We made a cheesecake!

It is a rare thing when you sit down with another person and instantly know that you are both thinking the same thing at the same moment.  From the smile on our faces, the sparkle in our eyes, to our upraised shoulders, my husband and I were completely in sync when the astonished words finally tumbled out of our mouths at the same time: “We made a cheesecake!”

 

The last few years we have celebrated Valentine’s Day (usually a few days late) by cooking a meal that we have never made before.  This year we decided to experiment with Chicken Parmesan and make a simple cheesecake for dessert.   We considered making a fancy cheesecake like some of the ones served at the Cheesecake Factory, but decided we should start with a basic one before getting too fancy.  I found Our Best Cheesecake Recipe online and found the same recipe listed on other websites all using “best” and “favorite” in the title and hoped that this description would be true in our own concocting.

As I looked for recipes, I wasn’t sure whether I should go with one that called for sour cream or strictly stay with cream cheese.  There are so many different styles of basic cheesecake recipes that it was hard to pick.  (A future post may discuss the differences between New York Style, Manhattan Style, and any other styles I come across, but for now I will focus on the recipe I chose.)  I read somewhere that the sour cream adds a tartness that pairs well with the creaminess of the cream cheese.  For some reason this idea wasn’t appealing mentally; however, every time I thought about the tartness my salivary glands reacted and eventually changed my mind.  Who knew that the salivary gland would have this much power!?  It may be mind over matter, but salivary secretions over mind? Weird.

At any rate, I decided to use the sour cream.  I mixed the cream cheese batter, while the husband took on the graham cracker crust.  He did an excellent job crushing the graham crackers into a near dust and then mixing them with melted butter.  Together, we pushed the crumbs into a pie plate (I don’t own a spring form pan, so I improvised with the pie plate) and created the crust.  We then poured the drippy batter into the crust and baked it.  Because I didn’t have the right kind of pan, there was more batter than would fit into the crust so we poured it into 4 ramekins to make mini crust-less cheesecakes. After baking for an hour, cooling for another hour, the husband transferred them all to the refrigerator to cool overnight.

In the morning, I cheated and tasted one of the mini cheesecakes for quality control purposes (wink, wink).  What kind of wife would I be if I gave the husband food that tasted bad?  It was, of course, for purely selfless reasons that I had to taste the cheesecake. The cheesecake looked and even felt heavy, so I was suspicious that it would taste that way too.  It didn’t taste heavy though.  Instead, it tasted rich with creamy vanilla flavors and just enough tartness to make it interesting. My taste test locked in my decision to make a cherry pie sauce.

And so after we finished eating our not so impressive Chicken Parmesan, we delved into our cheesecake with much enthusiasm. We each tasted a creamy bite with warm cherry almond sauce, looked into each others’ eyes, and with much love and excitement somehow muttered “We made a cheesecake!” before quickly filling our spoons with a much bigger portion and eating it too.

My First Grilled Cheese Sandwich was made of Goat Cheese

Tonight was a night of firsts.  I’d like to say something more dramatic, something like tonight was the night that changed everything, tonight was the night it all began, but I really don’t have anything more than tonight was a night of firsts.

First, I had my very first grilled cheese sandwich.  Of course, I couldn’t have a normal grilled cheese sandwich made out of American cheese and white Wonder bread.  Oh no, I couldn’t be that normal – that would be boring.  Instead, my very first grilled cheese sandwich was a Grilled Goat Cheese and Plum Jam Sandwich with a side of Endive and Marinated Cucumber Salad courtesy of Blue Apron.

The second first of the night – we lost the shallot!  We had pulled all of the ingredients out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter before we started cooking.  We looked and looked for the shallot.  I was looking for an onion looking kind of thing, but I had it in my head that a shallot looked more like green onions – probably because I never actually have a real shallot and instead substitute green onions in any recipe that calls for it.  So, naturally, I overlooked the small onion like bulb that sat on the cutting board.  The husband forgot that a shallot was an onion, so I’m not sure what he was looking for.    I even pulled out some green onions to use instead.  This is not the first time that I have felt dumb, but it was the first time that I so completely overlooked something that was literally right in front of me.  Anyway, the shallot was discovered, chopped, and used in the jam and in the salad.

This leads me to my third first of the night - and brace yourself for this – the husband made jam!  Not only did he make jam, but he seemed to enjoy making the jam.  He pitted a plum and then “roughly” (as was stated in the recipe’s instructions) chopped it into pieces.  I dumped all the ingredients into a sauce pan and he patiently watched it boil and then rigorously stirred it until it turned thick.  Then he prepared the sandwiches by spreading goat cheese on both sides of sourdough bread, spreading the jam on top of the cheese, and then placing the sandwiches in hot melted butter.  I must say that the smell of the bread toasting in the butter was absolutely amazing!

Also amazing?  The taste of that very toasted bread and its creamy contents! I was afraid that the goat cheese would have a bitter aftertaste, but the jam nicely balanced the bitter with a subtle sweetness and the crispy buttered bread finished it off with a slightly salty flavor.  

While we may not have had a dramatic evening and tonight was really not the night that changed everything, perhaps tonight was the night that something new began.  The husband and I are cooking meals together and I am hoping the husband enjoyed making jam enough to recreate this recipe in the future.  I’m glad that my very first grilled cheese sandwich wasn’t “normal,” but I think I would still like to try a “normal” grilled cheese sandwich – whatever “normal” means!

Irish Nachos and Arizona Dreaming

Traditional Nachos

The husband makes the most amazing nachos.  I’m surprised that I haven’t blogged about them before.  I usually make taco meat using ground beef or ground turkey with lots of spices, mainly chili powder.  The husband puts Santitos corn chips in a casserole dish. (Santitos are the best because a whole bag only costs $2!)  Then I sprinkle the meat on the top and he dumps cheese on top of it and repeat.  He is in charge of the cheese because I never seem to put enough.  My version is usually super crunchy and seems to cool off way too quickly whereas his version is super gooey and steamy hot delicious.

But now I too can make super gooey and steamy hot delicious nachos!  I found a recipe on Pinterest called “Irish Nachos” and the name was so intriguing that I had to take a look.  The pictures were even more intriguing than the name  - generous dollops of guacamole were definitely enough to make me save the recipe to one of my many boards for later cooking.  Unfortunately, I’ve only admired the pictures until now.  Something possessed the husband and me to buy a big bag of avocados at Costco and they were ripening faster than we could eat them.  Enter the perfect opportunity to make these so called Irish Nachos.

Now what makes them Irish?  Irish and Nachos are not two words that I would normally pair together.   The difference between Irish and regular nachos should actually be pretty obvious.  Instead of corn chips, the recipe calls for potatoes!  (I’m sure that this recipe didn’t actually originate in Ireland, but it is a cute play on the concept of nachos.)  I must say that this slight starch exchange makes a huge difference.  There was no chance of too crispy nachos with this one. 

First, the potatoes are roasted in olive oil and sprinkled with spices.  I took a slight detour from the spices that the recipe called for.  Instead of simply using paprika, I used Penzey’s Arizona Dreaming.   I don’t normally use ready-made spice mixes because I think it is more cost effective and even more creative to make my own.  However, I made an exception for Arizona Dreaming because my mom gave it to me.  How could I say no to my mom?  And more importantly, how could I say no to free?!  The label said the mix contained,“ancho chili pepper, black pepper, onion, garlic, paprika, spices, cumin, citric acid, Mexican oregano, cilantro, lemon peel, chipotle pepper, red pepper, jalapeño, cocoa and natural smoke flavoring” – just the kick that I thought Irish Nachos would need. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the Irish are known for creating especially spicy foods and Nachos are a dish that I believe should have some spice to them.  So, I followed the recipe and added the garlic even though the mix may have had a bit in it.

Irish Nachos 

After the potatoes had roasted, I added the bell pepper and onion that had been sauted and then dumped cheese on the top of the entire mixture and put it all back in the oven for the cheese to melt.  When I could see more gooey cheese than potato, I took them out of the oven.  I then crumbled turkey bacon over the top of the steamy hot concoction and then made guacamole out the avocados that had initially inspired me to make this dish.  I didn’t use the recipe for the “mashed avocado” listed on the recipe’s directions though.  Instead, I used a family recipe, one that has been around forever - at least one whole generation - a recipe that is so simple that I won’t bore you with the ingredients.  But now that you know it is a secret, I bet you want to know what it is!  My lips are sealed!

Because I used Arizona Dreaming, I had high expectations for the flavor of these nachos.  I expected it to taste like a sunset.  I’m not sure what a sunset would taste like, but my imagination tells me it would have warm, rich flavors – mixing the deep reds of chili powder and paprika with the lighter oranges and yellows of garlic and onion and just a tinge of blue-green; the blue-green that makes you question what blue-green really looks like, let alone tastes like, the question that keeps you questioning, and keeps you wondering, keeps you eating and tasting, and keeps you living.  OK, so maybe my expectations were too high.  Maybe I should have added a little more Arizona Dreaming to the Irish Nachos.  After all, Arizona is 4,843 miles from Ireland and while the flavors weren’t that far away from each other, they could have been better.

New Mexico Sunrise

The potatoes don’t have as much salt as the corn chips and it didn’t help the taste that I forgot to sprinkle salt and pepper on the potatoes before roasting them.  The Irish Nachos fell a bit short of the husband’s delicious traditional nachos, our very own New Mexico Dreaming sunrise. (Who needs to taste a sunset when we could taste a sunrise?)  New Mexico is a few hundred miles closer to Ireland than Arizona and I believe the blue-greens in the sunsets are brighter, more robust.  Perhaps it is the green chile?

The husband said it best, “I think we could play with this recipe.”  I think he is right.  I am looking forward to trying it with some green chile or maybe using a green chile infused oil instead of olive oil for roasting the potatoes in addition to the Arizona Dreaming.  Maybe Nachos will be a culinary experiment, our very own trendy fusion of foods: Ireland meets the Southwest.

The Truth about Tacos at Zacateca's

I am not a vegetarian.  I tried to be in high school, but it didn’t last long.  Because I was allergic to milk, eggs, and potatoes, I was an unwilling vegan who somehow managed to survive on rice, beans, and granola bars.  After dizzy spells and losing too much weight, I abandoned the idea of vegetarianism.  Not that it isn’t a worthy cause; it just isn’t for me.

So, it was a complete surprise to my husband and maybe myself when I ordered the Vegetarian Tacos at Zacateca’s Tacos &Tequila.  To be fair this was my second choice.  I really wanted to order the Puerco Al Pastor which are pork tacos with orange chile pineapple.  Before I ordered I decided to ask the waiter how spicy they were and he grinned, “Those are actually the spiciest thing we have on the menu.”  On our last visit to the restaurant, the husband ordered the Chicken Tinga tacos and sacrificed many taste buds to his dedication in finishing every last delicious yet extremely spicy morsel.  And this is why I replied to the waiter with, “Vegetarian Tacos it is then!”

But sometimes things happen for a reason.  When the tacos arrived, they were arranged beautifully on a plate – four tacos in what I call taco holders.  Corn tortillas held yellow corn, snow peas, zucchini, and peppers all sautéed in the most amazing butter sauce I may have ever tasted and then topped with something called Cotija cheese and, my favorite, avocado.  Whoever thinks that vegetables are boring needs to try these tacos!  The vegetables themselves had a fresh summer sweetness about them that was accented by the salty, flavorful butter sauce, and pronounced by the cheese.  I had never heard of Cotija cheese until this outing, but it seems like a Mexican version of the Italian Parmesan. It has the same consistency, but the flavor is bolder, maybe saltier.  It may now be my favorite kind of cheese.

Because there were four tacos, the husband and I decided to share.  In exchange for one prized Vegetarian Taco, he gave me one Cochinita de Pibil taco, which are pork tacos braised in banana leaves and chile.  I had ordered these on our previous visit and already knew that they would be fantastic.  What was surprising was that the husband (who says that he pretended vegetables didn’t exist until we started dating) inhaled the vegetarian taco and demanded that we exchange another.  Yes, demanded.  I thought it was so funny that he valued vegetables over pork in this instance, that I exchanged another without any argument. 

The truth is that the vegetarian tacos are so good that I wanted to share, wanted him to enjoy them as much as I did.  So, thank you Zacateca’s Tacos & Tequila for encouraging us to eat our vegetables and to share.  And thank you for making an excellent margarita too!

Mozzarella On Purpose

My Mother-in-Law read my post, “Mozzarella – Just Because” and decided that I needed to try fresh
mozzarella and tomatoes.  As part of my birthday present, she brought me those very things – fresh mozzarella and tomatoes on the vine .  This time I had mozzarella on purpose and not just because.  She was right!  I did need try them.

I sampled a slice of tomato with a slice of mozzarella on the top and carefully tasted it.  The texture wasn’t at all like the fried cheese stick – not rubbery, but rather smooth and cool.  It was fresh and refreshing.  The taste was subtle, but not boring. 

I decided to serve them for the husband and me along with leftovers from the Pick Your Patty Porch Party.  I placed the plate next to a big bowl of Peppered Vegetable Salad that my mom made.  It had a mixture of cauliflower, bell peppers, and my favorite – olives, and was dripping with a delicious, peppery vinaigrette dressing.  I was suddenly inspired and grabbed an olive out of the bowl and with a bit of dressing dripping from its sides I put it on top of a mozzarella tomato stack and popped it in my mouth.  And then the flavors exploded!  Adding a tangy and peppery flavored olive made the mozzarella seem even creamier, the tomato even fresher.  It’s interesting how mixing food can make the original so much stronger.  The same goes for family.  Thank you to my mother-in-law and my mom for making such wonderful food and inspiring me to try new things.

The next night I was inspired to prepare a  Caprese Salad to accompany the many leftovers from the Pick
Your Patty Porch Patty.  Honestly, with so many leftovers I was lazy in cooking.  I really didn't follow a recipe.  Instead, I alternated tomato and mozzarella slices and fanned them out on a plate.  Then I sprinkled olive oil, salt, pepper, and dried basil over them and then add spring mix salad for a somewhat healthy side dish.  Not only was it a beautiful presentation, but it was delicious too.

Mozzarella Sticks Just Because

When thinking about writing this post, I realized that I didn’t even know how to spell “mozzarella”.  I had to

look it up!  Then I realized that I really don’t know how to spell the names of most of cheeses.  Gorgonzola? Parmesan? (I can spell “American,” “Pepper Jack,” and even “Swiss,” so I’m not a complete lost cause!) Give me a break.  I’ve been allergic to cheese most of my life and have never had a reason to learn how to spell, pronounce, or understand any of its variations.  In restaurants, I ask politely, “Can I get that without cheese?”  If the answer is “no,” I order something else and move on.

The husband and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings this week (another first for me) and the waitress brought us a basket of Mozzarella Sticks.  We told her that we didn’t order them, but she put them on our table anyway and said “There’s no charge.” We were so surprised that I think we both asked “Why?”  When I realized how rude that sounded, I followed up with “Just because?”  She smiled and shrugged as she said “Just because.”

If it weren’t for “just because,” I never would have tried a cheese stick.  I’m glad that I tried it, but my overall reaction is simply confusion.  The outer fried part of the cheese stick tastes like your typical fried anything.  It reminded me of fried zucchini – that crunchy Italian seasoned bread crumb exterior – that makes you not care what’s in the middle.  I’m glad that the exterior made me not care.  Mozzarella doesn’t really taste like anything to me, so I don’t dislike it.  How can one hate the taste of nothing?  Especially if that nothing is coated in yummy bread crumbs and then deep fat fried?  No wonder Fair food is so popular.  If we could fry air, I’m sure that we would.  That might be preferable to a rubbery, chewy glob – I’m not sure.

But this confusion could stem from a lack of sophistication on my part.  Perhaps because my taste buds have never known the taste of cheese until recently, I simply don’t understand or perhaps my mind needs time to catch up with my taste buds to process it.  The sad thing is that when the waitress first said, “mozzarella,” I thought of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.  They are always talking about homemade mozzarella and how divine it is.  The cast is shown eating and savoring it like it is a delicacy.  Sophistication aside, this makes me think that there must be something to it.  And so I won’t write it off yet. Maybe I just need to try it in a different way, a way that is not mass produced and deep fat fried.

                                           

Holy Cannoli and Calzones!

I spent Saturday evening (about a month ago now) listening to the NM Philharmonic Orchestra play the fantastic music of John Williams.  He created the music for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and even Far and Away just to name a few.  After our ears and hearts were full of his inspiring melodies, my husband and I needed to fill our stomachs before the growling echoed the booming timpani.  We headed over to Saggio’s where we both ordered calzones and cannoli.

These were both firsts for me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The calzones were massive!  If we had known how big they were, we would have only ordered one and split it.  The Four Meat Calzones consisted of pepperoni, Italian beef, bacon, and sausage with pesto, ricotta, and mozzarella with your choice of bread.  I chose the traditional, while the husband chose the rosemary.  There were a lot of flavors going on within my simple crust – spicy sausage and pepperoni, a soothing mozzarella, and a sweet pesto.  It was almost like a circus going from one flavor to the next, one big ring performance to the next, and yet they all combined nicely for an excellent experience.   However, for me this was only achieved by taking out all of the ricotta. I don’t like the texture of this cheese and honestly, with so many other things and tastes going on, the calzone didn’t need it.

And then for dessert!  Holy cannoli, Batman!  I know that John Williams did not write any of the themes for Batman, but after listening to the themes for super heroes all night, this is what came to mind.  The cannoli is a scavenger hunt for the tastebuds.  It is deliciously sweet, but mysterious as it is difficult to place the sweet flavors.  Cannoli is basically a really thin crispy rolled cookie that is filled with a sweet cheese.  I knew it was cheese and yet it tasted nothing like the cheese I have tasted.  I’m pretty sure that I tasted something citrus – orange, lemon, maybe zest?  There was also a hint of cinnamon and just a few chocolate chips.  I’m not sure that I named all the flavors on my scavenger hunt, but it was sure fun trying to find them.

A seemingly simple evening started with the symphony, turned into a circus, and ended with a scavenger hunt.  We had no idea our evening would turn into such an event!

 

 

 

Melting over the Melting Pot

For my birthday the husband and I decided to use a gift card to The Melting Pot.  (It has only been collecting dust for 2 years!) Because of all of my previous food allergies, I had never been to The Melting Pot let alone tried fondue.  Honestly, I was more than a little skeptical about fondue.  I mean I can shove meat on a stick, boil it in pot over the stove, and then dip it in some melted cheese all in my own kitchen.  So why would I pay (ok I wasn’t paying this time) so much money to do this in a restaurant?

Besides, fondue seems like something fancy rich people do or maybe goofy teenagers on TV.  Have you ever seen Glee? There is  a segment that the ditzy, but loveable Brittany does with her cat called “Fondue for Two.”  Basically it is spoof on TV shows that interview celebrities; they always have some disgusting looking fondue and scream the theme song “Fondue for Two” a couple of times.  I couldn’t get this song out of my head until we got to the restaurant. 

However, once we walked in the doors all the joking and preconceived notions melted away along with the name of the restaurant and yes, I experienced "the fondue effect." The manager greeted us and really introduced us to the concept of fondue.  He said that he had been with the company for 10 years and he even said it was an expensive place, but worth the experience.  He answered my above question without me having to ask: fondue isn’t so much about the food itself, but the experience.

And that is what my husband and I enjoyed: an eating experience.  Our waitress was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and helped us pick the items that were right for us.  We decided to splurge and order the four courseoption.  We started with the cheese fondue and chose spinach and artichoke.  We were given bread, apples, broccoli, and cheese to dip in the gooey pot of melted Fontina and Butterkäse cheeses, spinach, artichoke hearts and garlic.  I never thought that apples and cheese would pair well, but the combination of sweet apple and garlicky cheese was an experience itself: intriguing and delicious.

Next came the salad. We ordered the California Salad which consisted of mixed baby salad greens, Roma tomatoes, candied pecans and Gorgonzola cheese with Raspberry Black Walnut Vinaigrette.  I’m not a fan of Gogonzola cheese as it’s what I call a “stinky cheese” and tastes too strong for me; however, the vinaigrette completely made up for the stinky flavor.  It was a deep sweet flavor with a tiny kick of balsamic vinegar that made me curious for me.

 

 

 

Finally, the main course arrived.  The husband tried The French Quarter which had Cajun seasoned shrimp, chicken, Andouille sausage, and pork, while I ordered The Land and Sea which consisted of herb crusted chicken, sirloin, and shrimp.  The waitress recommended that we choose the Seasoned Court Bouillon as the broth to cook the meat.  Because the husband’s choice was so flavorful, we didn’t want something to overpower that flavor. And this was the real experience! The meat is served raw and you really do cook it in boiling broth. It sounds simple enough, but it is FUN!

 
Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, we ordered dessert! We ordered the s'mores - melted chocolate, marshmallows, and bits of graham crackers. I could have eaten it with a spoon, but they gave us strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, and marshmallows that only complimented the delicious sauce. (After we started cooking our meats, I completely forgot about taking pictures, so there are no pictures of our delicious dessert.)

After three hours of eating, I truly understand "the fondue effect!" And I truly appreciate a good eating experience.