempt).

Then one the cheesecake was complete, I'd decided it was missing something and added blueberry topping. Needless to say, the cheesecake was a hugehit. I was floored at how great it came out, and fell in love with the crust. Next time I make it I plan on making the crust run along the side of the cheesecake as well.

What You'll Need:
Crust:

- 2 cups of crushed graham crackers (I hand crushed them so that there were some decent sized chunks of cracker in the crust rather than powder to add a crunchy texture to the smooth cheesecake)

- 7 Tbsp butter melted

- 1/2 Tsp cinnamon

- 1/4 cup sugar

- Pinch of salt

The Filling:

- 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

- 1 1/2 cups white sugar

- 3/4 cup whole milk

- 4 eggs

- 1 cup sour cream

- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

What You'll Do:

First, the crust!

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. In a bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

3 Press the mixture along the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan lined along the outside with foil.

4. Bake in oven for approximately 10 minutes, remove and set aside.

The filling:
5. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth.

6. Mix in milk, and then the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate.

7. Mix in sour cream, vanilla and flour until smooth (but don't overbeat!).

8. Pour filling into prepared crust.

9. Place the pan into a water bath. That is, place the pie pan into a roasting pan, then slowly add boiling water into the roasting pan until just below the edge of the foil line (about halfway up the pie pan).

10. Bake in oven for 1 hour.

11. When timer beeps, turn oven off but do not open the oven.

12. Let the cheesecake slowly cool in the oven for about 6 hours (this helps it set and helps prevent cracking caused by rapid cooling).

13. Chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

14. Add blueberry topping just before serving (optional, see below).

Blueberry Topping:

- 1 can of blueberry pie filling

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Add blueberries to pot and add cinnamon. Simmer approximately 5 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Let cool.

3. Spread on top of cheesecake prior to releasing from springform pan.


Enjoy!

Kumquat Marmalade

Kumquats, originally uploaded by FotoosVanRobin.

Last fall my father gave me buckets and buckets of kumquats from his large kumquat tree. He always gives me way more than I could ever possibly eat, and I didn't want them to go to waste so i decided to try something new: Kumquat Marmalade.

I researched recipe after recipe, and found this simple one.

Which I did.

And the end result was pretty darn good. I took about 50 pictures trying to get a decent photo of my end results for this blog, but failed miserably.

Anyway, if you find yourself with way too many kumquats I definitely recommend this recipe.


*And thank you to fotoosvanrobin for this amazing picture.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake, originally uploaded by predictablyhungry.

Okay, it's a terrible photo. The ones I took without flash were worse. Michael broke my tripod the other day so I couldn't come up with a decent picture, and I promise you that this cake tastes good.

I ran across this recipe and thought I'd give it a try. I'm pretty confident that it would taste pretty good with other fruits as well such as blackberries and strawberries. I'd contemplated adding blackberries, but others feared it wouldn't taste good.

What you'll need:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened
- 2/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
- 1 cup fresh raspberries/1 basket (6 oz.)

What you'll do:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Then beat in vanilla and zest. Add egg and beat well.

4. At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries over top and sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

5. Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 25 to 35 minutes.

6. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Invert onto a plate.

Enjoy! I didn't try it with whipped cream, but I do imagine it'd be tasty!

Margarita Fruit Salad

Margarita Fruit Salad, originally uploaded by predictablyhungry.

I made a version of this last summer, and it was a big hit. I used different fruits, and a different recipe (no alcohol) then (I'll post that one after this current one).

So this year I decided to make a version of this fruit salad using different fruits (that I had on hand), and alcohol. Though, I'm pretty sure most of the alcohol burns off in the boil, as it's not an overwhelming taste.

It's recommended that you let it sit at least four hours in the refrigerator, I kept it in overnight (which didn't make the fruit mushy).

So, for the recipe (as seen in the picture):
** I used these fruits, you could use whatever you'd like**

What you'll need:
Mixed Fruit
- 1 cup blackberries
- 2 mangoes, peeled and diced
- 1 grapefruit, peeled and wedged
- 1 large orange, peeled and wedged
- 2 cups strawberries, hulled and diced

"Sauce"
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup granulated sugar (depending on your taste)
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 6 tablespoons tequila
- 6 teaspoons triple sec
- 3 teaspoons margarita mix or lime juice

Optional
- 1 cup unsweetened toasted coconut flakes

What to do:
1. To make the sauce heat the sugar and orange juice over medium heat in a small saucepan.

2. Stir for a few minutes until sugar dissolves

3. Stir in tequila, triple sec, and margarita mix. Let cool.

4. Once cooled, combine with fruit in a large bowl, cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least four hours.

5. If using coconut, sprinkle on right before serving.

Another idea came up while eating this, a dollop of whipped cream would go wonderfully on this mixture.

It's a great snack for everyday or summertime cool down.