Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Berries

I've been on a lemon kick recently and in the summer spirit so when I saw the recipe for these lemon cheesecake bars I just couldn't resist. They were easy to make and were absolutely delicious! All the bars were gone within 2 days (I promise I didn't eat them all by myself!). The tartness and lemonyness was just perfect and the fruit on top kept it fresh and bright. Depending on your tastes, you might want to alter the ratio of crust to cheesecake, my boyfriend said he would have preferred double the cheesecake (he loves the stuff!) and I could see where he was coming from. Also depending on your tastes, grounding the crackers by hand produces a more rough textured crust, my boyfriend liked this aspect of the crust but I wasn't as big of a fan. Next time I think I'll use to food processor. Regardless, these were great! I couldn't get enough.


Lemon Cheesecake Squares with Fresh Berries
From Bon Appetit July 2009

Crust:
• 9 whole graham crackers
• 5 tablespoons butter
Filling
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Fresh berries

Crust: Preheat oven to 350. Fold 16-inch long piece of foil into 8x16 inch strip; place in 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan, leaving overhang on 2 sides. Repeat with another sheet of foil in opposite direction, lining pan completely. Butter foil.

Place graham crackers in heavy-duty plastic bag. Using rolling pin or mallet, crush crackers finely. Melt butter in medium skillet over low heat. Remove form heat; add crumbs and toss to coat. Press crumbs evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake crust until deep golden, about 12 minutes. Cook crust while preparing filling.

Filling: using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth. Beat in egg and sour cream, then lemon juice, lemon peel, and vanilla. Spread batter over crust.

Bake cheesecake until slightly puffed and set in center, about 30 minutes; cool completely in pan on rack. Chill cheesecake until cold, at least 2 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.

Using foil overhand as aid, lift cheesecake from pan. Cut into 16 squares; arrange on platter. Top each square with berries. Chill until ready to serve, up to 3 hours. Serve chilled.

Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil

For last week's Craving Ellie in my Belly, the meal was Jambalaya with Shrimp and Ham. I went to the grocery store with shopping list in hand, ready to tackle this meal. Unfortunately shrimp was outrageously expensive for some reason (I guess that's what happens when you don't live near a coast) so I couldn't make it. But this week, frozen shrimp was on sale! Yay!

I decided to make an old favorite (well, since I received this cookbook as a present for Christmas) from Giada's Kitchen, Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil. Now I have to say, I don't quite love this cookbook as much as Everyday Italian, but this particular recipe is a gem. Its simple and quick, and aside from the shrimp it is relatively inexpensive. Its light, lemony, and refreshing which is practically the requirement for summer-time meals.

This dish tastes a lot more luxurious than it really is. I love when something can be relatively healthy and delicious at the same time. It is really hard to mess this dish up, too. I've made it several times where I've forgotten to reserve pasta water and its still come out just fine. Try not to forget it though, it definitely perfects the texture.


Linguine with Shrimp & Lemon Oil
From Giada's Kitchen
Lemon oil:

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 lemon, zested

Pasta:

• 1 pound linguine pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound shrimp, fresh or thawed frozen, peeled and deveined
  
• 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly groun black pepper
• 3 ounces arugula (about 3 packed cups)
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

For the lemon oil:
Combine the olive oil and the lemon zest in a small bowl and reserve.
For the pasta:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. (I always forget to do this!!)

Meanwhile, in a large, heavy skillet warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook until pink, about 5 minutes. Add the cooked linguine, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine. Turn off the heat and add the arugula. Using a mesh sieve, strain the lemon zest out of the reserved lemon olive oil and add the oil to the pasta. The zest can be discarded. Add the chopped parsley to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve immediately.

Nutella Croissants

Nutella, nutella, nutella. If you've never tried Nutella before, run to the grocery store now and buy some. Now!
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Are you back yet? Isn't it the most delicious thing you've ever tasted out of a jar? For those of you who have never tried it and didn't follow my orders to go to the like grocery store, Nutella is a a chocolate-hazelnut spread. Its creamy and sweet and like nothing you've ever tasted before. In the world of food, some foods are a match made in heaven, like peanut butter and jelly or tomatoes and basil. Chocolate and hazelnut is definitely in my top 5 heavenly food matches.

I saw Nutella at the store after not having it for a few months and I just had to buy it. When I got home I was disheartened. I had nothing to dip or eat the Nutella with! I just had to make something, but what? On the television that day I had been reminded of my trip to Paris, France a few years ago. If you haven't been to a pâtisserie, go. Right now.
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Are you back yet? Okay, good. Did you sample all the delicious breads, cakes, tarts, pies, and croissants? Did you visit a crepe stand? My trip to France was the first time I ever had Nutella. First, in a crepe. Second, in a pastry. Since I know I would turn making crepes into a disaster, I decided on a type of pastry to satisfy my Nutella craving. I peered in the fridge and saw a tube of Pillsbury Buttery Crescent Roll Dough. It was the closest thing I could find to a Nutella filled French pastry.

My nutella filled croissants were amazing! So delicious and so easy. The outside of the croissant was golden brown and the inside was oozing with Nutella. The perfect combination of warm, gooey, flaky, buttery, and sweet.



Nutella Croissants

• 8 tablespoons Nutella
• One package Pillsbury Butter Flake Crescent Rolls

Preheat oven to 375. Open package and carefully spread dough out onto a flat surface. Cut apart dough following the pre-cut lines into 8 triangles.

Place one tablespoon (more or less, depending on your preference) of Nutella onto the base of each triangle. Carefully roll the dough up to form a crescent shape.

Place rolls onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 11-13 minutes or until golden brown.

Banana Bread

Banana muffins and now banana bread! I seem to have an infinite supply of ripe bananas. I'm not complaining though. I decided to make bread instead of muffins this time with my ripe bananas so they wouldn't go to waste. I searched Food Network for a simple banana bread recipe with high ratings and I found one! It was easy, moist, and tasteful. The whole house smelt like sugar and cinnamon.

On a side note, I recently purchased Martha Stewart's Cooking School (It was $15 cheaper on Amazon than at Barnes and Nobles). Let me just say, I LOVE it. I'm not very far into it but it is already such a great reference, especially for someone like me who has never taken a cooking class and doesn't have any family members who are exceptionally great cooks and available to teach me anything. More on this later, as I continue reading.

Banana Bread
From M.S. Milliken & S. Feniger

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

Cream the sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a fork. Mix in the milk and cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the banana mixture to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing just until flour disappears.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Set aside to cool on a rack for 15 minutes. Remove bread from pan, invert onto rack and cool completely before slicing.

Spread slices with honey or serve with ice cream.

Double Chocolate Pudding Pie

This is my pick for this week's Craving Ellie in my Belly. I have a huge sweet tooth (can you tell?) and none of the other CEIMB members had picked a dessert recipe yet so I decided to pick one. Growing up, my aunt always made chocolate pudding pie for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas and I would always help her in the kitchen. I adored this pie and would always ask my mom to make it (she never did!). I was SO excited when I saw this recipe in The Food You Crave and marked it immediately.

I'm happy to say it lived up to my expectations :) I'm very happy with my pick and I hope the other members liked the pie as much as I did! The pie itself was fairly easy to make. Having to constantly stir the milk mixture in a saucepan over the heat was tedious but so worth it. I stuck to the recipe except I used 2% milk instead of 1% because that was all I had. I don't know if that made my pie better or worse (I'm thinking better!) but I usually have 2% so I'll stick to that the next time I make it. Also, I had heavy cream but decided not to make the whipped cream for 3 reasons: I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream. I wanted to eat the pie already! And I figured the extra fat and calories weren't worth it, especially because I used 2% milk.

The only problem I had with this recipe was that the graham cracker crust didn't come up the edges high enough and wasn't as thick as I would have liked. I noticed some of the other members had the same problem. Next time I'll double the amount of graham crackers and hopefully that will supply enough crust. I made this 2 days ago and there are only 2 pieces of pie left! It is that good, pretty much irresistible.


Double Chocolate Pudding Pie
From The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

• 14 graham cracker squares (7 full sheets)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon water
  
• 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 2/3 cup sugar, plus 1/2 teaspoon
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups 1 percent low-fat milk
  
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.

In a food processor, process the graham crackers until finely ground. Add butter and water and process until the crumbs clump together. Press the crumb mixture into bottom of pie plate and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, then let cool.

In the meantime, make the pudding. Put the gelatin in a small bowl, add the boiling water and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan mix the 2/3 cup of sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Gradually add half of the milk, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the rest of the milk. Turn the heat on to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Stir in the vanilla and reserved gelatin. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and let set for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Whip the cream and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Before serving, garnish the pie with the whipped cream.

Pasta with Creamy Meat Sauce

Pasta and cream, what more is there to say? This recipe comes from my mom's collection and it always turns out tasty. The little pinch of sugar that is added to the sauce really brings out the flavors of the tomatoes and rounds out the dish's flavor in general. I think this was actually one of the first meals that had more than 3 ingredients that I learned to make. Its a pretty easy recipe and once everything is simmering away you have time to set the table, clean up, and relax.

Pasta with Creamy Meat Sauce
Serves 4

• 12 oz lean ground beef or turkey
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 14 ½ oz cans Italian-style tomatoes, cut up
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley

For sauce, in a large saucepan cook ground meat, onion, and garlic until meat is brown. Drain off fat. Stir in un-drained tomatoes, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 40 minutes or until most of the liquid is evaporated, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Return to saucepan; cover and keep warm.

Gradually stir the whipping cream into the sauce. Heat through, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in parsley.

Transfer cooked pasta to dinner plates or a warm serving platter. Spoon the sauce over pasta.